Resources

Intercultural skills are essential for students leaving university and entering the global village, in which they need to be able to live, work and communicate with other people. So it is surprising perhaps that intercultural skills development does not generally feature more strongly in curricula. A guide to cultural skills suggests that:

‘Appreciating that individuals from different cultural backgrounds have different cultural norms, practices and expectations is vital for success in international business’
www.in-languages.com/downloads/Intercultural_Skills.pdf

Thus intercultural skills are broadly concerned with the ability of individuals to recognise their own beliefs and values (culture) and to deal with people from other cultures in an open way. The internationalisation of academic programmes, which is resulting in more international students studying at UK universities and more overseas delivery of UK programmes, offers many opportunities to encourage the development of intercultural skills at university.

Fiona Jordan in her JoHLSTE Perspective ‘A Call for Further Reflexivity in Curriculum Development’ provides food for thought regarding intercultural dialogue in HLST prorammes:

‘…recent studies in HLST have begun to research the experiences of ‘international’ students, but what of their impact on the staff and students they are studying with? To what extent do ‘home’ students feel that they benefit from internationalisation? Is there a feeling that intercultural dialogue is really taking place in this new international world of HE? I don’t know the answer, but I believe they are legitimate questions to pose. In order to answer them, a more sophisticated interpretive approach would be beneficial.‘
www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/hlst/documents/johlste/vol7no1/jordan.pdf

A JoHLSTE Practice Paper by Steve Butts provides a rationale for the importance of including intercultural skills in the curriculum and outlines a project that was designed to make steps towards this.

In the Enhancing Series ‘Enhancing the International Learning Experience in Business and Management, Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism’ a number of chapters consider the development of intercultural skills. See for example the chapter by Judie Gannon ‘Developing Intercultural Skills for International Industries: The Role of Industry and Educators’.

The Resource Guide ‘Cultural Awareness for Hospitality and Tourism’ provides a good insight into the issues and resources for learning and teaching purposes in hospitality and tourism programmes 

Cross Cultural Supervision Project
An excellent web resource has been developed with funding from the ALTC in Australia. The website provides access to videos, scenarios and strategies to enhance cross-cultural understanding in post-graduate degrees. The site provides insights into both staff and student perspectives.

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