Unifying Constructionist Intercultural Competence through a Complex Systems Perspective

Abstract

Research on intercultural education very often falls short of its expectations in the ways it strives to correlate different variables affecting the elements of intercultural competence with learning outcomes. In this article, we discuss intercultural competence from a constructionist perspective, where intercultural competence is viewed from a complex systems approach, i.e. its understanding is constructed by learners influenced by context. Thus, our aim is to define shared meanings between intercultural competence and complex systems peculiar to both paradigms. The article first describes the notion of meaning construction in intercultural competence, pointing to the affinities of intercultural competence and complex systems theory. Then, we demonstrate how constructionist intercultural competence and the theory of complex systems can be applied to research in an educational setting.