“Walking the cultural competence talk”: how educator’s professional identity influences cultural competence teaching and learning

Keywords: Professional Identity Culture Cultural Competence Teaching Praxis Reflexive Pedagogy Teaching Learning

Session Type: PDW

Abstract

As universities become more internationalised and workplaces increasingly diverse, cultural competence (CC) is vital for business students to thrive in the global village. Educators play a key role in influencing students' CC development, guiding them to a deeper level of self-awareness, understanding of their own cultural values, assumptions and biases which form their cultural identity and positioning. But, only when educators “walk the CC talk” as an expression of their professional identity that they enact the praxis of ‘teaching by learning’ and in turn students ‘learn to learn’ by their example. In collaboration with the University of Sydney’s National Centre for Cultural Competence (NCCC), this workshop applies an ontological focus and reflexive pedagogy for facilitating CC development. When educators experience CC as ways of ‘being and knowing’ as an enactment of one’s professional identity and teaching praxis, this has implications for teaching and learning in management education and other domains.

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