Abstract
Furthering intercultural competence in higher education requires colleges and universities to establish an intentional, mission driven strategic plan that embeds intercultural understanding and practice across the institution’s work. To secure broad-based buy-in and support, this plan needs to consider the various ways that different units within the academy define, interpret, and view intercultural work. For large, complex and multi-faceted colleges and universities, building this plan can prove daunting as different parts of the institution will ascribe different meanings, purposes, and intentions to intercultural advancement.In this paper, administrators from the University of Minnesota, who represent units that are highly engaged in intercultural competence work, share some of their struggles and lessons learned in their effort to build a comprehensive, campus-wide strategy to grow intercultural advancement. The administrators initiated this campus-wide strategic work following their participation in an international conference focused on intercultural competence. Since that time, they have developed recommendations for the foundational work required to establish a common university-wide framework and comprehensive plan for institutional intercultural advancement.
Highlights
Inspiration and Good IntentionsWith one of us serving as an associate vice president responsible for addressing issues of equity and diversity across the institution, and the other serving as an associate vice president responsible for advancing the institution’s community and public engagement agenda, discussions about the importance of intercultural competence have long been familiar to us
In this paper, administrators from the University of Minnesota, who represent units that are highly engaged in intercultural competence work, share some of their struggles and lessons learned in their effort to build a comprehensive, campus-wide strategy to grow intercultural advancement
With one of us serving as an associate vice president responsible for addressing issues of equity and diversity across the institution, and the other serving as an associate vice president responsible for advancing the institution’s community and public engagement agenda, discussions about the importance of intercultural competence have long been familiar to us
Summary
With one of us serving as an associate vice president responsible for addressing issues of equity and diversity across the institution, and the other serving as an associate vice president responsible for advancing the institution’s community and public engagement agenda, discussions about the importance of intercultural competence have long been familiar to us. For the Associate Vice President for Public Engagement, having inter-culturally competent faculty, staff, and students is essential to ensure effective, high quality practice when engaging the University in partnerships with diverse external community constituents. The public engagement-focused work, for example, emphasizes issues of developing the intercultural competence of students, faculty, and staff so that they can successfully navigate the cultural, ethnic, and disciplinary obstacles to the advancement of effective community-partnered work. In this regard, having intercultural competence is important for ensuring that partnership transaction is conducted with quality (e.g., high impact work that has mutual benefits). After a period of planning and development, we invited and gathered colleagues from across the institution to explore interest in and the viability of building a University-wide agenda for advancing intercultural understanding
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