Thirty-First International Conference on Learning

Abstract

This paper shares some preliminary results of a doctoral dissertation aimed at infusing an intercultural perspective in the curriculum of a Foreign Languages Teacher Education Program in Colombia. Current discourse about internationalization in higher education often use intercultural communication as a market-driven objective that can be solely met in establishing academic interchanges abroad, and through a foreign language. The research (a single-case study) started with establishing the faculty’s perceptions about curricular strengths, weakness and opportunities to develop an intercultural orientation in language teaching. Similarly, official documents and policies were analysed to ponder the same aspects. Finally, a Professional Learning Program was designed and conducted with faculty to jointly work on the renovation of the program curriculum. The study shows that interculturality is usually seen as a result of contact between foreign countries and languages, a vision often caused by market-driven discourses in higher education. However, the multilingualism, multiculturality, and the development of multiple identities that take place on campus constitute a rich and complex landscape of assets that can be utilized to foster intercultural competencies as well. Similarly, the study suggests that while intercultural aspects are deemed as paramount in language teaching, the faculty might lack conceptual understanding around interculturality, which hinders their good intentions to promote intercultural language teaching.