B1 Non-refereed journal articles
From ‘intercultural-washing’ to meaningful intercultural education : Revisiting higher education practice (2021)

Sommier, M., Lahti, M., & Roiha, A. (2021). From ‘intercultural-washing’ to meaningful intercultural education : Revisiting higher education practice. JPHE, 3(2), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.47989/kpdc130

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Sommier, Mélodine; Lahti, Malgorzata; Roiha, Anssi

Journal or series: JPHE

eISSN: 2003-3605

Publication year: 2021

Publication date: 29/10/2021

Volume: 3

Issue number: 2

Pages range: 1-16

Publisher: University of Boras

Publication country: Sweden

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47989/kpdc130

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/78444

Abstract

This is the first special issue that JPHE hosts—and could there be a more suitable forum for an issue dedicated to exploring and encouraging a critical dialogue around transformative intercultural communication teaching practices in higher education (HE)? What has led us to engage with the theme of making intercultural education meaningful is a shared observation that there seems to be an increasing disconnect between recent developments in intercultural communication theory and practice. With so much critique published over the years, we are perplexed as to why traditional notions of culture still prevail not only in mainstream intercultural communication research but also in institutional discourses in HE and in popular discourses as articulated by the people who sit—or have once sat—in our classrooms. In this editorial and Special Issue, we approach intercultural communication from a critical angle, akin to the theorization of interculturality as a discursive and contingent, unstable and contradictory, political and ideological construct. We are thrilled to see this approach gain ground in the field of intercultural communication. However, at the same time, we are worried that the terrain of intercultural communication teaching across HE settings has become quite unruly and is characterized by pedagogical solutions that do not have a stable connection to state-of-the-art theory, and that might lead to naive, simplistic, and essentialist understandings of ‘culture’ and ‘the other’.......

Keywords: intercultural communication; interculturalism; cross-cultural research; institutions of higher education; communication; teaching and instruction; interaction

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2021