Intercultural And Professional Skills in Student Mobility to Boost Employability

Abstract

The internationalisation of higher education institutions is mainly focused on mobility programs. Increasingly programs try to improve the intercultural learning of their students through internationalising their curriculum and assessing their intercultural experiences. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the acquisition of intercultural competence and professional skills of higher education students during a specific short Erasmus+ mobility program. Thirty-two students came from four different countries and fields of study: Spain, Belgium, France, and China. A specific teaching methodology was used to promote the development of intercultural and professional competencies. A mixed methods approach was developed to collect data. The results showed that the students acquired intercultural competence and important professional skills. They improved their awareness of the importance of working in multicultural teams and settings; for 100% of them, this was just the first step in a developmental process. The participants reflected on their intercultural learning experiences and learned how to reflect and learn about intercultural and professional misunderstandings using coping mechanisms to face these issues.

Understanding Intercultural Experiences of Chinese Graduate Students at U.S. Universities: Analysis of Cross-Cultural Dimensions

“…Six cross-cultural dimensions were introduced that demonstrated the major similarities and differences on various cultural and organizational levels: Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism versus Collectivism, Masculinity versus Femininity, Long-term versus Short-term orientation, and Indulgence versus Restraint (Hofstede et al, 2010). Although some scholars argue Hofstede's work needs to be updated (e.g., Baskerville, 2003;Jones, 2007;McSweeney, 2002), the concept of cross-cultural dimensions is "considered a reliable proxy by numerous researchers in [numerous fields]" (Pikhart & Koblizkova, 2017) including intercultural communication, cross-cultural management, and cross-cultural comparison among college students (e.g., Sándorová, 2021;Gut et al, 2017;Sierra-Huedo & Foucart, 2022). In the present study, international Chinese graduate students discussed several cultural and communication differences that astonished and challenged them during their time studying in the U.S.…”

Critical Discourse Analysis of Intercultural Communication through the Lens of Multiculturality and Interraciality

“…Thus, the findings from these fields are continually yielding intriguing insights based on the unique characteristics of language users. Regarding variability, it is apparent that studies in intercultural communication, identity construction, and critical discourse analysis are shaped by a multitude of variables that researchers employ (Sierra-Huedo & Foucart, 2022;Chudnovskaya & Millette, 2023). These variables, such as age, gender, ethnic origin, culture, status, and others, have been utilized in prior research to explain or understand phenomena under investigation.…”