The Integration of Intercultural Competence and Servant Leadership Style of Faculty: An Emergent Teaching Style in Higher Education

Abstract

The tendency of new students in higher learning, especially in professional studies, to expect a traditional lecture method of learning that requires students to absorb information from the professor down to them, is now an obsolete trend in professional education. The current trend is evolving from the traditional lecture method to more engaging methodologies such as service-learning (O'Meara & Nichaus, 2009), and transformational approaches that include diversity and cultural competence (Bennett, 2011; Lopes-Murphy & Murphy, 2016; Lucas, 2014), such as active-learning (Svinicki & McKeachie, 2011/2014), cooperative learning (Kohn, 1987), dialogue-based learning (Bohm, 1996), dramaturgy (Barbuto, 2006), and others, which demonstrate the active participation and engagement of students in the classroom. In my perspective, all these learning styles are inclusive of addressing cultural diversity issues in the classroom. To this end, this paper seeks to highlight the efficacy of professors' servant leadership style (as in service-learning,) and cultural competence to students' engagement in higher education. In doing so, I (1) define servant leadership, (2) explain teachers as servant leaders, (3) illuminate servant leadership for higher education model, (4) review recent studies on servant leadership for higher education, (5) define and explain Intercultural Competence in higher education, (6) define and explain the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, (7) review recent literature on intercultural competence/sensitivity in higher education, and (8) draw my conclusion on the topic.