Overview
Two courses in intercultural awareness are available through this programme:
- Intercultural Awareness — 20 hoursThis course is designed to enhance the multicultural experiences of staff, educators, and students within higher education. Higher education has evolved into a multicultural environment, with institutions increasingly embracing new cultures and the opportunities and learning they bring.Many higher education institutions are actively pursuing international strategies, including applying for transnational project funding and recruiting international students. Greater cultural awareness can help educational communities appreciate the richness of cultural diversity, challenge prejudice and discrimination, promote equality, and enrich interactions among people from different cultures.
Participants complete an online unit and a portfolio-based workbook through independent learning, followed by three two-hour online workshops.
Time commitment:
- Online unit: 15 hours;
- Portfolio-based workbook: 5 hours;
- Three online workshops: 2 hours per workshop.
- Train the Intercultural Awareness Trainer — 15 hoursThis course is available to participants who have successfully completed the Intercultural Awareness course. Participants must also have experience working in an educational setting and hold a third-level qualification at Level 6 or above.The course enables participants to develop the facilitation skills required to deliver the Intercultural Awareness course to others. It is offered when a group of at least three eligible participants is available.
Each participant joins a group and teaches one online workshop session. Their teaching is assessed by another member of the group.
Time commitment:
- Preparation and meetings with triad members: 4 hours;
- Teaching: 2 hours;
- Assessment of the workbook from the first course: 3 hours;
- Assessment of intercultural skills: 3 hours;
- Assessment of teaching skills: 3 hours.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of these courses, you will be able to:
- Define the concept of culture and explain how the cultural iceberg model relates to settings such as the workplace;
- Identify how stereotypes can influence behaviour and interactions with others;
- Evaluate the usefulness of cultural-dimensions frameworks when building relationships with students and colleagues;
- Explain how ethnocentrism and ethnorelativism can influence behaviour;
- Develop an intercultural attitude characterised by curiosity and a willingness to learn;
- Build intercultural knowledge and skills, including cultural self-awareness, empathy, and frame-shifting.
Professional Development Recognition
On earning the open badge for this course, you will have achieved further recognition across the following domains of the National Professional Development Framework for Staff Who Teach:
- Domain 1: Personal Development — The Self in Teaching and Learning — emphasises the personal values, perspectives, emotions, self-awareness, confidence, and life experience that individuals bring to their teaching;
- Domain 3: Professional Communication and Dialogue in Teaching and Learning — focuses on clear and coherent communication, listening, dialogue, collaboration, and participation in professional communities and networks.
Course Developers
This open course was developed by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education in partnership with Munster Technological University.
Kristin Brogan
Munster Technological University
Louise Nagle
Munster Technological University
Susan Horgan
Munster Technological University
