Incorporating intercultural sensitivity into study abroad programs

Compiled by Penelope Pynes, Ph.D.

Updated 21 March 2007

(Descriptions come from the individual websites)

 

Culture websites

 

What’s up with culture?

 

http://www.pacific.edu/sis/culture/pub/CULTURE_ISSUES_2.htm

 

This material was developed to support and enhance a student’s ability to make successful cultural adjustments both before going overseas and upon returning home from studying abroad. It was produced primarily for traditional-aged, undergraduate US-American university students. Those preparing to participate in a study abroad program will find the first seven sections useful while those who are about to, or have, returned home from an international program can refer to the final four sections. The focus is generally on the concept of culture and how it impacts one’s ability to understand and function in a new and unfamiliar environment.  It concentrates on the skills, attitudes, and behaviors which all study abroad students, regardless of their specific destination, will find useful.

 

Awesome Library: Multicultural Toolkit  (Toolkit for Cross-Cultural Collaboration)

 

http://www.awesomelibrary.org/multiculturaltoolkit.html

 

The Toolkit for Cross-Cultural Collaboration was created as a result of a study of collaboration styles of African American, Asian American, Native American, Hispanic American, and Anglo American communities. While some similarities in styles were found across communities, a great chasm separated each minority community from the European American Communities. The chasm was created by differences in expectations, styles, assumptions, values, body language, and privilege. Each minority community understands that great differences separate them from the European American mainstream cultures. In contrast, European American communities do not have much awareness of the magnitude of differences. Occasional events open a small portal to this awareness, but European Americans do not experience cultural differences as a central concern in their lives. For minority communities, the differences are not only central, but vast and inescapable.

 

Of particular import: http://www.awesomelibrary.org/multiculturaltoolkit-myths.html

 

Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS)

 

Milton Bennett developed the DMIS as a way of organizing and explaining an individual’s reactions to cultural difference.  One of the central tenets of the model is that, as an individual’s experience with cultural difference becomes more sophisticated and complex, there is a simultaneous increase in his or her competence in intercultural relations.  Each stage of development is associated with distinct cognitive phases that correspond to certain types of attitudes and behaviors related to one’s orientation toward cultural difference.  In this regard, the DMIS is not a model of attitude change or skills acquisition, but rather a model of the development of a "worldview" structure. 

 

http://www.intercultural.org/pdf/dmis.pdf

http://www.awesomelibrary.org/multiculturaltoolkit-stages.html

 

Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI)

 

http://www.hammerconsulting.org/idi_consulting.php
http://www.intercultural.org/pdf/idi.pdf 

http://www.greenleafconsulting.com/idi.htm 

The Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) is a statistically reliable, cross-culturally valid measure of intercultural competence developed by Mitchell R. Hammer, Ph.D. and Milton Bennett, Ph.D. based on Dr. Bennett's Development Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS). The IDI can be used for a wide variety of purposes, including (1) Individual assessment in coaching, counseling situations, (2) Group analysis in teambuilding efforts, (3) Organizational-wide needs assessment for training design, (4) Program evaluation to assess effectiveness of various interventions, and (5) Research.
The IDI is a 50-item, theory-based paper and pencil instrument that assesses the major stages of intercultural competence as conceptualized in the DMIS theory. The instrument is easy to complete, and it can generate a graphic profile of an individual's or groups' predominant stage of intercultural development and textual interpretation of that stage and associated transition issues.
Applications of the IDI: http://www.mdbgroupinc.com/idi_background.htm

Maximizing Study Abroad (By R. Michael Paige, Andrew D. Cohen, Barbara Kappler, Julie C. Chi, & James P. Lassegard; CARLA Working Paper Series · August 2002 · 237 pp. · $12.00 + shipping)

 

http://www.carla.umn.edu/maxsa/guides.html

 

Aimed at students who want to make the most of their study abroad experience, this flexible and user-friendly guide helps students identify and use a wide variety of language- and culture-learning strategies. The guide begins with three inventories designed to help students be more aware of how they currently learn language and culture. The following sections provide students with tools and creative activities they can use to enhance their favored learning strategies and try out unfamiliar ones. Students can use this guide as they prepare for study abroad, during their experience, and once they return to maximize their experience.

 

To order:  http://www.carla.umn.edu/resources/working-papers/index.html

 

Sample Pre-departure orientations

 

http://www.uwlax.edu/oie/SA/Syllabus250.doc

http://perth.uwlax.edu/oie/SA/Syllabus251.pdf

http://www.uwlax.edu/oie/SA/Syllabus252.pdf

http://www.carla.umn.edu/maxsa/samples/PPG_Workshops.pdf

 

Assessment and IDI

 

http://liberalarts.wabash.edu/cila/home.cfm?news_id=1809 

http://www.foundationcoalition.org/home/keycomponents/assessment_eval/outcome_h.html 

http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/pubs/katzsym/vanhook.html

http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=2767

http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/pubs/katzsym/vanhook.pdf

http://www.sit.edu/publications/docs/competence.pdf

 

Other Recommended Readings

 

Bennett, Milton J. “Towards Ethnorelativism: A Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity.” IN: Paige, R.M. (ed.) 1993:1-51, Education for the Intercultural Experience (2nd ed.) Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.

Bennett, Milton J. “Intercultural Communication: A Current Perspective.” IN: Bennett, Milton J. (ed.) 1998: 1-34, Concepts of Intercultural Communication: Selected readings. Yarmouth, Maine: Intercultural Press.

Landis, Dan, Janet M. Bennett and Milton J. Bennett (eds.) Handbook of Intercultural Training, 2004 (3rd ed.) 1000 Oaks, California: Sage Publications.


Supplement to: Incorporating intercultural sensitivity into study abroad programs. Compiled by Penelope J. Pynes

 

Deardorff, Darla K. “In Search of Intercultural Competence.” International Educator, Spring 2004.

<http://www.nafsa.org/_/File/_/in_search_of_intercultural.pdf>

 

Deardorff, Darla K. “A Matter of Logic?” International Educator, May-June 2005.

<http://www.nafsa.org/_/File/_/InternationalEducator/LogicMayJune05.pdf >

 

Deardorff, Darla K. “Intercultural Competence Model.”  From “The Identification and Assessment of Intercultural Competence as a Student Outcome of Internationalization at Institutions of Higher Education in the United States”. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State University, 2004.

<http://www.usief.org/docs/INTERCULTURAL-COMPETENCE-MODELS-06.pdf >

 

Deardorff, Darla K. Intercultural Competence Model. From “The Identification and Assessment of Intercultural Competence as a Student Outcome of Internationalization at Institutions of Higher Education in the United States”. Diss. North Carolina State University, 2004.

<http://www.usief.org/docs/all%20chapters%20061404.pdf>