Transforming Communication & Building Collaboration Across Cultural Differences

Communication styles and preferences are informed both by our own personal identity and also by our social (group) identities. In this Module, you will be taken through a series of tasks that will focus on the cultivation of competences necessary for recognizing, understanding, and respecting the complexity of one’s identity and communication style, and how it is crucial for navigating successful intercultural communication and collaboration across cultural differences. You will also be invited to complete tasks to develop your critical cultural self-awareness, empathy, and critical thinking skills through practicing mindfulness and engaging ambiguity.

View on Canvas Credentials


Earning Criteria

This module begins with the study of the foundational concepts of identity, social identities, intersectionality, communication styles, and microaggressions. This is followed by discussions, simulation activity, self-reflection, and analysis of communication styles.

Building upon these activities, the participants will develop their awareness of diverse and complex ways of communicating and behaving among people with differing cultural identities, practice mindfulness, and develop strategies of collaborating across cultural differences.

80% completion of tasks, activities, and artifacts is the minimum requirement for the badge:

  • Written self-reflections and group discussions

Time to Earn

3.5 hours

Learning Outcomes

  1. Recall the diverse and complex ways of communicating and behaving among people with differing cultural identities
  2. Identify cultural differences that potentially may contribute to particular problems, misunderstandings, misinterpretations, or conflicts when communicating and collaborating with people from a different cultural group
  3. Develop your ability to recognize verbal and nonverbal signals, and microaggressions
  4. Explain the connection between language and cultural worldview, and how cultural values drive communication styles
  5. Practice mindfulness in your communication with people dissimilar from you
  6. Develop strategies of collaborating across cultural differences
  7. Analyze aspects of verbal and nonverbal language that intertwine in intercultural encounters
  8. Develop your ability to analyze intercultural encounters/critical incidents
  9. Increase your awareness of your own communication behavior and reflect on its consequences in intercultural contacts
  10. Increase empathy for those who are different from you and value cultural diversity

Contact

Irina Valentyinovna Golubeva

Irina Valentyinovna Golubeva

Professor

Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication

Fine Arts