Educator Programs
Educators play a critical role in helping students develop their global skills and knowledge. Supporting the work of educators who are providing intercultural learning is a core component of our program offering. We provide tools and and resources to enable educators to provide transformative and engaging learning experiences for their students.
However, this is often not enough. In order for educators to support their students they need to feel confident in their own global competence and intercultural understanding. We can help by offering introductory and advanced learning which builds the solid foundation needed for professional practice.
Global Competence Essentials
This highly interactive, engaging and hands on one day workshop (or online format) will help teachers understand the basics of global competence and, in particular, the intercultural understanding component. The workshop provides a solid overview of the key principles for intercultural competence together with a variety of experiential activities ready to be applied in the classroom to advance the general capabilities of the Australian Curriculum.
During this workshop participants will be able to:
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Define global and intercultural competence
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Identify the key skills, knowledge and attitudes needed to develop intercultural competence
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Connect learning to the Australian Curriculum and other international frameworks
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Describe the different layers of culture and how the values and beliefs shape our view of the world
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Apply a variety of techniques to suspend judgment in an intercultural situation
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Apply different activities for intercultural understanding in the classroom.
A Developmental Approach to Build a More Inclusive School
Participants will be introduced to the Intercultural Development Continuum that helps us understand the different stages people go through when dealing with cultural differences. Based on the model developed by Milton Bennett, specific strategies and activities will be shared to cater for each stage of the model.
Participants will have the option of taking the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) to self-assess their intercultural sensitivity and receive personal coaching to move forward in their own development.
Fostering Cultural Curiosity in the Classroom
In this interactive workshop we will explore the concept of curiosity and how it is key when supporting participants developing intercultural competence. Participants will learn the most effective and engaging activities to help your students suspend judgement and shift perspectives in intercultural relations and beyond.
This is an ideal course to combine with the Experiential Learning and Effective Debriefing module to create a full day of professional learning.
Experiential Learning and Effective Debriefing
Participants will learn about the power of experiential learning to facilitate meaningful learning. They will review the experiential learning cycle as defined by David Kolb including the different learning styles and their characteristics.
Participants will learn different strategies to cater for different learning styles. They will also learn the key steps for a successful debriefing within the experiential learning cycle.
Intercultural Conflict Styles
Participants will be introduced to the main theories on how culture influences our understanding of conflict and how we deal with it. They will identify the advantages and disadvantages of each conflict style as well as develop strategies to use when confronted with different cultural conflict styles in a multicultural school community.
Participants will have the opportunity to take the Intercultural Conflict Inventory to identify their conflict style.
Assessing Intercultural Competence
Participants will explore a range of validated methods and tools currently in use for assessing intercultural competence. They will consider how best to use intercultural assessment in their practice for gathering evidence of competence and a means of measuring development and progress.
Participants will have the choice to complete the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IES) or Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) prior to the workshop and receive a detailed personalised report.