Preparing Students for EDGE Collaboration
Module 4
Develop Intercultural Competence
Understanding intercultural communication, upon which EDGE courses are based, is a bit like learning a new language. Unspoken differences between collaborating students can create challenging moments when material presented is interpreted or responded to in a completely unexpected way. For example, humor and irony can be difficult to understand cross-culturally.
However, these sometimes awkward moments are a normal aspect of intercultural communication and they can provide an opportunity for the discussion and exploration of cultural differences that otherwise would go unnoticed. Part of what courses based on the EDGE model do for students is to provide them with the opportunity to challenge their own assumptions about communication, about learning, and about each other. You will want to build this learning into your course syllabus, perhaps by adapting one of the global learning objectives from the AAC&U global rubric to add to your course learning objectives, and determining exactly how you will assess that learning.
We all tend to react instinctively to the world around us and that includes what goes on in our classrooms, but in this situation everyone needs to look twice at many of the exchanges which take place – before making false assumptions about the meaning of what we are receiving. This complexity will be part of your learning environment, so it is especially important that faculty partners make an effort to react sensitively to possible culturally-based misunderstandings between students and even between themselves.
It is important for both teachers and students to be prepared for intercultural communication. We recommend teachers explore the literature before the course begins and prepare tasks and readings for students before and at the beginning of the course to raise awareness. Teachers must also learn how to turn awkward moments of misunderstanding into teachable moments. At the end of this guide, we have prepared a series of resources that you can use as a starting point for these discussions.
Cultural Competency
As professors, we strive to nurture our students’ sense of self-efficacy, encourage their curiosity through critical thinking, and inspire them to embrace the inherent diversity that surrounds us. EDGE allows us to take those principles one step farther, as we create a safe and open learning environment with intercultural partners eager to collaborate, share, and grow.
The idea of Cultural Competency is a lofty goal that requires multiple steps to attain. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines Cultural Competence as “a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals that enables effective work in cross-cultural situations.”
Three steps to move toward cultural competence involve cultural knowledge, cultural awareness, and cultural sensitivity.
- “Cultural knowledge” means that you know about some cultural characteristics, history, values, beliefs, and behaviors of another ethnic or cultural group.
- “Cultural awareness” is the next stage of understanding other groups — being open to the idea of changing cultural attitudes.
- “Cultural sensitivity” is knowing that differences exist between cultures, but not assigning values to the differences (better or worse, right or wrong).
Before your students even begin communicating with their international counterparts and engaging in icebreaker activities, we need to expose them to the culture and social structure of our partner country, provide them with the tools to explore and be aware of these differences, and lastly, acknowledge any bias or assumptions that may cause them to assign values to these differences.
Undoubtedly, students will come into this EDGE experience with varying levels of exposure and cultural knowledge of their new international partners and their country. What values, beliefs, traditions or customs exist in their region? How did their history help shape those values, beliefs, tradition or customs? What kind of government exists? Is there a monarchy? Are they in a rural or urban area? What does a typical Friday night look like for these students? What’s the most popular food? Students must be armed with a basic knowledge and understanding of their culture to be able to effectively communicate with their partners.
To provide Cultural Knowledge, design a crash course on the culture of your partner country, being certain to include such pop culture aspects as fashion, music, icons, etc.. Ask your students to contribute to the growing body of knowledge as they explore sources and reflect on those findings. The process of self-reflection will enable students to progress along the continuum to cultural awareness and sensitivity.
Now that your students are armed with a foundation of knowledge about how and possibly why your international partners believe and practice what they do, it is important to recognize the same for your own culture. A self-assessment of your students’ own personal beliefs, attitudes and values is a necessary step to close this loop of discovery and allows for Cultural Awareness. One such tool, included in the cross-cultural training workbook Culture Matters, developed by the Peace Corps for their recruits, is the Iceberg Activity. The activity asks users to identify surface traits and how underlying, invisible cultural aspects guide those traits and behaviors. Just as only the tip of the iceberg can be seen above the water line, so can only the observable behaviors in a culture, but it is important to recognize and acknowledge the rich cultural base of the iceberg that influences its people.
Cultural Sensitivity is when we merge our intercultural knowledge base with our self-realization of our own culture and respect the differences without any judgement of value. We move beyond an ethnocentric perspective and embrace the differences.
This journey leads both students and faculty, to a level of Cultural Competency that can have a tremendously positive impact on the intercultural communication, collaboration, and foundation of trust for a rewarding EDGE experience!
Story from the Field
Whenever I am working with an international partner, I devote a great deal of time upfront to design a CANVAS module that explores the culture of my partner country. This module provides my students with the Cultural Knowledge that they need to build their foundation of Cultural Competency. I include information about the country’s history, traditions, government, healthcare, weather, education, religion, language, typical foods, popular entertainers, music, etc. I provide links to English versions of their popular news sources and we follow top news stories of interest. Additionally, I include graded discussion boards to encourage meaningful engagement and students are asked to add new sources to our growing body of knowledge. The students truly seem to enjoy this time of discovery and eases their anxiety of finding common ground during icebreaker activities!
Formulate Relationships Using Icebreakers
Your students will likely be as new to this form of learning as you may be, and they may approach the course with some false expectations and apprehensions. Fostering relationship-building between students will help you all as a class to grow and engage in the course content. Indeed in Salmon’s widely used 5-step model for online learning (see Resources at the end of the guide), the first step is Access and Motivation (dependent on teachers and tech staff) and the second is Socialization and Familiarization with technology, before Information Exchange. Allowing one to two weeks for preparatory tasks that allow students to develop a sense of trust and community as well as to feel comfortable with the technology, leads to a more fruitful exchange
Story from the Field
Regrettably for the first two EDGE projects, my faculty partners and I did not allot much time for icebreakers beyond the traditional “tell us about yourself” prompt in a joint Zoom videoconference. In the one course, I extended the icebreaker a bit by requiring students to create a presentation of pictures while telling their partners about their institution. The students found the content interesting, but it really did not lend itself to increased communication between international group members. The feedback from students supported this concern and made it clear that too much time was focused only on the project deliverable.
For my third EDGE collaboration, we asked students to address the following prompts:
- name/nickname and major
- place of birth and nationality
- photo or two of yourself
- short description of likes and dislikes, interests and activities or hobbies
Response to the following statement: You may be surprised to know… (You can share something that your peers may find surprising about yourself, your school, your course study, your culture, or your country.)
They were then asked to end their post by posing a question to be answered by your other group members (Examples: To where would you like to travel?) and comment on the post of two international peers. It was interesting to read their responses to each other, and I found that some students posted more than the required two responses…yay, communication.
We then assigned a video project intended to provide additional information about their College/University. Student international teams had to agree on two themes (classrooms, professors, housing, class schedule, food, activities, etc.) and each film content focusing on their selected themes. The international teams then had to create one video that told the story of “A Day in the Life of…” from their team’s perspective. Since their final EDGE collaborative project is also a media assignment, this project gave them experience collaborating, delegating, compiling, filming, and editing before their final deliverable.
All of their communication was required to take place in Slack, and it was thrilling to witness the relationships form in the process: students commenting to each other about their observable similarities and cultural differences. Some students posted photos or video of their group members just saying “hi” to their international group members in the midst of their informal communication.
Much of the value of these EDGE collaborations lies in the interpersonal intercultural communication that often falls outside the boundaries of the project. Icebreakers take time and planning, and it is often tempting to focus primarily on the “deliverable.” I have found that the icebreakers are a critical ingredient in student learning.
Gaining Student Buy-In
When offering an EDGE project, it is important that you win student buy-in. In other words, it is important that you “sell” the importance of this project to your students.
Some of the benefits of working on an EDGE project are that it gives your students international experience (working with students who speak a different language and are from a different country and culture). In addition, since EDGE is project based, your students will gain experience in project management. Students will learn how to plan, lead, organize and control a project (PLOC), as well as communicate and collaborate with project partners.
Working on an EDGE project also gives your students valuable work experience, which is easily translated into international consulting and project management experience on a student’s resume. In essence, an EDGE project gives students unique international work experience (something not available to all college graduates), a skill that is looked upon very favorably by employers.
A Penn State EDGE project is fun and unique. It offers meaningful work experience and enables Penn State students to differentiate themselves from other college graduates in the competitive employment marketplace.
Story from the Field
In the fall of 2017, I developed a pre-pilot EDGE project with The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) for my BA 421 Project Management class. In this project, teams from Penn State Beaver and THUAS examined the admissions process between the two schools’. Acting as consultants, students from each school prepared various project deliverables: a project work plan, business process flow diagram, technology assessment analysis, SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis, and an assessment of each schools admissions department based on a capability maturity model. As final project deliverables, students prepared a written report and gave a final project presentation. Students performed the project in three weeks, while actual pre-project planning took approximately nine weeks.
Penn State Beaver students enjoyed working with fellow students from another country, gained valuable work experience, learned about the Dutch culture, and made important international business connections. As an interesting side note, students “Facebooked” each other within minutes of being assigned to their international project teams, suggesting that students focused first on social relationships and communication before engaging in business relationships and communication.
