Our working groups provide a space to discuss and work on more specific topics of interest around the overarching theme of intercultural and global competencies (ICC/GC). Each working group has one or several coordinators who coordinate regular meetings. Working group activities include but are not limited to:
- Writing blog posts for the Intercultural Connector Blog
- Create and update a resource/tool list to be shared with the World Council community
- Offering webinars and other online events for the World Council community
- Contribute newsletter articles for World Council’s Intercultural Connector
- Develop ideas for other publications or projects as the group sees fit
Below you find a list of all working groups which are currently active – please click on the plus sign to learn more about each group and get in touch with the respective coordinators.
Overview of Working Groups
Community-Based ICC Working Group
The community-based ICC working group defined the following priority: Advancing our knowledge and connecting within our glocal communities to establish praxis in developing community-based ICC. Concepts like global, local, community and praxis were the main keys for our brainstorming about the mission and name of our group. The group arrived at the following mission: The World Council on Intercultural and Global Competence connects researchers and practitioners across disciplines, languages, and countries to advance knowledge, research, and praxis of intercultural competence globally.
Contact Working Group Coordinator:
Sujata Ives (sujata.ives@gmail.com)
Early Career Professionals (ECP)
The ECP working group is aimed at students and professionals who meet at least one of the following conditions: a) less than 5 years of experience as a researcher and/or practitioner in the field of intercultural and global competence, b) advanced degree in a relevant field completed in the last 3 years. The working group’s key priorities are to develop research and practice collaboration in emerging fields, to provide webinars and training workshops, and to develop networking opportunities with established researchers.
Contact Working Group Coordinators:
Italo Cavalcante Aguiar (international02@unichristus.edu.br)
Jan Krimphove (international01@unichristus.edu.br)
Lourdes Zilberberg (lourdes.oviedo@hotmail.com)
Emerging Technologies Driving ICC
The purpose of this group is to explore and evaluate new technologies for the purpose of intercultural communication. This group also aims to gather with the focus of providing information on best practices for technology tools used for intercultural communication and global competency. The ultimate goal is to develop an evaluation strategy and establish a certification through our assessment.
Activities include quarterly meeting to surface new tools and new uses of established ones, current developments in practice of cross cultural efforts. Meeting with other working groups such as Virtual Exchange and COIL, Global Migration, and ICC Assessment
Contact Working Group Coordinators:
Catherine Kavanaugh (cmkavanaugh@alumni.stanford.edu)
Francophone & ICC
The Francophone Forum within the World Council aims to create a dedicated space for promoting intercultural perspectives originating from the Francophone and Francophile world, as well as for emerging approaches, alternative to mainstream cross-cultural models from the Anglophone sphere. Forum members are encouraged to follow the information we provide about speaker events and/or reach out to our Working Group Coordinators for proposals.
Contact Working Group Coordinators:
Luciana Lallaizon (luciana.jeler@gmail.com)
Françoise Bleys (francoise.bleys@usherbrooke.ca)
GC in Primary and Secondary Education
The Global Competencies in Primary and Secondary Education Working Group is a welcoming and safe space for all global educators to contribute their vision, mission, and passion toward intercultural and global learning. This space provides the support and resources to work with you in navigating ways to integrate global and cultural education into your global classrooms. This working group will support in-service and preservice teachers, instructors, professors, researchers, and administrators in infusing global perspectives through inquiry across primary and secondary disciplines. We will aim to build connections and networks of support and collaboration to help you achieve what you need in your classroom!
Contact Working Group Coordinators:
Karina J. Baum (karinajbaum@gmail.com)
Vickie Crockett (teacheducationalconsulting@gmail.com)
Global Migration
The Global Migration Group in the WC is for practitioners and scholars committed to exploring cross-border migratory flows, influencing change, and advancing impactful integration and well-being of immigrants, refugees, and those new to the country within local and global contexts.
Contact Working Group Coordinators:
Koyali Burman (bkoyali@yahoo.com)
Emily Kraus (emilysusankraus@gmail.com)
Graduate Students Working Group
Graduate Students Working Group
The Graduate Students Working Group serves as a safe and supportive space for graduate students students at any phase in the IC-focused programs. In this group, graduate students feel free to share their knowledge and experience and seek help, support, and collaboration academically and personally. We meet monthly on the last Tuesday of the month (for 40-45 mins). The meetings are structured as either Expert Sharing or Member Sharing with subsequent breakout rooms for deeper conversations.
Contact Working Group Coordinators:
Fatima Halday (fatimahalday@uaeu.ac.ae)
Amy McHugh (amy.mchugh@sydney.edu.au)
Yiwen Jin (jinyiwen7@gmail.com)
Healthcare and ICC/GC
Purpose: To describe the current state of IGC in Healthcare, to raise awareness on IGC frameworks related to healthcare and assess their applications critically, and translate research to inform and improve health care practice. Introduction: Over the past few years, reports indicate that health care staff require further development of their intercultural competence (FOPH, 2008; Casillas et al., 2014; Smedley, Stith & Nelson, 2003; Zazzi, 2020). Frequently healthcare literature does not focus on the health care professionals’ worldview toward cultural difference and its effect on care. Literature in the health care field mainly focuses on migrant care, health belief models, health disparities, utilizing interpreters, conducting a transcultural patient history, and using family systems care. Failure of health professionals to acknowledge ethnicity, language, cultural beliefs and values in the provision of health services exacerbates health disparities, creates distrust and reduces health care quality specifically pertaining to noncompliance, inaccurate diagnosis and treatment, and ultimately causes poor health outcomes (Smedley, 2010; Casillas et al., 2014).Intercultural competence in health care is not just about a positive attitude, or common sense, or using an interpreter, or matching staff to the patient population, or learning about specific cultures, or do’s and don’ts. Intercultural competence is indispensable to provide safe and effective health care, it is also about patients having real options that are acceptable to them and it is about them being valued for the person they are (Van den Bergh, Schärli-Lim, & Wong, 2020). Mission: To explore IGC in Healthcare. Let us as practitioners, educators, managers, and researchers within the healthcare field focus our intention on how we can improve health care not only guided by our professional knowledge, but to enrich it with the application of intercultural and global knowledge.
Contact Working Group Coordinators:
Susan Schärli-Lim (scaa@zhaw.ch)
Ronald Ars (ronald.ars@nhlstenden.com)
ICC and Social Impact
Our group seeks to create a space where World Council members can engage in conversation about the intersection of intercultural competence, anti-racism, and inclusion (IC and AR & I) work around the world. We aim to gain understanding of frameworks, initiatives, and practices that allow us to embed IC work within AR & I and vice versa. We wish to expand our knowledge of terminology without imposing a single definition, and create a resource bank that will further inform our work.
Contact Working Group Coordinators:
Deborah Breiting (dbreiting@interculturaldiplomacy.com),
Elsa Maxwell (elsamaxwell@gmail.com)
Sandra Lopez-Rocha (s.lopezrocha@uwaterloo.ca)
ICC Assessment
The main aim of the ICC assessment working group is to learn together in an international and multidisciplinary group of professionals about different approaches to both quantitative and qualitative ICC assessments. Key priorities include to build a team and create a space where we can learn from each other and improve current ways of assessment, to collect alternative methods of gathering evidence to assess ICC and to analyze different selection criteria.
Contact Working Group Coordinators:
Betsy Hansel (bghansel@aol.com)
María Cruz Cuevas Álvarez (mariacruz.cuevasalvarez@gmail.com)
ICC and Faculty Development
A group of professionals interested in ICC development among faculty in education from K-12 through higher education. The main purpose is for sharing resources, tools, and opportunities in the field of ICC development. Key priorities include identifying tools and resources for those working on ICC with different constituencies at higher education institutions around the world, researching global learning pedagogies used in different contexts around the world, and identifying examples of ICC Mentorship programs for students in different countries.
Contact Working Group Coordinators:
Kyriaki Koukouraki (kyriaki.koukouraki@kcl.ac.uk)
Alia Gilbrecht (arjaffra@gmail.com)
ICC/GC in Spanish
El grupo de trabajo ICC en Español tiene como objetivo conectar profesionales de distintas disciplinas y contribuir en el desarrollo del conocimiento, la investigación y la practica de la Competencia Intercultural desde la pluralidad de perspectivas que aporta la comunidad hispanohablante.
Contact Working Group Coordinators:
Erika Lohmann (erika.shishido@interkulturelles-coaching-hamburg.de)
Veronica Denmon (veronicadenmon@gmail.com)
ICC in International Education
A group of international, inter-professional individuals, all with a passion for enhancing international education. It aims to raise continued awareness of the importance of intercultural competence in international education and explore ways to maintain and increase its centralize across schools, curricula, and programs. The group seeks to accomplish these by harnessing the skills and diverse world perspectives and experiences of its members. Key priorities include internationalizing curricula, improving ICC in study abroad programs and of international students, exploring ICC in digital education, and understanding global experiences.
Contact Working Group Coordinators:
Rebeca Moreno (rmoreno@umd.edu)
Leena Saurwein (leena.saurwein@mci.edu)
Intercultural Competence Research and Practice
Our culturally and professionally diverse team aims to contribute to the international research and practice of ICC by sharing and creating resources that reflect a more diverse approach to how ICC is perceived and practiced in a variety of contexts, and also by giving ICC experts an open platform to share their ideas. Our team will strive to decolonize the field of ICC through ensuring representation of perspectives from different language and cultural backgrounds, to promote the integration and practice of ICC across disciplines and professional fields, and to contribute to ICC material development.
Contact Working Group Coordinators:
Hiba Ibrahim (hibabasibrahim@gmail.com)
Irina Golubeva (golubeva@umbc.edu)
Intercultural and Global Competence in Africa
To explore IGC in Africa. Data driven and research-based we work to extend IGC models beyond the education sector to include civil society. Our aim is to provide data driven information on IGC in Africa, to share region specific research on IGC in this culturally diverse region, and to promote IGC as an instrument of peace.
Contact Working Group Coordinators:
Werner De Wit (wdw@sun.ac.za)
Huba Boshoff (huba@theknowledgecollab.co.za)
Divinia Jithoo (diviniaJ@dut.ac.za)
MENA Region & IGC
The mission of the Middle East and North Africa Region & Intercultural and Global Competence (IGC) Working Group is to look at IGC in the MENA region. Our work is research-based and extends beyond the education sector to include the world of work and society at large. We aim to provide data driven information on IGC in the region, to share region specific research on IGC in a culturally diverse region, and to encourage embracing IGC as an instrument of peace.
Multilingualism and Global Competence
The Multilingualism and Global Competence Working Group creates a collaborative space for researchers, educators, practitioners, and professionals to explore multilingualism as a key dimension of intercultural and global competence. We aim to raise awareness of how languages shape identity, inclusion, participation, and access across education, work, migration, and community life. Through dialogue, shared resources, and collaborative initiatives, the group supports more linguistically responsive and globally competent practices across diverse contexts.
Contact Working Group Coordinator:
Karin Martin (info@karinmartin-linguist.com)
Science Diplomacy and ICC
The working group on the intersection of science diplomacy, intercultural communication, global competencies, UN SDGs and internationalization of higher education is a collaborative effort aimed at exploring the connections and opportunities for synergy between these areas. The working group seeks to identify the ways in which these areas intersect and can be leveraged to enhance the achievement of the UN SDGs and promote greater collaboration and understanding across borders The goal of the working group is to foster greater understanding and cooperation between individuals and organizations from different cultural backgrounds, promote the use of science diplomacy as a tool for global problem-solving, and contribute to the achievement of the UN SDGs through higher education and research.
Contact Working Group Coordinator: Larisa K. Schelkin (larisa.schelkin@globalstemcenter.org)
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) & ICC/GC
We are living in a world where global challenges need global solutions. This puts us at the nexus of local problems that might need international experts, cross-cultural teams (interpersonal dynamic), an intercultural workforce (corporate dynamic), and tricky international diplomacy. Global collaborations are becoming the norm, even if working remotely. Professionals will need ICC skills for intercultural problem-solving, systems-thinking keeping global nuances in mind, and truly understanding local need, capability, capacity to enable infrastructure development and empower the local demographic to own their solution space. The OECD PISA global competence framework goes into great depth of preparing youth for an inclusive and sustainable world. The UN also talks about why global competence in youth is critical to achieve the SDGs. This working group hopes to bring together like-minded professionals who wish to explore the intersections of ICC with the SDGs, deliberate about the outcomes and impact of these intersections, discuss best practices to integrate ICC systematically into curricula and experiential learning related to the SDGs, and share our collective learnings with the larger community.
Contact Working Group Coordinator: Papa Bala (papa.balla@gmail.com)
The Intersection of ICC/Influencers/Policy Makers
To move the needle on intercultural policy development – within and beyond education, through research – in order to advance intercultural competence and make it accessible to the public. Key priorities include to identify the role of intercultural policy makers (at local, regional, national, international levels), translate research to inform policy makers globally, create innovative resources to raise ICC awareness and implementation, and raise the profile of ICC, making it more broadly accessible.
Contact Working Group Coordinators:
Carolyn Calloway-Thomas (calloway@iu.edu)
Fazela Haniff (fazelahaniff@gmail.com)
Transcultural Cooperation & Leadership
This working group addresses the conceptual and practical implications of a transcultural perspective as a relational view on cultural complexity. Such a perspective includes a shift in focus to commonalities (in their relation to cultural differences, similarities, etc.) and particularly to corresponding learning processes and other determinants of mutually beneficial cooperation. Against this backdrop, transcultural leadership refers to the individual and organizational competencies to create new commonalities beyond cultural borders.
The aim of the working group is to:
– discuss the conceptual offer of transculturality and a relational view on cultural diversity
– discuss practical implications
– organize an international and interdisciplinary conference on the transcultural approach (including publications)
This working group meets every first Tuesday of a month, typically 4.30-6pm CEST (timing may).
Contact Working Group Coordinators:
Julika Baumann Montecinos (julika.baumann.montecinos@hfu.eu)
Tobias Grünfelder (tobias.gruenfelder@zu.de)
Underrepresented Voices in ICC Research & Practice
This group is for those interested in learning from a wider range of knowledge/understanding than typically represented in ICC research. Key priorities include to educate ourselves on what underrepresented voices are already contributing to ICC research and to create opportunities for more contributions.
Contact Working Group Coordinators:
Grace Eunhye Lee Amuzie (exl457@psu.edu)
Kris Acheson-Clair (Krisac@purdue.edu)
Virtual Exchange/COIL ICC [VECI]
Our mission is to collect and share information related to practices, research, opportunities, activities, conferences, and trends. The working group is dedicated to fostering meaningful interactions among members and explores innovative approaches and program designs that enhance intercultural and global competence. The working group focuses on virtual, online, and digital spaces, commonly known as virtual exchange, Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), globally networked learning, or telecollaboration. We also consider asynchronous and synchronous activities within formal and informal exchanges, training, and teaching contexts occurring virtually, online, or digitally.
Working Group Priorities:
– Fostering Engagement: Host meetings and events for members across disciplines, languages, and countries, engaging in the virtual space.
– Advancing Research on Virtual Intercultural and Global Competence: Share resources, practices, and materials that enhance intercultural understanding in virtual spaces.
– Building a Global Network: Extend invitations to others to join our working group, thus connecting experts, practitioners, educators, volunteers, and students in the field.
Contact Working Group Coordinator: Andrea Martínez Celis (andmcelis@gmail.com)
Youth for Peace and Sustainable Development
The Youth for Peace and Sustainable Development Working Group is a global community where young people from every corner of the world come together with one shared belief: that peace begins with people, and lasting change begins with youth.
We exist to empower young leaders, practitioners, researchers, and changemakers to connect across cultures, exchange ideas, and work side by side to build more peaceful, inclusive, and sustainable societies. By creating spaces for dialogue, collaboration, learning, and action, we encourage empathy, mutual respect, and understanding while equipping young people to address the complex challenges facing our communities and our world.
Recognizing that peace and sustainable development are inseparable, we champion the values of inclusion, conflict transformation, intercultural understanding, and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. We also believe that young people have a vital role in preventing radicalization, countering extremism, and strengthening social cohesion through positive action and meaningful engagement.
Our Working Group is more than a network – it is a place to belong, to learn, to lead, and to make a difference. Together, we challenge stereotypes and outdated perceptions, bridge divides, celebrate diversity, and transform differences into opportunities for cooperation and lasting friendships.
We envision a world where every young person feels empowered to become a peacebuilder, where cultures connect instead of collide, where communities grow stronger through collaboration, and where no one is left behind. Together, we are not only imagining a more peaceful future but we are building it.
We are the youth leading the path to open-minded, peaceful and sustainable societies.
Contact Working Group Coordinators:
Jaimin Parikh (jaiminparikh.3011@gmail.com)
Emma Davis (meganemmadavis2008@gmail.com)
The following working groups are currently being launched and will be added to the list above as soon as their launch is complete – please note that the names of the respective groups might change during the launch process:
- None at the moment