Enhancing the intercultural effectiveness of exchange programmes: formal and non-formal educational interventions |
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Authors: | Joana Almeida Alvino E Fantini Ana Raquel Simões Nilza Costa |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Education and Psychology, Research Centre Didactics and Technology in Education of Trainers (CIDTFF), University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal;2. SIT Graduate Institute, Brattleboro, VT, USA |
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Abstract: | This paper examines how the addition of intercultural interventions carried out throughout European credit-bearing exchange programmes can enhance sojourners’ development of intercultural competencies, and it explores how both formal and non-formal pedagogical interventions may be designed and implemented. Such interventions were conducted at a Portuguese university with 31 sojourners throughout one academic year, and their impact was assessed using a mixed methods research design. Sojourners included incoming students of the exchange programmes Campus Europae and Erasmus, as well as highly skilled immigrants. Findings confirm the positive impact of interventions on the development of intercultural competencies and, in turn, their contribution to internationalisation efforts. Implications for further research suggest a need to increase interventions and to develop a systematic approach for fostering intercultural competencies throughout the study abroad cycle. |
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Keywords: | Higher education internationalisation student mobility intercultural communicative competencies purposeful intercultural pedagogy formal and non-formal educational interventions |
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