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“I do not like my teammates. I want to change teams.”
“I cannot work with my team. They did not hand in their part of the paper on time.”
“My team members did not contribute at all. I had to do all the work.”
“I contributed but they never took me seriously. They just ignored my points of view.”
“I wanted to contribute. But they don’t let me. They don’t give me any parts to do.”
“They speak so fast. I have a hard time participating. Whenever I tried to say something, I was cut off.”
“They never show me any respect.”
“They speak their own language. I am excluded all the time.”
“Only if my teammates would know how to do team work the way I know it”. (Chao and Purdy, 2017)
Group work in the context of an internationalizing university facilitates the development of intercultural skills for both domestic and international students. The KPU 2023 Academic plan includes a mandate to “foster a culturally and globally aware curriculum, being prepared to meet the needs of an international workplace, whether in Canada or internationally”. This mandate, combined with course and program learning outcomes that include intercultural team skills, adds an additional layer to the team development process.
Culturally diverse teams support creative thinking and the development of strong solutions, as team members can bring a wider range of experiences and perspectives to the task than is possible on a monocultural team (Tadmor et al., 2012). However, culturally diverse teams can also struggle with miscommunication and misundrestandings that hinder a successful team process. Intercultural teams have the potential to be most successful when intercultural skills are explicitly discussed and scaffolded in the course and project design.
Considerations for intercultural teamwork
Consider the relationship of intercultural teamwork with your course learning outcomes, and the ways in which the process skills involved in intercultural teams might be evaluated as a part of the group project. Nederveen Pieterse et al., (2013) found that intercultural teams with stronger learning orientations engaged with each other more effectively, whereas a focus on task performance can undermine intercultural communication in teams. In other words, if students are primarily focused on being graded on the product they submit, they may be less motivated to move through the challenging process of building intercultural team relationships. Consider including a process component in the overall assignment grade, for example, a reflective activity on intercultural skills development within the context of the team project.
Consider what specific training in intercultural skills might be needed for students. Students may need support in cultivating an intercultural mindset that includes recognition and respect for differences. An intercultural mindset also includes recognition of one’s own biases, and how these impact interactions with others. Students may need support in understanding that the ways