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Article published In:
The Journal of Internationalization and Localization
Vol. 4:1 (2017) ► pp.1–21

Portfolio assessment of cultural intelligence in intercultural educational settings

| Technische Hochschule Köln – Technology, Arts, Sciences TH Köln
| Technische Hochschule Köln – Technology, Arts, Sciences TH Köln

The paper will outline a research project based on the analysis of diary entries written by a multinational cohort of German, Polish, Chinese and US-American Master students during a time span of 15 months as part of the course requirements for a module entitled “Applied Intercultural Communication” in the MA “International Management and Intercultural Communication / GlobalMBA”. The diary-writing project, which was started in 2013, is intended to serve two main purposes:

  1. For the students, the diaries will be a tool and personal “learning log” to gain greater awareness of their own cultural values and to critically reflect on the process of cultural adjustment (or lack thereof) and the experience of travelling, living and studying with a multinational cohort in four foreign countries. In this way, the diaries also represent a dynamic scenario of the students’ acculturation process at various points of their studies.

  2. We, as researchers, educators and program developers, want to explore how this experience-based approach allows us to chart a student’s development and attitudinal shifts from the beginning to the end of a 15-month program, both in terms of personal growth and intercultural learning. Consequently, the diaries are intended to serve as a tool to discover and assess which aspects of human experience are globally shared and observable and which areas require the students to undergo processes of cultural localization and adaption in order to function adequately in new cultural environments.

Students are encouraged to observe, monitor and report on any culturally defined and “different” situation without being judgemental. Moreover, students are required to specifically report on the process of team/cohort building and on ways of dealing with criticism, disappointment, conflict and “Otherness”. The findings of our qualitative research will be fed back into the process of further curriculum integration and development.

Keywords: computerized text analysis, cultural intelligence, cultural localization, diary-writing, experiential learning, intercultural communication, intercultural competence, intercultural learning, international study programs, linguistic inquiry and word count, portfolio assessment, qualitative text analysis, team work
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Intercultural competence – a controversial concept
  • MA international management and intercultural communication: A profile
  • Theoretical background: The experiential model of learning
  • Diary content requirements
  • Assessment
  • Method of data analysis
  • Findings
    • 1.The process of team and cohort-building
      • 1.1Local and national rituals of bonding
      • 1.2Doing and watching sports together
    • 2.Dealing with criticism, disappointment and conflict
    • 3.Dealing with the experience of otherness and foreignness
  • Results of the learning process from the student’s perspective: Essay writing
  • Research constraints
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 19 January 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jial.4.1.01mey
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Schuch, Elke
2022. Using Intercultural Diaries to Promote Cultural Literacy in International MBA Programs. In Hochschullehre erforschen [Diversität und Bildung im digitalen Zeitalter, ], ► pp. 301 ff. DOI logo

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