Helping Students Develop Cultural Intelligence, an Essential Skill for Life, Careers

(The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Al-Fanar Media).

World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, observed on 21 May each year, highlights not only the richness of the world’s cultures, but also the essential role of intercultural dialogue for achieving peace and sustainable development.

It is also an occasion for educators to reflect on how they can help students develop cultural intelligence as one of the essential skills needed to thrive in the world today and in future careers.

One of the joys of working in the United Arab Emirates is the cultural diversity of the population, providing excellent opportunities to enrich our knowledge of different cultures. From a business case perspective, there are many advantages of having a culturally diverse workforce. It can:

• Encourage lots of new ideas based on previous backgrounds and experiences.
• Aid productivity and profitability when the workforce is representative of the customer base.
• Broaden the employee talent pool.
• Give a positive external image of the organisation.

From an educational perspective there are also many benefits to both teacher and students of having a culturally diverse classroom; for one, it can prepare students to work in global organisations. However, to gain maximum effect there is usually a need for careful and ongoing facilitation.

For educators, learning about different cultures can be absolutely fascinating and help us to navigate various scenarios, so that we don’t inadvertently do or say something that could be misconstrued. Increased levels of cultural intelligence can support our career development, as it is increasingly being cited within recruitment and promotion criteria.

How Can Institutions Embrace Diversity?

Academic institutions can be a good example of having a culturally diverse workforce, as they often employ people from all over the world. Therefore, they need to demonstrate good practice in being respectful of different cultures. This includes use of language, ways of working and celebrating differences.

By supporting students to develop their cultural intelligence, we can help them to understand what they need to know to work well together. One example is that people from cultures may have different attitudes towards time. For example, when working with people from the United Kingdom, punctuality is deemed important, whereas in other cultures timing is seen as much more indicative and flexible.

A simple way of increasing cultural intelligence is to encourage the celebration of cultural events and encouraging students to share information of what takes place and why. Consider, for example, Ramadan, and students explaining fasting and what happens during Eid. Some institutions also hold cultural events where students are encouraged to wear their national dress and share things such as traditional food. Other examples include exploring things such as body language and how the same gestures can be interpreted in different ways in different cultures.

Respect and Tolerance

A key responsibility is to help students to understand the importance of being respectful and tolerant of their peers who come from different cultures. It is important to recognise that they don’t always have to agree with different perspectives but they must respect that for other people they may be deeply rooted values.

In our current world where there is political instability in some countries, teachers may have to deal with sensitive situations within the classroom. We need to promote tolerance while helping students to avoid stereotyping.

We know that one of the key skills and competencies that global employers look for is cultural intelligence, and therefore we need to prepare our students to be able to demonstrate this. Rather than it being a one-off class, cultural intelligence is something that should be reinforced through every level of education.

We need to help students prepare for global careers—even if they don’t move to work in a different country, they are likely to work for organisations with a global angle and a diverse workforce. Where we are trying to nurture the entrepreneurs and leaders of the future it may give them a competitive advantage if they can articulate their cultural intelligence.

Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Educators must also consider the culturally diversity of their students in their teaching methods. For example, how can we encourage students to consider issues from different perspectives? We need to be mindful in our teaching methods and recognise that different perspectives may new and unfamiliar to some students. We need to deliver things in an interactive or creative approach and help the students learn to learn. Assessment methods can also vary significantly, so support will be needed to understand expectations.

Being able to work effectively in teams is a skill that all students need to develop, and again this requires facilitation and lots of practice. Working in cross-cultural teams can be enormously rewarding and beneficial, but there can also be associated challenges that teachers need to support students with. We also need to remember that students may not all have comparable levels of knowledge in all areas, depending on previous curricula they have been taught.

As educators we have amazing opportunities to develop both ourselves and our students to prepare them for their future career success.

Fiona Robson is head of the School of Social Sciences and Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University Dubai, where she teaches human resource management and supervises dissertations.

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