The need for students to develop Intercultural Competence (ICC) has placed pressure on higher education to infuse a global perspective into programs. The ICC is defined as “the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in intercultural situations based on one’s intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitude” (Deardorff, 2004, p.194). Although the use of online tools for telecollaboration with students and teacher educators from other countries has positively influenced certain aspects of students’ ICC, few research studies have focused on promoting ICC in physical education. The purpose of this study was to explore the influences of global link experiences on participants’ intercultural competence following a seven-week project with Korean students.
Method:
Fourteen Caucasian Americans (F= 5, M=9) who completed a seven-week global link project participated in this study. The global link was offered as a project in one distance education graduate course at a higher education institution in the United States. Participants engaged in individualized interactions with matched Korean partners for a period of five weeks via various technology tools (e.g., email, social networking, etc.). In the last two weeks, group presentations focusing on educational issues in physical education were shared through video conferencing. Both qualitative (open-ended questionnaires and reflections) and quantitative (Cultural Intelligence Scale: CQS) data were collected online prior to and after the global link project.
Analysis/Results:
Qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed by using content analysis and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), respectively. Triangulation across data sources and between the investigators, peer review and debriefing, and member checking between investigators and participants were utilized to maintain trustworthiness and credibility of the findings. Qualitative data were categorized into four themes: a) openness to other cultures, b) expanding cultural knowledge, c) clarifying cultural views, and d) accommodating behaviors. CQS data showed improvement in three dimensions (e.g., motivation, knowledge, and behavior) but not in the metacognitive dimension. Only one dimension, behavior, showed statistically significant improvement (p < .05, Partial Eta Squared = .57).
Conclusions:
The global link project allowed participants to engage in intercultural experiences via live interactions. The global link experiences appeared to promote development of ICC including critical elements: attitude, knowledge/skills, and behaviors. This study recommends that university faculty consider revision of physical education programs to emphasize a global view.