Attitudes and Beliefs of Intercultural Competence in online teachers

Abstract

In Colombia, factors such as multiculturality and internationalization policies, forced displacement from rural areas to the cities, the existence of government´s  scholarships for ethnic groups to have access to higher education, and the proliferation of online courses, are scenarios that bring about cultural encounters and misunderstandings in the classroom. This makes crucial to consider the need of designing formal education proposals aimed to culturally diverse populations. This study was designed to analyze the attitude and beliefs about intercultural competence that online teachers from the Caribbean Coast of Colombia hold. The focuses were the following dimensions: online teachers´ awareness of their own values and cultural referents, online teachers´ cultural perspective about their students and the cultural-suitable educational strategies they apply. The research starts with a quantitative analysis based on a survey; following a qualitative analysis was performed through an in-depth interview.   Results show that teachers are aware of their own values and cultural referents, they do know how important is for humans their own culture and the assimilated one. However, they do not have a clear cultural perspective of their students, neither they are able to identify cultural-suitable strategies, even when using cultural strategies; they do not recognize them as such.