INTRODUCTION
At the beginning of this month, I wrapped up teaching my 4 week intercultural summer course at Harvard with 31 students from numerous countries around the world. During our intense and transformative time together, we explored deep questions of identity, communication, and connection across difference. From our shared learning and lived experiences, the following key themes emerged, which I’d like to share with you:
- The urgency of resisting dehumanization — even when it begins with something as seemingly small as name-calling
- The power of recognizing the humanity in others: “This is a human being in front of me”
- The necessity of cultivating empathy regularly in ourselves
The value of intergenerational collaboration and learning across generations - The insight gained from seeking discomfort daily and staying curious
- The discipline of intentional reflection — the practice of regularly pausing to step back and reflect
- The importance of developing intercultural conflict resolution competencies
- The imperative to embrace our shared humanity
- The transformative effect of integrating intercultural micro-practices into daily life
- The significance of co-creating solutions with stakeholders, rather than imposing intercultural problem-framing and solutions from the outside
One core takeaway was the vision of living an intercultural lifestyle – an intercultural way of being — rooted in seeing and hearing others fully, approaching every person with cultural humility, and acknowledging that each of us carries unseen challenges. It’s a commitment to listening for understanding, to stepping beyond our comfort zones with courage and resilience, and to seeking connection and common ground. Most of all, it’s a way of life that honors the deep interconnectedness of all living beings.
The Process Model of Intercultural Competence highlights adaptability, empathy, and reflection as key to working across cultures. These qualities will be indispensable in high-stakes environments where trust and cooperation determine success or failure.
Process Model of Intercultural Competence
Successful intercultural interactions are at the heart of what international education is all about. So what does it mean to interact successfully with those from different cultures? This is the key question underlying the concept of intercultural competence, the focus of my research which led to the development of an intercultural competence framework, or model. Through my research, I worked with leading intercultural scholars in reaching consensus on a definition and elements comprising intercultural competence, resulting in the first grounded research-based framework, or model, of intercultural competence. The framework is comprised of the following:
Attitudes: Based on my study, several essential attitudes emerged, those of respect, openness, curiosity and discovery. Openness and curiosity imply a willingness to risk and to move beyond one’s comfort zone. In communicating respect to others, it is important to demonstrate that others are valued. These attitudes are foundational to the further development of knowledge and skills needed for intercultural competence.
Knowledge: In regard to knowledge necessary for intercultural competence, intercultural scholars concurred on the following: cultural self-awareness (meaning the ways in which one’s culture has influenced one’s identity and worldview), culture-specific knowledge , deep cultural knowledge including understanding other world views, and sociolinguistic awareness. There are many definitions that have been used for the word “culture.” For purposes of this discussion, “culture” is defined as values, beliefs
and norms held by a group of people. Culture shapes how individuals communicate and behave, that is, how they interact with others.The one element agreed upon by all the intercultural scholars was the importance of understanding the world from others’ perspectives.
Skills: The skills that emerged from this study were ones that addressed the acquisition and processing of knowledge: observation, listening, evaluating, analyzing, interpreting, and relating.
Internal Outcomes: These attitudes, knowledge, and skills ideally lead to an internal outcome that consists of flexibility, adaptability, an ethnorelative perspective and empathy. These are aspects that occur within the individual as a result of the acquired attitudes, knowledge and skills necessary for intercultural competence. At this point, individuals are able to see from others’ perspectives and to respond to them according to the way in which the other person desires to be treated. Individuals may reach this outcome in varying degrees of success.
External Outcomes: The summation of the attitudes, knowledge and skills, as well as the internal outcomes, are demonstrated through the behavior and communication of the individual, which become the visible outcomes of intercultural competence experienced by others. This then becomes the agreed upon definition of the intercultural scholars, that intercultural competence is “the effective and appropriate behavior and communication in intercultural situations.” However, it is important to understand that this definition is predicated on the elements highlighted in this essay. It is also important to understand the implications of “effective” and “appropriate” behavior and communication: Effectiveness can be determined by the individual while the appropriateness can only be determined by the other person – with appropriateness being directly related to cultural sensitivity and the adherence to cultural norms of that person.
These elements provide a framework to further guide efforts in developing intercultural competence in our students.
Discussion of Intercultural Competence Framework
This framework illustrates that it is possible for an individual to have the requisite attitudes and be minimally effective and appropriate in behavior and/or communication, even without further knowledge or skills. Adding the necessary knowledge and skills may ensure that an individual can be more effective and appropriate in one’s intercultural interactions. With the added flexibility, adaptability, and empathy, one can be even more effective and appropriate in intercultural interactions.
This framework also illustrates that intercultural competence is a process – a lifelong process – there is no one point at which an individual becomes completely interculturally competent. Thus, it is important to pay as much attention to the development process – of how one acquires the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes – as one does to the actual aspects of intercultural competence and as such, critical reflection becomes a powerful tool in the process of intercultural competence development.
It is interesting to note that the intercultural scholars in this study could not agree on the role of language in intercultural competence development, citing that language alone does not ensure one’s competency in the culture.
Thus, language is a necessary but not sufficient skill for intercultural competence. Language, however, can be a noted vehicle through which to understand others’ worldviews, which is crucial to intercultural competence development.
Intercultural competence unfortunately does not “just happen” for most; instead, it must be intentionally addressed. Intentionally addressing intercultural competence development at the post-secondary level through programs, orientations, experiences, and courses – for both our domestic and international students – is essential if we are to graduate global-ready students. Having a framework of intercultural competence such as the one discussed in this essay can help guide our efforts in ensuring a more comprehensive, integrated approach.
Implications for our Work
What are some applications of this intercultural competence framework for international educators? Since intercultural competence is not a naturally occurring phenomenon, we must be intentional about addressing this at our institutions- through curricular and co-curricular efforts. In utilizing such a framework in our orientations and intercultural programming, our efforts toward developing intercultural competence in our students can be included in a more comprehensive, integrated approach instead of through random, ad-hoc approaches that often occur at our institutions. It is also important that we assess our efforts – both to improve what we are doing to develop intercultural competence among students and to also provide meaningful feedback to students themselves that could aid them on their intercultural journey. Intercultural competence assessment is complex but doable, and absolutely essential in moving the field toward a greater understanding of intercultural competence development.
Other questions for us to consider in applying this framework to our work: How interculturally competent are we as international educators and what can we do to increase our own development in this area? How can we incorporate the process of intercultural competence development into our programs? Given that this framework represents a more US-centric perspective of intercultural competence, how do other cultures’ perspectives of intercultural competence impact our work? What are the implications of the intercultural competence/global citizenship nexus? How can we integrate assessment of intercultural competence throughout our programs? And beyond international education, what are the broader implications and contexts of intercultural competence development? As we continually search for ways to get along together as human beings sharing this one planet, the need to transcend boundaries, to bridge and transform our differences, to be in relationship with one another, to join in the oneness of our humanity while accepting our differences – these needs will continue to drive us as we seek to overcome differences that may divide us. In the end, intercultural competence is about our relationships with eachother and ultimately, our very survival as humankind, as we work together to address the global challenges that confront us in this century.
Bibliography
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- Intercultural Competence Framework/Model – by Darla Deardorff - September 12, 2025