Explore the Tools: Intentionally Integrating ICC into the University Curriculum

Theme Description:

When considering the need to integrate intercultural competence (ICC) into the university curriculum our research reflects on the dynamic nature of the higher education environment today. College students desire learning opportunities that are relevant, experiential, and applied to future career goals. In addition, students demand learning in multiple modalities and understand that they can bridge distance with virtual options for collaboration with other students, faculty, and employers; thereby creating an increased demand to improve their ICC. This project will explore current barriers and challenges to experiencing ICC in university settings, the willingness for faculty to adapt to changing conditions prompted by teaching students from other cultures, how ICC needs vary for the freshman experience, degree specific undergraduate courses, and graduate programs, what professional learning university faculty need to effectively engage students and to build a cross-cultural community, what new technology solutions can improve ICC, and finally, to propose new perspectives on university curriculum design to incorporate best practices to develop ICC.

This resource kit has been organized to assist teachers in identifying elements of their own cultures which may cross over into classroom interactions, as well as elements of student identity that may be of importance when structuring classroom environments. This section provides six teacher tools as well as a selection of materials for further reading.

Tools for Educators

PRICA Tool Kit
Revised UC GENE Scale Tool Kit
Introduction Tool Kit
Experiential Learning ICC Tool Kit