Intercultural Skills: A Reflexive Approach to the Training of Sociocultural Workers

Altay  Manço; Siavash Bakhtiar

doi:10.33182/ter.v1i1.2887

Authors

Altay Manço Institute for Research https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7181-0156
Siavash Bakhtiar University of Westminster

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33182/ter.v1i1.2887

Keywords:

Teachers, socio-cultural workers, intercultural skills, training

Abstract

The paper aims at (re)introducing the reader to intercultural skills: a concept that has been at the heart of the work of the researchers at IRFAM in their study of the challenges that come with the process of integration for collectives and individuals. Using the figures of the socio-cultural workers and educators who have invaluable experience helping migrant descendants, this essay is a project report on challenges and frictions that emerge in situations marked by asymmetric cultural and social relations. Based on theoretical and empirical sources, the paper also offers a list of intercultural skills that provide those acting as mediators with some conceptual tools that would help them to decipher a specific situation and navigate between the institutional and their personal a priori religious, cultural, or ideological values (metacognition), and those of the individuals with a migrant background - but not only - they work with.

Author Biographies

Altay Manço, Institute for Research

Altay holds PhD in Psychology. He is the Scientific Director of the Institute for Research, Training and Action on Migration (IRFAM), based in Liège, Belgium. He is the author and editor of numerous essays and books on migration, such as Formation d'adultes et interculturalité : Innovations en pays francophones (2008), L'apport de l'Autre (2017) and L'inclusion des personnes d'origine étrangère sur le marché de l'emploi (2021).

Siavash Bakhtiar, University of Westminster

Siavash is a Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Westminster (London). He holds a PhD in Critical Theory and Cultural Studies from the University of Nottingham. His research interests in a pragmatic sociology of education have led him to collaborate, as an Associate Researcher, with the Institute for Research, Training and Action on Migration (IRFAM).