Intercultural education

EDICC – European Diploma for Intercultural Competence

This project brought together a consortium of 10 European Universities and NGOs to develop an academic curriculum for Continuing Education on Intercultural Competence. The project modified and transferred existing theoretical and multidisciplinary knowledge of Intercultural Competence of partner organizations into work-life oriented curricula on Intercultural Competence for adult learners.

As a project output a work-life oriented curricula entitled European Diploma on Intercultural Competence was created.

The diploma uses Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning as its pedagogical grounding. The diploma is aimed at professionals working with people representing different cultural backgrounds whether this in their home country or abroad: professionals working in international business or in the field of migration and minorities in education and health care. The curriculum is designed in such a way that participants will actively be working on topics that relate to their respective   professional responsibilities, combining theory with own experience in their workplace and beyond. To respond to the need for a smooth work and study combination, a virtual working environment has been actively tested and promoted.

The learning process of each participant is incorporated with their work so that intercultural competence is used as a tool to understand and solve critical situations in real work life. Therefore the expected learning results will have two levels: 1) Increase of intercultural competence at individual level, and 2) Increase of intercultural awareness and competence at organisation’s level.

Project Duration: 2009-2011

Partners:

University of Helsinki, Palmenia Centre for Continuing Education, Finland – coordinator https://hyplus.helsinki.fi/en/

University of Jyväskylä, Department of Communication, Finland https://www.jyu.fi/hum/laitokset/viesti/en/

University of Tartu, Institute of German, Romance and Slavonic Languages and Literature, Estonia www.ut.ee

Danube – University Krems – University for Continuing Education, Austria www.donau-uni.ac.at/ikk

“Aurel Vlaicu” University of Arad, Romania http://www.uav.ro/en/

Institute of Education – University of London, UK https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/

Centro de Estudos Geográficos, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal http://www.ceg.ul.pt/

Complutense University of Madrid, The German Department, Spain http://www.ucm.es/

Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Department of Intercultural Business Communication, Germany http://www.iwk-jena.de

Intercultural Institute of Timisoara, Romania

The Iberoamerican Institute of Finland in Madrid, Spain https://madrid.fi/

University of Lugano, Switzerland http://www.usi.ch/en/

For more details please visit: https://www.jyu.fi/hytk/fi/laitokset/kivi/en/research/research-projects/research-projects-past/edicc