Developing cultural capability in higher education: cross-professional collaboration for educators' professional development

Jayakumar Chinnasamy*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

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Abstract

Cultural capability is becoming increasingly important for educators in higher education due to the increasing significance of internationalisation in HEI’s. The intercultural interactions at many levels of HEI’s, including with the diverse student population that continue to grow, have influenced educators in HE to develop their practices accordingly. According to Deardoff (2006) engaging with culturally different others has become normal for educators working in HEI’s. In response to this requirement, many professional development initiatives have been implemented by HEI’s to enhance educators' cultural capability. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of professional development initiatives is in question, due to a lack of cross-professional collaboration. Developing quality relationships across other cultures is some of the key aspects of developing cultural capability (Wihlborg and Robson, 2018). This paper explores the potential benefits of cross-professional collaboration that could be used for developing educators’ cultural capability. To achieve this, this paper draws upon a section of data from my doctoral research and from relevant literature to address the research question: How can cross-professional collaboration among educators be used to develop cultural capability in HEI’s? The study adopted a qualitative method and an interpretive philosophy to gather and interpret the results. The data was gathered through interviews with the fifteen educators working in three Scottish HEI’s. The paper concludes that educators have a range of opinions about professional development and emphasises that cross-professional collaboration has the potential to enhance educators' cultural capability and thus improve the quality of higher education for all students.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInternational Professional Development Association - International Conference 2023
Publication statusPublished - 20 Jun 2023
EventInternational Professional Development Association Conference 2023: Developing professional learning through collaboration and learning from other professions - Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom
Duration: 28 Jun 202330 Jun 2023
https://ipda.org.uk/ipda-international-conference/2023-ipda-conference/

Conference

ConferenceInternational Professional Development Association Conference 2023
Abbreviated titleIPDA 2023
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityBirmingham
Period28/06/2330/06/23
Internet address

Keywords

  • cross-professional collaboration
  • cultural capability
  • educators
  • higher education
  • internationalisation
  • professional development

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