1. A critical review of training and assessment in intercultural competence: Findings from the HEA BMAF study
Matthew Hall and Kathryn Ainsworth
EU-US Atlantis Intercultural Competence Networking Event
21 November 2011

2. Aims of our study
As teachers in an internationally diverse UK university business school, we want to enable our students to thrive in an intercultural environment
This applies both to international students, who are adjusting to life and study overseas, and to domestic students who are adjusting to studying in an an intercultural campus
In particular we want to enable students to integrate effectively in mixed-nationality learning and assessment groups
We want to know how best to provide a guided intervention which enables our students to become more competent in the context of their study groups, to integrate better as an intercultural group, and to be generally positive about their intercultural group experience

3. Overall critique of intercultural training literature
the literature approaches intercultural training from a predominantly trainer-centred perspective, as an activity which is performed instrumentally on subjects
there is limited conceptualisation of the process from the learner’s perspective - how we become inter-culturally competent - and the relative roles of theoretical and experiential learning, or of self-guided and teacher-guided intervention
there are many instruments available which define and measure intercultural competence in different ways, but limited advice on what is appropriate for what context
most sources recognise that the individual learning context is important, but few explore what different levels of context are involved, or what are the implications for training and assessment

4. A learner-centred process
Therefore we need a better conceptualisation of
the process of intercultural learning which accounts for the different contexts in which this occurs, in order to understand how to position teacher-guided training interventions
what it means to be inter-culturally competent in our context, in order to understand what measures are best placed to guide learner development and ensure that we are measuring the right thing

5. A tentative model
From our initial scoping of the literature we have identified the following contexts in which intercultural development occurs:
Time: When does intercultural development occur?
Space: Where does intercultural development occur?
Relationships: Who does intercultural development occur in relation with?
Purpose: Why is intercultural development needed?
We will use this model to analyse what interventions are appropriate for the integration of different learners into an intercultural campus community

6. Contexts of intercultural learning
SELF - cultural identity - belonging and otherness - personality - the intercultural speaker - tourist or sojourner
WHO WITH?
intercultural dyads
peer groups
study groups
student-teacher relationship
employee-manager relationship
WHERE?
crossing into a different culture (expatriation)
crossing back into your own culture (repatriation)
having intercultural experiences within your own cultural context
in the international campus
WHY?
adjustment, adaptation, acculturation into different culture
functioning, performance, effectiveness in an intercultural environment
WHEN?
short or long term development process
ad hoc intercultural interactions
guided interventions
pre and post interventions
Contexts of intercultural learning

7. Implications
Perhaps a contingency approach to selecting training and assessment methods is not possible? Perhaps the emphasis should be on helping the individual learner to develop their own understanding of the process of becoming inter-culturally competent, rather than dictating to them how they should be inter-culturally competent? This would help them to understand what interventions are possible, and what effect an intervention can have within the particular context of their developmental needs
More attention should be paid to the intercultural competence of teachers. We need to better conceptualise the relationship between intercultural learning as teacher and intercultural learner as student