We are all members of a diverse and global campus that places a priority on inclusion. Dickinson is nationally ranked and internationally recognized as a leader in global education with programs in 14 countries and international students and scholars coming from around the world. Therefore, our international borders become bridges of globalization, intercultural skills are paramount to enhance communication and the ability to connect, support and engage those who are different from us. These skills are essential on the personal and professional level in the Dickinson global community. One way to grow our ability to connect across difference is through developing our own intercultural competency skills. At Dickinson we define Intercultural competence as the ability for community members to engage with each other across cultural difference in order to deepen learning and build mutual understanding and community. An effective way to assist in the development of those skills is through assessing where you currently are with these skills through the IDI and an individualized Intercultural development plan.
The Intercultural Development Inventory® (IDI®) is a cross-cultural assessment of intercultural competence. This is a tool to measure intercultural competence along the validated intercultural development continuum (adapted, based on IDI research, from the DMIS theory developed by Milton Bennett). The IDI has been demonstrated, through research, to have high predictive validity to both bottom-line cross-cultural outcomes in organizations and intercultural goal accomplishments in education. For more information, please see the IDI website.
The Intercultural Development Plan (IDP) provides a customized, developmental blueprint for individuals to increase their intercultural competence. For individuals to receive their IDI report and their customized IDP they must request a one-on-one debrief with a Qualified Administrator (QA) following their completion of the IDI assessment.
Objectives for Institutional Initiative
- Create a campus culture that supports civil interaction across difference
- Provide tools for individuals to intervene
- Provide tools for constructive talk across difference
- Provide tools for productive intercultural interaction
- Provide civil spaces/brave spaces
- Provide more opportunities for intercultural interactions
- Provide opportunity to understand implications of cultures and cultural difference
- Prepare students to work/operate in a global society
- Encourage community members to welcome and initiative conversations across difference
- Encourage community members to think about the kinds of relationships they want and create them