Developing intercultural competence through global link experiences in physical education

Abstract

Background: Recognition of the importance of the development of intercultural competence (ICC) has placed intense pressure on teacher education programs to infuse a global perspective into their programs. Several studies have proposed integration of global elements into teacher education programs. Although the use of online tools for telecollaboration with students and teacher educators from other countries has positively influenced certain aspects of students' ICC, there have been limited research studies which have focused on promoting ICC in physical education (PE).Purpose: This study was designed to examine the development of the ICC of PE graduate students after completion of a seven-week global link with Korean students. Deardorff's Process Model of ICC served as the foundation for gaining understanding of the development of ICC. Student responses were examined in terms of the following: types of learning, perspectives toward partners and their cultures, influences on teaching practices, and presence of the elements included in the Process Model of ICC.Participants and setting: The 14 Caucasian Americans (F = 5, M = 9) were participated in this study. They were enrolled in one distance education graduate course focusing on professional issues in PE offered by one of the higher education institutions in the USA. Participants were engaged in a global link project in which each participant was matched with one Korean student. All participants held a teacher license, and 10 participants were teachers with 2–11 years of K-12 teaching experience. The four remaining participants were employed in university graduate assistance (N = 2) or community youth sport programs (N = 2).Data collection: Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Qualitative data included open-ended questionnaires, which were collected twice, and reflection reports, which were collected at the end of the global experience. Quantitative data were collected prior to and after the global link project using the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS). The global link project consisted of five weeks of individualized interactions and two weeks of group video conferencing. Participants were engaged in individualized interactions with their partners through technology tools (e.g. email, social networking, etc.) and via presentations that focused on particular educational issues in PE through video conferencing.Data analysis: Qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed by using content analysis and multivariate analysis of variance, respectively. Triangulation across data sources and between the investigators, peer review and debriefing, and member checking between investigators and participants were utilized to maintain trustworthiness and credibility of the findings.Findings: Four themes emerged from the qualitative findings: (a) openness to other cultures, (b) expanding cultural knowledge, (c) clarifying cultural views, and (d) accommodating behaviors. The CQS data showed improvement in all dimensions (e.g. motivation, knowledge, and behavior) except the metacognitive dimension and significant improvement in the behavior dimension after the seven weeks of global link experiences.Discussion: The global link experiences promoted development of ICC including critical elements of ICC such as: attitude, knowledge/skills, and behaviors. This study recommends university teacher educators actively revise their program to incorporate a global view.