Fostering assessment of student mobility in secondary schools: indicators of intercultural competence

ABSTRACT

The present study explores the internationalisation of secondary schools. It focuses on the assessment of the intercultural competence (IC) of returnees who participated in an annual study-abroad programme offered by the Italian educational association Intercultura (a non-profit organisation). The precise aim of this research is to find possible assessment indicators of IC, specific to the context of student mobility in secondary schools. To reach this goal, a qualitative methodology was adopted; 21 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the returnees, their parents, friends, teachers and Intercultura volunteers. The findings suggest that the elements to be considered in assessing the IC of returnees should include, among others, curiosity towards people perceived as having different cultural backgrounds, interest in global issues, self-awareness, new understanding of home context, knowledge of host context, ability to make critical comparisons, adaptability and ethnorelative view.

 

Lo studio esplora l’internazionalizzazione della scuola secondaria di secondo grado. L’attenzione è posta sulla valutazione della competenza interculturale (IC) delle studentesse e degli studenti rientrati da un programma di studio annuale all’estero organizzato dall’associazione educativa Intercultura ONLUS. Più precisamente, la ricerca mira a identificare possibili indicatori per la valutazione della IC specifici per il contesto della mobilità studentesca nelle scuole secondarie di secondo grado. Per raggiungere tale obiettivo si è adottata una metodologia qualitativa: si sono condotte 21 interviste semistrutturate con studentesse e studenti rientrati, i loro genitori, i loro amici, i loro insegnanti e alcuni volontari di Intercultura. I risultati suggeriscono che gli elementi da considerare nella valutazione della IC delle studentesse e degli studenti rientrati dovrebbero includere, fra gli altri, la curiosità verso le persone percepite come aventi background culturali diversi, l’interesse verso questioni globali, la consapevolezza di sé, una nuova conoscenza del contesto d’origine, la conoscenza del contesto ospitante, l’abilità di fare comparazioni critiche, l’adattabilità, la visione etnorelativa.

KEYWORDS:

• Intercultural competence
• student mobility
• internationalisation of secondary schools
• indicators
• assessment

Acknowledgements

My sincere gratitude goes to Fondazione Intercultura which funded the doctoral research upon which this article was based. Moreover, I would like to thank everyone involved in this research and those who gave me precious suggestions to improve this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. National Observatory on the Internationalisation of Schools and Student Mobility (author’s translation), http://www.scuoleinternazionali.org.

2. http://www.intercultura.it

3. I have changed the specified place that the interviewee had mentioned to ensure anonymity.

4. See note 3.

Additional information

Funding

The doctoral research undergirding this paper was supported by the Fondazione Intercultura.

Notes on contributors

Mattia Baiutti

Mattia Baiutti is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Udine (IT) supported by Fondazione Intercultura. Mattia holds a Ph.D. (Doctor Europaeus) in Humanistic Studies (curriculum: Educational Sciences) from the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’ (IT); he was Visiting Researcher at the School of Education, Durham University (UK). Mattia graduated in Social Education (BA, University of Udine – IT), Philosophy (MA, University of Trieste – IT) and Italian as Second Language and Interculturality (Italian Master, University of Udine – IT). He worked as a consultant with the OECD PISA (Global Competence Assessment).