Intercultural Collaboration in Networks Improves Intercultural Competence of Teachers

Intercultural communication competence is one of the most essential skills English teachers need in the 21st century. Teachers who master these competencies are then expected to train students to build intercultural competencies to interact and communicate effectively and appropriately in various communication contexts. The collaboration of online cultural exchange (in the network) between countries is one of the efforts to develop teacher intercultural communication competence that allows teachers to connect and collaborate with colleagues from various parts of the world to prepare and conduct joint learning. This study explores the development of intercultural communication competence based on online cultural exchange collaboration for English teachers in Indonesia and teachers’ responses to online cultural exchange collaboration. The story of intercultural competence involved English teachers in North Sulawesi as research participants, which was facilitated through a month-long webinar on teacher professionalism capacity development from July 1 – July 30, 2022, via Zoom. This webinar involves experts and experts from four universities in Indonesia and, English speakers from India, Algeria, Poland, the Philippines, Japan, Croatia, and English teachers from Japan, Belarus, and Myanmar. Topics discussed in the webinar include the concept of culture, teacher professional development, intercultural competence, and post-modernism in teaching English, integrating culture into teaching English in the form of developing teaching materials and lesson plans, using technology to support learning and collaborative cultural exchange in teaching and learning network, in topics such as Filipino cultural characteristics, Japanese values, Gunde dance from Sangihe, Minahasa culture, Polish stereotypes, and Algerian food.

This study began by recruiting participants to engage in a webinar based on cultural exchange between countries in the network. One of the research teams visited schools and socialized this program. Webinars are held twice a week in the afternoon in collaboration with the Department of English Education, Faculty of Languages ​​and Arts, Manado State University as the event organizer. At the end of the webinar session, research participants entered their reflections. There were several follow-up activities from the webinar session in the form of independent tasks. Research participants were facilitated to collaborate in conducting joint learning with teachers from Belarus, Myanmar, and Japan in the state of being guest teachers for students in Japan, inviting teachers from Belarus as guest teachers, and holding cultural presentations on traditional musical instruments with teachers and students from Myanmar. During the activities, the research team made observations and analyzed the results of reflection sessions. The participants were then interviewed regarding their perceptions of the teacher procession development training based on cultural collaboration in the network. Intercultural communication competence is closely related to the program being launched by the government through cultural literacy, which is one of the essential pillars of primary and secondary education. Cultural literacy is necessary to preserve the nation’s culture and realize the profile of students as Pancasila students who are globally diverse, rooted in national culture and have a global perspective as stated in the proposed 2022 Curriculum and able to contribute to the lives of many people as mandated by the Indonesian 1945 Constitution (UUD 45).  

Gambar 1: Culture-based CP development workshop                  Gambar 2: Telecollaboration between Indonesia & Myanmar

Gambar 3: English speakers from Poland, India, & Algeria. Gambar 4: Guest teacher for students in Japan

In Figure 1, one of the speakers acted as the lecturer and researcher discussed the concept of culture and interculturalism and how to integrate these concepts into learning English in the classroom, including the development of teaching materials, the selection of activities and teaching, methods and techniques, and cultural-based assessments. In Figure 2, the research participant teachers conducted a joint study on traditional musical instruments with teachers and students from Myanmar. Figure 3, foreign language speakers from Poland, Algeria, and India explained elements in their respective cultures. A discussion between participants and speakers followed this session. In Figure 4, one of the research participants acts as a guest teacher for students in Japan, explaining the geography and culture of Indonesia.