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 language | English |
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Title of host publication | International Professional Development Association - International Conference 2023 |
Publication status | Published - 20 Jun 2023 |
Event | International Professional Development Association Conference 2023: Developing professional learning through collaboration and learning from other professions - Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom Duration: 28 Jun 2023 → 30 Jun 2023 https://ipda.org.uk/ipda-international-conference/2023-ipda-conference/ |
Conference
Conference | International Professional Development Association Conference 2023 |
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Abbreviated title | IPDA 2023 |
Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
City | Birmingham |
Period | 28/06/23 → 30/06/23 |
Internet address |
Keywords
- cross-professional collaboration
- cultural capability
- educators
- higher education
- internationalisation
- professional development