Intangible culture, cooperation and intercultural dialogue among university students

Abstract

This paper focuses on intercultural competence and dialogue across cultural borders between university students from different Portuguese‐speaking countries. Various principles and strategies for intercultural education are summarised, and the project cultures@esec, based on such principles and strategies, is described. The project was focused on cultural heritage. The identities of African students and the intangible culture were also explored. Part of the project involved frequent contacts between domestic and international students, cooperation under equal‐status conditions, joint decision‐making and active learning. Results show that sharing knowledge and ideas, and working under pleasant learning conditions, can help reduce cultural barriers and prejudice and contributes to intercultural sensitivity and competence.

Este artigo centra‐se na competência intercultural dos estudantes universitários de países lusófonas e no diálogo entre culturas. São identificados, de forma sumária, alguns princípios e estratégias de educação intercultural e apresentado o projecto cultures@esec, que se baseia em tais princípios. O projecto esteve orientado para a valorização da herança cultual dos estudantes africanos e respectivas identidades e explorou a cultura intangível dos seus países. O trabalho desenvolvido implicou frequentes contactos entre os estudantes nacionais e estrangeiros, decisões conjuntas e cooperação em igualdade de estatuto. Os resultados mostram que partilhar conhecimentos e ideias e trabalhar em condições de aprendizagem agradáveis ajuda a quebrar barreiras culturais e a combater o preconceito e estimula a sensibilidade e a competência intercultural dos estudantes.

Keywords:

• intercultural dialogue
• cooperation
• intangible culture
• active learning
• international education

Notes

1. Culture can be seen as a set of facts, rules, emotions, symbols or artefacts, conscious or unconscious, that can dominate practices, norms of social relation and ethnographic variables (nationality, ethnicity, language or religion), and it aims at the adaptation of people and social groups (Aneas Álvarez 2005). Implicit in this concept is the view that culture influences individuals’ identity, world views, values and expectations, social roles, and human relations. Cultural heritage includes all features of culture whether intangible or tangible. UNESCO (2007) classifies such heritage around four main themes: world views and social life style (e.g. oral traditions, handicrafts, or rites and beliefs), artistic expression (e.g. literature, song or the performing Arts), memory and identities (e.g. museums or the movable cultural heritage), and natural and historical monumental heritage (e.g. cultural landscapes, natural sacred sites or historic cities).

2. The CPP is a peer‐tutoring project involving pairs or small groups of domestic and international students. It aims to promote the learning of Portuguese language and culture by international students and to develop the intercultural competence of domestic students.