Teachers’ intercultural competence: a requirement or an option in a culturally diverse classroom?

ABSTRACT

This paper reports an exploratory study of the development of intercultural competence (IC) in elementary school teachers in Catalonia, Spain, utilising mixed-method quantitative and qualitative assessments. Through enrolment in a teacher training activity, the starting point was the administration of the Intercultural development inventory (IDI) to assess IC. Later, a discussion group was held to reflect on the results of the evaluation and to discuss educational practices in the face of cultural diversity. The quantitative IDI findings indicated that, regardless of the presence of foreign origin students at schools, participant teachers overestimate their level of intercultural sensitivity; there is a tendency to emphasise similarities in all cultures, which can minimise significant cultural differences. Nevertheless, the teachers became interested in cultural diversity after considering their potentially controversial and problematic educational context. Beyond admitted limitations of this study, inherent to small-scale methodological approach, our practice-based reflective proposal highlights obstacles and potentialities for managing cultural diversity in the classroom. These findings support the conclusion that IC is distributed throughout members of a community rather than being strictly an individual attribute. At the same time, the study thus demonstrates a mixed-method training design as an effective means of developing and assessing IC.

KEYWORDS:

• Intercultural competence
• elementary school teachers
• multicultural context
• ethnocentrism
• teacher training
• inclusive education

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Yoonshin Gu Park, our IDI Qualified Administrator and the teachers who took part in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ibis Marlene Alvarez Valdivia, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer at the Department for Developmental and Educational Psychology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Her research interests focused on cultural aspects of learning and psychological development.

Iosbel González Montoto, Diplôme Européen d’Etudes Avancées en Psychologie Sociale (Université de Genève). Currently, he is a doctoral student at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. His research interests focused on preparing teachers for inclusive classrooms.

ORCID

Ibis Marlene Álvarez Valdivia http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3250-3214

Notes

1. For more information, see Intercultural Competence Using the IDI at https://idiinventory.com/products/the-intercultural-development-inventory-idi/

2. T:Teacher.

3. Mythological character relating to a Christmas tradition in Catalonia and Aragon.