Cultivating criticality: Notions of ‘critical’ applied to teaching and learning about intercultural communication in a Higher Education setting
Résumé
Within the context of (Western) higher education (HE) critical thinking is said to be one of the overall aims of academic education. Modern approaches to (critical) intercultural communication education call for super-criticality and reflexivity about what is understood as intercultural communication. Yet, many students in HE are not aware of the different ways of defining the concept of ‘culture’ let alone different approaches to criticality and intercultural communication. Further, critical thinking which we see as the underlying assumption for being able to critically view and reflect on different approaches to intercultural communication is a novel concept to many. In this chapter, we will discuss developing and enhancing criticality in courses of intercultural communication in a HE context, discussing the possibilities and limitations of a short learning experience limited to five to six weeks. We draw on data from two courses in intercultural communication to illustrate the discussion on cultivating critical approaches to interculturality in HE, while also thinking critically about the ‘critical’ as a commonly-used label in teaching and learning about interculturality.