2.4 Summary

The way we conceive of intercultural competence has to meet the requirements of today’s culturally diverse and heterogeneous societies. This is only possible with an expanded and open understanding of culture. Dealing constructively with cultural diversity and divergent values on an interpersonal level is a learning process since no interaction or context is the same. Requirements for intercultural teaching and learning are derived from our understanding of intercultural competence as a transfer competence. On the one hand, this involves conveying interculturality as an opportunity in the sense of the missing link metaphor. On the other hand, it is about the ability to create certainty of action in situations that are experienced as intercultural through joint negotiation processes. These changed basic theoretical conceptions of culture and interculturality make it difficult if not irreconcilable to continue with established approaches to intercultural teaching and learning that work with do’s & don'ts or with tasks that explain differences through national cultures or dimensional models. The same applies to role-playing games and simulations with two constructed, contrasting and correspondingly homogeneous cultures or to ‘culture assimilator exercises’ that explain intercultural misunderstandings monocausally. The contents and methods of intercultural teaching and learning presented in this manual are therefore based on the newer approaches to culture and interculturality. The content to be conveyed, as we have laid out, is decisive for the choice of method.

New types of exercises for intercultural learning that take into account the changes described above are not yet available on a large scale. Some initiatives have been launched. The overarching learning objectives of these include:

• Dealing with unfamiliar and uncertain situations in a constructive manner.
• Reflecting on differing perspectives and acting according to these insights.
• Understanding differences not only in terms of their potential for misunderstanding, but above all in terms of their potential for opportunity.
• Identifying and implement potentials for synergy.
• Developing an awareness of power asymmetries, which can, for example, also arise in intercultural action through differing levels of language competency.
• Understanding cultures as multivalent and potentially open networks that cannot be clearly distinguished from one another.
• Understanding cultural developments in the context of global history.
• Being motivated to act in intercultural environments and motivate others to do the same.