Session III a: July 25-29, 2011

30. Training for Intercultural Transitions: A Holistic Perspective Mick Vande Berg and Lilli Engle Grounded in developmental and experiential learning theory, this train-the-trainer course examines conditions and introduces activities that are designed to foster shifts of perspective, expanded awareness, and emotional states that allow empathetic understanding to develop. We will embrace a holistic approach to intercultural training, focusing on individuals’ emotional, physical, and intellectual experience of cultural difference. Activities will focus on the development and conscious application of key intercultural competencies, including mindfulness, frame shifting, and stretching beyond our comfort zones. These activities will allow you to bring into awareness what you are asking your students or colleagues to experience through this holistic, developmental, and experiential approach. You will leave the workshop with a set of activities that you will be able to use in your own training, and with enhanced skills to use them effectively.

Designed for Objectives Learning Activities Faculty: Mick Vande Berg Associate Faculty: Lilli Engle Intercultural consultants, teachers, study abroad and international student professionals, managers, leaders, and human resource professionals who are interested in transforming their training. Those who train, teach or work with students or colleagues who are experiencing an important cultural transition, whether this takes the form of a move to another country or city, a foreign mission, a new job, or a new assignment, will especially benefit. Participants will have the opportunity to: Identify their own individual intellectual, emotional, and physical experience of cultural difference Understand and practice self-reflective activities designed to enhance mindfulness Apply the “challenge/support” theory to foster new learning Explore the advantages and limitations of several familiar models of cultural transition Learn to use concrete information about a developmental worldview both to identify user needs and capacities, and to guide the development of individuals or groups Examine Kolb’s experiential cycle, and learn to use information about individual learning styles to promote intercultural learning Short presentations to introduce basic concepts: holistic learning, mindfulness, intercultural development, challenge and support, frame shifting Simulation activities, including role plays, case studies, critical incidents, and guided visioning activities Self-reflective activities, including sitting and active meditations Practice with a variety of pre-briefing and de-briefing activities Sequenced experiential activities designed to provide a holistic, multi-stage experience of “intercultural development” and other complex intercultural concepts Small and large group activities, including collaborative games and discussions   Dr. Mick Vande Berg has worked at several institutions and organizations well known for their commitment to international education. Now vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer at CIEE: Council on International Educational Exchange, he has held leadership positions at Georgetown University, The School for International Training, Michigan State University, and Kalamazoo College. Mick has published widely on education abroad topics, is a founding board member of the Forum on Education Abroad, and frequently presents on student learning and development abroad. The principal investigator of several study abroad research projects, he is now leading an intercultural development project that involves training dozens of teachers and teaching thousands of students.   Lilli Engle is a co-founder and director of the American University Center of Provence in France. Raised in Europe and in the U.S., she has designed intercultural programs for American students as well as international business professionals and taught in both French and American university settings. Lilli leads frequent intercultural workshops and has published numerous articles on intercultural relations. She complements her training methods with activities and expertise gathered from advanced training in Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), yoga and meditation, and the nonverbal communication of subtle energies.