Descriptive Title of Proposal: | Intercultural Development Staff Training Program (IDSTP) | ||||||
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Year Submitted | 2019 | ||||||
Person(s) Responsible for the Idea |
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Name of Institution | Saint Mary's University (NS) | ||||||
Office Address | 923 Robie Street Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 3C3 Map It |
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Telephone: | (902) 420-5409 | ||||||
Email Address: | Email hidden; Javascript is required. | ||||||
Name (Senior Administrative Office of the Institution) | Ms. Gabrielle Morrison | ||||||
Title (Senior Administrative Office of the Institution) | Vice-President, Finance and Administration | ||||||
Office Address | 923 Robie Street Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 3C3 Map It |
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Telephone: | (902) 420-5409 | ||||||
Email Address: | Email hidden; Javascript is required. | ||||||
Abstract | The Intercultural Development Staff Training Program (IDSTP) is a multi-phase and modular series of workshops and experiences. It aims to support staff members to become more globally competent institutional representatives in their cross-cultural dealings with students, faculty, staff, and outside communities.
The program is structured into four discrete and sequential blocks of learning. Each block consists of a series of workshops and/or experiential learning opportunities that are completed over a span of several months. The training will continue to be phased in over several years and is recursive. The design of this program is in line with UNESCO Guidelines on Intercultural Education(2006). The widely accepted approach is that intercultural training be based on the following four pillars: a) Learning to Know, b) Learning to Do, c) Learning to Live Together, and d) Learning to Be. The initial focus was on Block One, and engaged the full staff complement in Learning to Know during the first year of launching the IDSTP.
We believe it is important, therefore, that staff be given the opportunity to develop broad global perspectives combined with intercultural competence to enable effective and professional service delivery across cultures. |
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Criteria | Please submit one paragraph describing how the proposal fulfills each of the evaluation criteria. | ||||||
Transferability | Following the four pillars outlined in the UNESCOguidelines on intercultural education: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together, andlearning to be, allows the IDSTP to be easily transferable and applied at other institutions. Each workshop and experiential session with staff introduce established intercultural models through interactive activities that are readily available in the current literature for intercultural education.
With a Canadian higher education institution in mind, each phase of the IDSTP begins with addressing the local context, and time is spent developing trust and rapport with each group in order to set the tone for positive intercultural dialogue. Each workshop is learner-centred and while grounded in intercultural theory, participants experience the content in a safe, respectful and fun environment. The activities and materials are created and adapted from established authors in this field, which have been tried and tested all over the world. Furthermore, these activities build on each other and participants have time to try out, discuss and reflect on the content in small groups. This allows the sessions to be adapted to meet the needs of other institutions’ internationalization, or strategic plans.
As a way of demonstrating ease of transferability to potential external providers and how a similar initiative could be implemented in other institutions, an illustration of the project was presented to other institutions and stakeholders in Toronto in June 2018. The presentation, “Developing an Intercultural Outlook Among University Staff”,provided participants with a model for staff intercultural learning, and an overview and summary of the IDSTP. The presentation slides have been attached as a supporting document. |
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Quality Impact | The intended staff outcomes for the IDSTP encompass range of knowledge, skills and attitudes that are essential elements of intercultural competence. The workshops help staff to develop a range of knowledge and attitudes that are essential elements of intercultural competence, as well as raise awareness of the skills necessary for building rapport with individuals from cultures where behaviours and communication styles may or may not correspond with their own cultures.
These outcomes are linked to those stated in the report: Teaching for Global Competencies in a Rapidly Changing World (OECD, 2018). These are explicitly stated as:
More specifically, staff focus on several themes important in communication in general, and intercultural relations specifically and are given experiential take-home tasks to practice their heightened skills and awareness. At the same time, participants take a key step in cultural competence building by experiencing an intercultural model that cultivates self-awareness, as well as objectivity when encountering unfamiliar people, situations, or objects. Participants learn about different ways of thinking about culture; explore how their identities are culturally conditioned and raise awareness of the importance of being aware of one’s own cultural identity before beginning to explore other cultures. Through these activities, tasks and discussions, they recognize the real challenge of seeing the world from the perspectives of others. By the end of Block 1, staff have considered factors that can lead to cross-cultural miscommunication and experienced and tried out a set of guidelines for communicating effectively across cultures in oral and written communication. The results collected since the first year of delivering the IDSTP have been positive and brought about widespread influence on campus:
There have been a number of data collection and measurement tools employed to track results.
In addition to the above, the program developers are continually monitoring and drawing upon best practices in the area of intercultural communicative competence. |
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Productivity Impact | The program was designed internally and driven by University administrators and academics and it has been more fully embraced than if it had been delivered by an external group. Furthermore, the importance of the initiative is underscored in the positioning of Intercultural Learningas a strategic priority of the President. (Initiative 2 of the University Strategic plan 2017-2022 (https://president.smu.ca/2017-2022-plan). Dr Robert Summerby-Murray appears in the kick-off video announcing the program and reinforcing the importance of the intercultural growth and development of individuals in the overall success of the University.
By using internal resources, namely academics and staff, the University estimates tens of thousands of dollars of out of pocket costs for program development, implementation, leadership training, surveys, and video and website development were avoided. |
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Innovation | Internationalization strategies have become a main feature in the strategic plans of institutions across Canada. However, the focus up to now has almost, if not entirely been on students and to some extent faculty. At Saint Mary’s, we have identified the need and benefits of providing training for staff - IDSTP provides international communicative competence training for all its staff across all departments.
Having a culturally-sensitive and interculturally competent staff across campus is integral to the success of any institution’s internationalization strategy. University staff are often prospective students’ first point of contact, as well as being integral to student welfare and support in all areas of university life from interacting with recruitment officers, admissions staff, academic advisors, to student services and campus security to name a few. Providing this opportunity for all staff also allows our administrators to develop professionally, become more confident in their cross-cultural dealings, and generate increased positivity towards the growing internationalized campus and evolving student demographic.
Block 1 – “Learning to Know”
The program begins with an introductory series of intercultural training workshops that explore the concepts of culture, cultural self-awareness, cross-cultural communication and intercultural competence. Participants learn about cultural rules, communication styles, norms and values, and how to recognize how diverse they can be in different cultures. They learn to appreciate the effect of cultural diversity on the life of an organization, and are introduced to helpful strategies for bridging cultural gaps. Staff participants gain general insights about other cultures and languages, and fundamental skills for intercultural interaction.
Block 2 – “Learning to Do”
Participants engage in the four stages of experiential learning (experience, reflect, conceptualize, experiment) to enhance their cultural intelligence and personal flexibility, and to develop their practice of intercultural competence in a wide range of situations. They are given opportunities to monitor themselves for ethnorelative attitudes toward cultures other than their own, and to cultivate mental models for providing service across cultures.
Block 3 – “Learning to Live Together”
Participants delve more deeply into understanding people of different cultures, and navigating cultural and linguistic diversity. A key element of this block of workshops is exposure to the language learning process, and exploration of other languages as means of appreciating difference and the challenges of achieving mutual understanding in the face of linguistic difference.
Block 4a – “Learning to Be”
Participants experience how deep learning of another language and culture involves a process of personal transformation. This is done by engaging them in the process of learning another language, and having them reflect on the impact of that experience on their own sense of self. In so doing, they learn to appreciate what it means for a person from another culture who speaks a language other than English to adapt to all that is unfamiliar when they come to Saint Mary’s University. It also prepares them for the experience of travelling to another culture and developing strategies for dealing with “culture shock.”
Phase 4b – “Learning to Be”
A continuation of the language learning experience undertaken in Block 4a. Participants engage in an international experience by visiting a partner university abroad and expanding their cultural competencies by serving as a Saint Mary’s delegate on such a visit. |
Knowledge Centre