Teaching University students for a Multicultural society

Throughout the world, the populations of many countries are rapidly becomingmore diverse than ever. Population composition is changing, whether measuredby ethnicity or race, age or generation, immigration status, or internaldisplacement. Higher education institutions have an important role in preparinguniversity graduates to interact with diverse groups. This focus guided ourstudy: What teaching and learning strategies might enhance interculturalcompetence (ICC) among undergraduate students at a university? ICC wasconsidered to be understanding of one‘s own culture as well as the capacity tounderstand, interpret, and adapt to other cultures. Investigators wanted to collecta set of activities to foster growth in students‘ ICC through knowledge,experience, reflection, and coaching. This project examined 278 scholarly articlesto explore the teaching and learning strategies that appear to have made thedifference. Using keywords such as multiculturalism, intercultural competence,diversity, higher education, coaching, reflection, service learning, and culturalpartners, investigators used academic databases to locate related materials.Research articles were analyzed to locate effective pedagogical practices. Thestudy reported evidence from academic literature about intensive, intentional,and reflective cross-cultural educational experiences that could have a positiveimpact on the ICC of undergraduate students. Impactful teaching and learningexperiences include elements of knowledge, experience, coaching, and reflection.The author suggested specific teaching and learning activities that combine allfour elements and may be customized to enhance almost any academic orprofessional preparation program: cultural autobiography, diversity stories,cultural partnership, and service learning.