Traci Stewart

Capstone Speech

As international education through study abroad continues to rapidly
increase, research on the development, feelings, thoughts, and preferences of
students studying abroad has become popular and necessary. One of the most
popular measurements of student development through study abroad is that of
Intercultural Competence. Intercultural Competence explores whether students are
widening their worldviews and understanding of diverse cultures through study
abroad. The four main dimensions of Intercultural Competence are knowledge,
attitudes, skills, and awareness. First, knowledge is composed of cultural
frameworks such as values, politics, beliefs, and practices. Second, attitudes are
tested for openness and curiosity. Third, the skills tested in Intercultural
Competence are empathy, as well as verbal and non-verbal communication skills.
Finally, the most crucial aspect of Intercultural Competence is cultural self-
awareness through acknowledging insights into ones own cultural biases.
Many tools exist that measure Intercultural Competence and its various
characteristics as I just mentioned. Although these tools are effective in measuring
the different aspects of Intercultural Competence, they do not specifically assess the
direct issue on if housing effects Intercultural Competence. This brings me to the
purpose of my project to create a new tool of measuring Intercultural Competence
that focuses on the study abroad dimension of housing. Therefore, the research
question I explored was: Is there a difference in the level of Intercultural
Competency in American students who study abroad and stay with a host family
compared to those who stay in collective housing with only American students? To
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make this more clear, I define collective housing as any type of living
accommodation such as a dorm, hotel, or flat where American students only stay
with their fellow American classmates and not any other foreigners.
For my research, I analyzed case studies comparing the two groups of
students (those who participate in homestays and those who stay in collective
housing), conducted informal interviews, as well as examined various popular and
widely used Intercultural Competence tools. The analysis of the strengths and
weaknesses of each tool led me to develop an effective ICC tool geared directly
towards housing.
SHORTCOMINGS
There were three major shortcomings I found that led me to want to develop
a new ICC tool.
1. First, the tools that were analyzed focused on too many aspects of
Intercultural Competence( WHAT ASPECTS?) instead of narrowing them
down to a few key aspects to more richly address student development.
2. The tools did not provide direct and indirect measurements of ICC. Direct
measurements are composed of student writing, reflection, and observation,
while indirect measurements are self-reported tools and interviews.
Research has shown that students who reflect and observe their study
abroad experience become less ethnocentric and more culturally sensitive
and aware of the local people they interact with. Also, programs where
reflection was mandatory, students reported to have a more life-changing
experience than those who did not reflect. Therefore, direct measurements
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through personal and class reflection should be a critcal aspect of a study
abroad experience.
3. Every popular tool that I analyzed did not take the form of a pre/post test.
The tools were just used to show where students stand on the intercultural
competence scale. Since, intercultural competence is not a one time
measurement and is something that can be constantly improved and never
fully achieved, I thought a pre and post test tool would be most beneficial in
seeing if students have improved in different areas of their intercultural
competence from when they departed the US compared to when they
returned from their study abroad program.

Therefore, in order to address these 3 main shortcomings of the ICC tools I
analyzed,
1. First, I decided to focus on three aspects of ICC that I thought were brought
out most clearly in various housing situations. These 3 aspects are cultural
self awareness, flexibility and empathy skills, as well as communication skills.
(((Cultural self awareness can been seen in housing if students are aware of
their own cultural biases or can believe that despite their differences with
other cultures, they are also similar in some ways. Flexibility/empathy skills
show how likely students are to develop interactions with other cultures
through their homestay or collective housing experience and also how often
they acknowledge their judgments of other cultures. Lastly, communication
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skills demonstrate how comfortable and confident students are in talking
with the people of a different culture and using the native language. )))
2. I created a plan for students and faculty to dialogue and self reflect about
questions each week that reveal their cultural biases, depth of interaction
with the culture, and ultimately explore their development each week in
their homestays as well as their collective housing.
3. Finally, I created a pre and post test to effectively measure if both homestay
and collective housing students have moved farther along the ICC scale after
returning home from their program as well as examine whether students
who stay with a host family are more ICC than those who stay in collective
housing with only American students.


The difficulties that arise if a study abroad office were to use this tool is the
complexity of measuring the many different types of study abroad programs. These
programs are characterized by country and length of study. However, the tool and
ongoing dialogue plan I made can still broadly assess the notion of does one type of
housing effect the level of Intercultural Competence in American students studying
abroad.
Intercultural Competence has become a popular way of assessing the
development of students in their interactions and mindsets of various cultures. It is
important to keep pushing students to become more aware of their cultural biases
that have been ingrained in their everyday lives. The tool I created aims at doing
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that very thing, to make students aware and more sensitive of cultures other than
their own, seen clearly through variations in housing types.
I will end with this quote by Martin Luther King Jr, There is a sort of
poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and
technological abundanceWe have learned to fly the air like birds and
swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living
together as brothers. That is the goal of my capstone. To take one step further to
students realizing how much they can learn and grow from becoming more
interculturally competent.








We need to be aware of the holistic experiences of our students and of the
overall impacts of internationalization (both positive and negative impacts).
its about the bigger picture of making the world a better place, of working
toward a more peaceful world, of embracing the challenge of helping
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humans learn to live together in order to work collectively on addressing
the challenges confronting humans in the 21st century. Deardorff