Intercultural Competence: Value Disembedding and Hyper-flexibility

Abstract

In line with recent internationalization and employability strategies, universities in the UK—and other places around the world—promote the development of intercultural competence as either an integral part of degree programmes or as a stand-alone component. The need for intercultural competence is often justified by explicit references to ‘globalization’: Students or ‘global graduates’, it is claimed, should be prepared for the exigencies of a multilingual and multicultural world in general, and competition on the international labour market in particular. The emphasis on outcomes and performance is thus paradigmatic for a wider strand of Competence-Based Forms of Education (CBE) that aligns education with the demands of the business world. In this chapter, I discuss the questionable assumption that there is a generalizable ‘competence’ with subcomponents that enables individuals to ‘deal’ with ‘difference’ and ‘otherness’, and that this can be codified, taught, acquired and, at least potentially, assessed. Such a view, I argue, prioritizes action over reflection and instrumental over communicative reasoning. It, therefore, stands in stark contrast to the idea of intercultural learning as a reflective engagement with difference. Moreover, the emphasis on flexibility and adaptability is based on a misunderstanding of lay normativity itself. Such a perspective does not sufficiently engage with the reasons individuals have for being, acting and relating to each other the way they do and is, therefore, ill-equipped to bring about transformative learning. The chapter concludes by exploring a potentially more desirable view of intercultural education for the context of higher education.