Building Intercultural Competence Through Intercultural Competency Certification Of Undergraduate Students

Abstract

The Intercultural Competency Certificate (CCI in Spanish) designed for the Universidad Popular Automa del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP University) is a theory based comprehensive plan to develop undergraduate students intercultural competence. This Certificate is based in the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) developed by Milton Bennett (1993) and will be assessed by the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) v.3 developed by Bennett & Hammer (Hammer, 2009; Hammer, Bennett, & Wiseman, 2003). The main purpose of the Intercultural Competency Certificate is to develop students intercultural competence at least to the acceptance level of the DMIS continuum. To achieve this goal, the students will have to develop of necessary knowledge, skill and attitudes (Deardorff, 2006). This Certificate proposes to develop attitudes, knowledge and skills through certain activities as learning a new language, take international classes, reflect about intercultural differences, interact with people from other cultures, travel abroad and receive coaching by a professional who will guide them through tailor-make experiences according to the initial level of intercultural competence, measured by the IDI v.3 at the beginning of the Certification.

An Essay about Intercultural Sensitivity and Competence in Higher Education

“…A common finding in studies without intercultural learning interventions at HEIs' home campuses is that a mere mix of local and international students does not necessarily support the fulfilment of internationalization outcomes (Janeiro et al, 2014;Kim et al, 2017;Lantz-Deaton, 2017;Németh & Csongor, 2018;O'Brien et al, 2019;Su, 2018). Remarkably, this common finding is identified in studies that took place in contexts that differed from one another.…”