Session III a: July 26-30, 2010

29. Integrated Training for Intercultural Transitions Bruce La Brack and R. Michael Paige This workshop will explore the complex and diverse ways in which culture learning can be encouraged and supported at all stages of an intercultural sojourn. The emphasis will be on how to appropriately facilitate and adapt training approaches for participants from a variety of backgrounds before, during, and after their intercultural work, study or living experiences.  In this workshop, we will examine innovative training approaches, sample program designs, and recent research on program effectiveness and evaluation to inform participants on ways to increase intercultural communication skills and enhance the development of the learners’ intercultural competence.

Designed for Objectives Learning Activities Bruce La Brack R. Michael Paige Intercultural professionals and trainers; international educators; anyone interested in utilizing a broad range of resources and tools to prepare individuals to successfully and appropriately cross cultural boundaries. Participants will have the opportunity to: Analyze how multiple approaches can be integrated and ‘layered’ into intercultural training programs Review recent impact studies examining best practices in a variety of contexts Compare and contrast text- and web-based resources for supporting culture learning before departure, while in-country, and following the return home Examine useful assessment instruments for measuring and facilitating cultural self-awareness and development of intercultural sensitivity Identify relevant resources for educators and trainers for addressing audiences and topics such as global nomads, intercultural competence, values and ethics in intercultural training, intercultural conflict, military applications, heritage students, etc. These will include: Interactive lecture-discussions Demonstration of training modules and selected exercises in both text- and web-based formats Small group/team program design activities Review of case study methodology and analysis Discussion of intercultural inventories and their applications including hands on practice with selected instruments (e.g., Learning Style Inventory, Language Learning Inventory, Intercultural Development Inventory, Strategies Inventory for Learning Culture, Intercultural Conflict Style Inventory, and the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale) Opportunities to utilize participants’ expertise and experience as resources   Dr. Bruce La Brack, a cultural anthropologist and South Asian specialist, has traveled to over 85 countries and has lived and conducted research in India, England, Uganda, and Japan. For three decades he taught at the University of the Pacific, Stockton, California, where he designed and conducted their integrated orientation and reentry programs for study abroad. He was the director of Pacific’s Institute for Cross Cultural Training and chair of their Master of Arts in Intercultural Relations program, and is now a Professor Emeritus. Bruce has published extensively on cultural adjustment issues, especially the reentry process, including the chapter “The Missing Linkage: Orientation and Reentry Programs” in Education for the Intercultural Experience. He is the primary author and editor of the “What’s Up With Culture?” website, a free internet resource for preparing U.S. American study-abroad students going to and returning from an international experience.   Dr. R. Michael Paige is a professor of international and intercultural education in the Department of Educational Policy and Administration at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. A returned U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer (Turkey, 1965-1967), Michael has also lived and worked in Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Kenya, and Hong Kong. In 2003-2004, he was a visiting professor at Nagoya University and at the University of South Australia. An active scholar, he has authored numerous books and articles, including Maximizing Study Abroad: A Student’s Guide to Strategies for Language and Culture Learning and Use (Paige et al., 2006), Culture as the Core: Perspectives on Culture in Second Language Learning (Lange and Paige, 2003), and Education for the Intercultural Experience (Paige, 1993). Michael was guest editor and contributor to the special 2004 IJIR issue on intercultural development, and authored the chapter “Instrumentation in Intercultural Training” in the 3rd edition of the Handbook of Intercultural Training.  He is the co-director, with Gerald Fry, of the nationwide SAGE (Study Abroad for Global Engagement) research program funded by the U.S. Department of Education.