Teaching with cultural intelligence: developing multiculturally educated and globally engaged citizens

Abstract

Globalization and the increasingly multicultural characteristic of many countries and societies have placed an acute spotlight on whether nations are able to develop citizens who are multiculturally educated and globally engaged. While the character and citizenship education literature in Asia and the Pacific often mentions intercultural understanding and global-mindedness as desirable outcomes, few models exist that translate effortlessly into citizenship curriculum or classroom pedagogy. There has also been a lack of interdisciplinary exchange between the best science and practices of intercultural competence from other disciplines and the domain of citizenship education. Cultural intelligence, a theory-based and empirically rigorous construct propounds an ideal framework for promoting intercultural competence in character and citizenship education. To that end, teachers are faced with both the chance and challenge to lead and teach with cultural intelligence. In this paper, the inexorable requirement for intercultural competence in character and citizenship education is contended. The fit between the theory and practice of cultural intelligence and citizenship education is explored and examples offered for how teachers can teach with cultural intelligence and develop culturally intelligent students who will become multiculturally educated and globally engaged citizens.