Equity, Inclusion, Diversity, and Belonging in a Multicultural Psychology Course during the COVID-19 Pandemic

*Lori Simons, Sara Schoneman, Madeline Hoffman and Nancy Blank*

## **Abstract**

Little is known about the degree to which diversity courses facilitate the learning of multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. The aim of this study is to add to this area of research by identify what students learn through participation in a multicultural psychology course. A total of 71 undergraduate students participated in an assessment of a multicultural psychology course. Quantitative analyses indicate that students increased their cultural skills, leadership skills, problem-solving skills, social justice attitudes, multicultural knowledge, multicultural experiences, and empathy from the beginning to the end of the semester. Qualitative findings indicate that students increase their intercultural contact and perspective-taking skills and develop multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills over the semester. The use of a mixed-method approach increases the reliability of findings that multicultural attitudes, cultural skills, and empathy change over a semester long, multicultural psychology course.

**Keywords:** multicultural psychology, service-learning, diversity learning, student learning outcomes, cultural competence

## **1. Introduction**

Institutions of higher education have an obligation to prepare students to think interculturally about complex challenges in society [1]. Colleges and universities have institutionalized diversity requirements so that students can think critically about racial and social inequality and successfully work with others who culturally differ from them to solve these problems [2]. Colleges offer a menu of educational pedagogies and practices, diversity programs, and multicultural courses with the goal of instilling cultural competence in students. Multicultural psychology courses serve as an instrumental role in meeting university diversity requirements [2]. It is crucial for liberal arts programs to examine and advance best practices for the promotion of cultural competence. The need for diversity content remains; however, little is

known about the degree to which diversity courses facilitate the learning of multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. The purpose of this chapter is to identify what students learn through participation in a multicultural psychology course. This chapter will provide an overview of the literature, the research methodology, and data analyses. The results, implications, methodological limitations, and suggestions for further study are described in the discussion.

Research has examined the effectiveness of multicultural psychology courses using a longitudinal design comparing student attitudes from the beginning to the end of the course [2–4]. Most studies either measured pre-post changes in student racial or diversity attitudes in a single course [2, 3] or compared cultural competencies for students in face-to-face to online instructional modalities [1, 5, 6]. Iseminger and colleagues compared psychology majors in an online to a face-to-face diversity course and found that both student groups scored low in empathy [5]. Self-awareness, recognizing racial privilege and changing perspectives, and empathetic communication were common themes detected in qualitative studies of student learning in diversity courses [4, 7]. Fewer studies measured attitudes and skills by comparing students exposed to different high-impact practices (HIPs) [6–9]. Reich and colleagues found that students in a face-to-face counseling course improved their empathetic communication skills more than students in an asynchronous counseling course and those students in an internship [6]. Schmidt and colleagues similarly detected those students assigned to an intergroup dialog (IGD) approach in a diversity course increased their empathetic feelings and awareness of racial privilege from the beginning to the end of the course compared to students assigned to didactic diversity and nondiversity psychology courses [8].

Assessment of multicultural psychology courses has been criticized. Researchers have used different definitions and outcomes to measure student learning in diversity courses [2]. There is variability in the constructs to measure cultural competence [3]. Some researchers measure color-blind racial attitudes and ethnocultural empathy as characteristics of cultural competence [2, 3], while other scholars assess diversity and social justice attitudes as indicators of competence [10, 11]. In addition, the comparison of cultural competencies for students in face-to-face to online multicultural courses have limitations given the challenges associated with virtual or remote learning [1]. Cultural competence outcomes assessed with surveys or reflections in diversity courses limit the reliability and generalizability of findings [12]. Student learning outcomes gathered on students before and after exposure to a single highimpact practice in a diversity course further limit the results. Regardless of assessment limitations, it is imperative that the scholarship continues to understand if and how students develop competencies through participation in a diversity course. The purpose of this study is to add and expand this area of scholarship by measuring student learning outcomes for students exposed to HIPs in a diversity course using a mixed quantitative-qualitative research method. Quantitative analyses are used to assess learning from the beginning of the course, while qualitative findings are used to refine and extend the results. The three major questions that were used to guide this study include:

1.Are there differences in student learning outcomes (i.e., Color-Blind Racial Attitudes, Cultural Awareness and Skills, Leadership Skills, Social Justice Attitudes, Problem-Solving Skills, Empathy, and Multicultural Experiences) from the beginning to the end of the semester for students in a diversity course before, during, and after the pandemic?

*Equity, Inclusion, Diversity, and Belonging in a Multicultural Psychology Course… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109316*


## **2. Method**

#### **2.1 Participants**

A total of 71 students enrolled in multicultural psychology courses from Fall 2015 to Spring 2022 at a private teaching university in a northern metropolitan area took part in the study. Fifteen percent of students participated in the course before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, 15% took the course during the outbreak of the pandemic, and 70% participated in the course after the pandemic (i.e., endemic stage). Most students identified as White (76%) and female (66%) with a mean age of 20.63 years (SD = 1.00). The remaining group of students identified as either African-American (8%), Latino/a (4%), Asian-American (3%), or Multiracial (6%), and either male (33%) or transgender (1%). Of these students, 29% reported taking a diversity course and another 35% reported taking a service-learning course prior to the current course.

#### **2.2 Course content**

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic required modifications to the instructional modalities and course assignments in the multicultural psychology course as shown in **Table 1**. The multicultural psychology course was taught synchronous through Zoom video-conferencing software during the COVID-19 pandemic. Course lectures and discussions were revised using a flipped learning approach [13]. The multicultural psychology course fulfills a distribution requirement in the African and African American Studies, Liberal Arts, and Psychology curricula and requires a service-learning component [9, 14]. This course incorporates two HIPs—diversity learning and service-learning [15]. The combination of diversity learning with service learning (DSL) requires students to connect the course content to the service context through critical reflection [10]. Students complete 15 hours of service at either a community-based program or a public school and answer structured reflection questions after each class and service experience. The structured questions are designed for students to critically analyze their thoughts and feelings about race and class concepts within the service and course context over the semester. Students also complete an immersion paper, a movie review paper, and an intercultural interview paper that are designed to increase their multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. Each assignment was modified because of the COVID-19 pandemic as also shown in **Table 1**. Experiential learning activities are used to generate small and group discussions about stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination, and sexism, classism, and racism, racial identity development, White privilege, micro-aggressions, and cultural competence.

#### **2.3 Measures and procedure**

The measures were selected to measure course objectives and student learning outcomes (see [9] for more details about each measure).


*Equity, Inclusion, Diversity, and Belonging in a Multicultural Psychology Course… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109316*

#### *2.3.1 A demographic questionnaire*

A Demographic Questionnaire, developed by the researchers, was used to gather information on gender, race, age, and year in school. Student data were coded according to year of course completion and whether students participated in the course before, during, or after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

#### *2.3.2 The civic attitudes, knowledge, and skills measures (CAKSM)*

The Civic Attitudes, Knowledge, and Skills Measures (CAKSM), developed by Moely and Ilustre [11], are measures of constructs related to civic engagement such as cultural competence and social justice. The measures are derived from the Civic Attitudes and Skills Questionnaire (CASQ ) [16] yields scores on three domains with 11 subscales: 1. Attitudes (civic responsibility, social justice, community engagement, and cultural awareness); 2. Knowledge (knowledge about political issues, New Orleans culture, and current events); and 3. Skills (problem-solving, leadership, and cultural skills). The cultural awareness (i.e., respondents assess their interest in learning about different cultures) and cultural skills (i.e., respondents evaluate their ability to relate to people from a different race or culture), leadership (respondents evaluate their ability to lead), social justice attitudes (i.e., respondents rate their agreement with items expressing attitudes concerning the causes of poverty and how social problems can be solved), and problem-solving skills (i.e., respondents evaluate their ability to listen, work cooperatively, take the role of the other, think logically and analytically, and solve problems) subscales were used in this study. Coefficient alpha for each subscale ranged from .77 to 78.

#### *2.3.3 The color-blind racial attitude scale (CoBRAS)*

The Color-Blind Racial Attitude Scale (CoBRAS) assesses contemporary racial attitudes [17]. The CoBRAS, a 20-item self-report measure, yields scores on three scales: 1. Unawareness of Racial Privilege (i.e., respondents evaluate their lack of awareness of White racial privilege); 2. Unawareness of Institutional Discrimination (i.e., respondents evaluate their lack of awareness of racial issues associated with social policies, affirmative action, and discrimination); and 3. Unawareness of Blatant Racial Issues (i.e., respondents evaluate their lack of awareness of blatant racial problems in the United States). Cronbach's coefficient alpha for each scale ranged from .86 to .88.

#### *2.3.4 The multicultural experiences questionnaire (MEQ )*

The Multicultural Experiences Questionnaire (MEQ ) measures multicultural attitudes on two subscales [18]: 1. Multicultural Experiences is based on the number of multicultural experiences, and 2. Multicultural Desires is based on effort or desire to increase multicultural experiences. Cronbach's alpha for the subscales ranged from .53 to .73.

#### *2.3.5 The multicultural knowledge questionnaire (MKQ )*

The Multicultural Knowledge Questionnaire (MKQ ), developed by the researchers, measures the degree to which students learn diversity concepts and theories

taught in the multicultural psychology course. Students are asked to rate their familiarity and ability to discuss diversity concepts using a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree (i.e., I am familiar with aversive racism, I am familiar with the research on micro-aggressions). Thirty-six items are added together to produce a total scale. Cronbach's coefficient alpha is .96.

#### *2.3.6 The psychological costs of racism to whites scale (PCRW)*

The Psychological Costs of Racism to Whites Scale (PCRW) measures the costs of racism to Whites as an emotional, cognitive, and behavioral consequences experienced by White individuals as a result of racism on three subscales [19]: 1. White Empathetic Reactions Toward Racism (i.e., respondents assess their feelings about racial injustice); 2. White Guilt (i.e., respondents asses the degree to which they feel responsible for racism); and 3. White Fear of Others (i.e., respondents assess how much they trust or distrust people who culturally differ from them). The White Empathetic Reactions Toward Racism subscale was used in this study. Cronbach's coefficient alpha for each subscale ranged from 63. to .78.

#### *2.3.7 The Toronto empathy questionnaire*

The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire measures empathy [20]. Sixteen items are added together to produce a total scale. The test-retest reliability score was .81, and Cronbach's coefficient alpha was *.*87.

A triangulation mixed-methods longitudinal design was used to measure differences in student learning outcomes from the beginning to the end of the semester. Qualitative and quantitative data are collected at the same time, and the qualitative findings are merged with the quantitative results to understand student learning. The quantitative results are used to refine, explain, and extend the qualitative findings [21]. All the students completed an informed consent form and a pretest survey that measured the Civic Attitudes, Knowledge, and Skills Measures (CAKSM), the Color-blind Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS), the Multicultural Experience Questionnaire (MEQ ), the Multicultural Knowledge Questionnaire (MKQ ), the Psychological Costs of Racism to Whites Scale (PCRW), and the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ ). Students completed the survey again at the end of the course. In addition, the cultural immersion paper, multicultural movie review, and intercultural interview paper assignments were collected according to the assigned date on the syllabus. Students answered structured reflection questions that required them to analyze their thoughts and feelings about service experiences, connect the service context to the class content, and evaluate how their cognitions did or did not change throughout the semester [14]. Structured reflections and course assignments were analyzed after final grades were awarded.

#### **2.4 Results**

#### *2.4.1 Quantitative analyses*

A repeated measures analyses of variance with post hoc Tukey's HSD analyses were conducted to examine student learning outcomes, i.e., Civic Attitudes, Knowledge, and Skills Measures (CAKSM), the Color-blind Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS), the Multicultural Experience Questionnaire (MEQ ), the Multicultural Knowledge

## *Equity, Inclusion, Diversity, and Belonging in a Multicultural Psychology Course… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109316*

Questionnaire (MKQ ), the Psychological Costs of Racism to Whites Scale (PCRW), and the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ ) for students in a multicultural psychology course before, during, and after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic from the beginning to the end of the semester. The COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., before, during, and after) was used as the independent variable, and pretest and posttest survey scores were used as dependent variables. There were no significant differences in student learning outcomes for students who took part in a multicultural psychology course before, during, or after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A paired t-test was conducted on student learning outcomes, i.e., Civic Attitudes, Knowledge, and Skills Measures (CAKSM), the Color-blind Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS), the Multicultural Experience Questionnaire (MEQ ), the Multicultural Knowledge Questionnaire (MKQ ), the Psychological Costs of Racism to Whites Scale (PCRW), and the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ ) for students in a multicultural psychology course. Students increased their cultural skills, leadership skills, problem-solving skills, social justice attitudes, multicultural knowledge,


#### **Table 2.**

*Mean scores, standard deviations, and paired t-tests for pre- and posttest scores for CAKSM, MEQ, MKQ, PCRW, and TEQ.*

multicultural experiences, and empathy from the beginning to the end of the semester as shown in **Table 2**.

## *2.4.2 Qualitative analyses*

Two independent coders read course assignments from a purposeful sample of 36 students. The purposeful sample included assignments from students who participated in the course during the pandemic and endemic phases of COVID-19. Coders compared and analyzed four sources of information (i.e., reflection responses, intercultural interview papers) using open, selective, and axial coding to construct a common framework of student learning in a multicultural


*Equity, Inclusion, Diversity, and Belonging in a Multicultural Psychology Course… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109316*


#### **Table 3.**

*Open and selective coding.*




*Equity, Inclusion, Diversity, and Belonging in a Multicultural Psychology Course… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109316*

**Table 4.**

*Major themes about student learning that emerged from the begging to the end of the multicultural psychology course.*

psychology course [21]. Open coding consisted of categorizing and naming the data according to theoretical concepts of service-learning [10], while selective coding consisted of categorizing the data according to diversity concepts [22] as shown in **Table 3**. Categories and themes that emerged from the data were compared using the constant comparative method. Discrepancies between how coders identified categories, and themes were discussed until agreement was reached. Axial consisted of systematically analyzing the data according to time. Major themes, minor themes (i.e., themes that occurred less often), and time periods were further compared using the constant comparative method. Data were grouped into time patterns as shown in **Table 4**. Major themes that emerged from the data included multicultural awareness, intercultural contact, multicultural knowledge, perspective-taking/empathy, and multicultural skills as also shown in **Table 4**. COVID-19 impact on student learning was an unexpected theme that emerged from the data at the beginning and end of the course.

## **3. Discussion**

Institutions of higher education have opened the door to diversity. In fact, the college population has become increasingly diverse over the past few decades, which in turn has prompted institutions to make changes to reflect diversity in both the curriculum and co-curricular programming for undergraduate students. Intercultural contact

and cross-racial exchanges in and out of the classroom provide students with opportunities to develop cultural competencies [1]. The goals of this study were to detect what students learn in a multicultural psychology course that utilized diversity learning and service learning as primary pedagogical strategies, and examine differences in student learning for students enrolled in this course before, during, and after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic using a mixed quantitative-qualitative methodological approach. There was no observed difference in student learning outcomes for students enrolled in the multicultural psychology course before, during, and after the outbreak of the COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic did not impact student learning even though it required the course instructor to make substantial revisions to the multicultural psychology course. This was the first time the multicultural psychology course was taught online and included an optional virtual service-learning component (i.e., Eservice). Making the online course a close replication of the in-person course may have contributed to the lack of observed difference in student scores.

The effects of multicultural psychology education have been investigated and reports document that taking one course can increase cultural competencies in students [3, 5]. Evidence from the current study suggests that students change their attitudes and acquire skills from the beginning to the end of the multicultural psychology course. Key aspects of cultural competence such as cultural skills, multicultural attitudes, and empathy increased over the course of the semester. Students increased their intercultural interactions and improved their ability to relate to and take on the perspectives of others who racially and culturally differed from them, consistent with previous research on cultural competence [2, 3]. In contrast, students reduced their anger and sadness related to racial injustices. The White Empathetic Reaction subscale measures anger and sadness. The political climate and the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted racism worldwide. Students were aware of Anti-Black and Anti-Asian racism, and the protests that occurred in response to racial injustices in the United States, which, in turn, may have contributed to their lack of anger and sadness, thus contributing to their increased empathy. Students also increased their multicultural knowledge, leadership skills, understanding of social injustices, and ability to solve problems by the end of the course, congruent with research on servicelearning [9–11]. Our findings advance assessment research that suggests that exposing students to both diversity content and diversity service-learning contributes to changes in their attitudes and skills [9].

Another goal of this study was to detect what students learned in a multicultural psychology course using student assignments (i.e., multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills and structured reflections). Five major themes emerged from the data, including multicultural awareness, intercultural contact, multicultural knowledge, perspective-taking/empathy, and multicultural skills. At the beginning of the course, most students described being excited and nervous to take the multicultural psychology course. Some students felt the need to censor their opinions out of fear they would offend a peer, while other students described the need to become more educated about racism. Students completed a multicultural awareness or an immersion assignment to increase their own self-awareness and cultural awareness. Almost all students opted to complete the multicultural awareness assignment. The multicultural awareness assignment required students to make a video about their own culture and describe how they learned about racism or Whiteness. Students discussed their family's culture, traditions, and history related to racism or Whiteness, as well as their concerns about discussing issues related to race, class, and culture in class. Students watched their own video and then summarized what they did or did not learn about

#### *Equity, Inclusion, Diversity, and Belonging in a Multicultural Psychology Course… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109316*

themselves and what they need to develop as a learner. The multicultural awareness assignment contributed to students' self-awareness and awareness of multicultural issues. As one student stated, "I am nervous but eager to become educated on topics that we will be covering in class. The recent racial movements made me aware that I need be educated about racism. Self-reflection taught me about myself and what I need to work on." Intercultural competence is a developmental process that is ongoing and challenging because it requires intentional effort from students to examine their own perspectives that are shaped by their cultural upbringing and lived experiences [5].

Intergroup racial contact is an essential component for instilling intercultural competence in students. In a classroom setting, students engage in dialogs with peers who racially and culturally differ from them. Likewise, students who participate in servicelearning are often immersed in a cultural that differs from their own. Students learn about the community, forge relationships with service recipients, and acquire information that negates preconceived views [23, 24]. Students are required to systematically analyze their service experiences and connect them to the course content. All students completed structured reflection questions after each class and service experience that required them to critically analyze their thoughts and feelings about race and class concepts within the course and service context over the semester. In addition, almost all students applied their service experiences to the course content in the multicultural movie review (i.e., multicultural knowledge) assignment. Students watched a diversity film (i.e., *Forrest Gump, The Blind Side*), applied diversity theories to explain the main theme of the movie, and described what they did or did not learn in terms of racial identity development and cultural competence. As one student observed, "I learned to apply information from class to my service. I observed racism and classism first-hand. The students did not have access to a computer or technology, so they attended the after-school program to keep up with their studies. The teachers did not respond to my questions, so we had to figure out how to do the math without resources or assistance. Although I could connect this to the movie I reviewed for the assignment, as well as to the class discussions, I was deeply saddened because what I experienced at service would never happen at a White middle-class school." Students developed a deeper understanding of the course concepts by completing the multicultural knowledge/ movie review and critical reflection assignments; therefore, it is not surprising that multicultural knowledge emerged as a major theme.

Intergroup racial contact is also central component for student development of perspective-taking, empathy, and intercultural communication skills [3, 6]. Most students noted that they acquired intercultural communication skills and perspectivetaking skills in their critical reflections. As one student commented, "I enjoyed building a relationship with the child with whom I was paired with at Eservice. I learned to be vulnerable and actively listen. I would reflect on what he was saying and validate his thoughts. I learned to see the world through his eyes. By doing this I was able to have deeper conversations with him and developed empathy." Student reflections provide insight into how some students develop intercultural communication and perspective-taking skills during the course [5].

Students acquired multicultural skills through their intercultural experiences that occurred in and out of class. Most students described the development of their intercultural communication and interpersonal problem-solving skills through their critical reflections and intercultural interview assignments. The intercultural interview assignment required students to develop interview questions on any topic related to multicultural psychology (i.e., classism, ageism, and racism), interview two individuals who differ in one cultural characteristic (i.e., age, race, religion, sexuality, nationality, education, gender, or socioeconomic status), and compare participant responses. Students were also required to integrate theory and research to explain the main findings from the interviews. Some students interviewed each other, while other students interviewed family members or participants recruited from local establishments such as Dunkin Donuts or Wawa. The intercultural interview and critical reflections assignments influenced student development of cultural skills. As one student reflected, "I learned to pick up on micro-aggressions. I would not have picked up on micro-aggressions prior to this course. I also learned to respond to them by engaging in a dialog even though it was incredibly uncomfortable. I learned to step out of my comfort zone and engage in difficult conversations. The self-reflections taught me about myself, what I need to do to be an ally in the real sense, and that this course is just the beginning." Student development of cultural skills depends on the interventions (i.e., assignments and activities). Course assignments and activities should be intentionally designed to increase student reflection, cultural awareness, and intercultural skills.

Most students also noted how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted their development of awareness, knowledge, and skills at either the beginning or end of the semester in their critical reflections. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted in-person service-learning activities. Some students were unable to take part in service-learning either in-person or online because they could not acquire the required clearances to engage in service work. About half of the students who took part in the multicultural psychology course during the pandemic and endemic phases reported that they thought their service work would have been better under "normal" circumstances. Students reported that the felt emotionally and physically drained from the COVID-19 pandemic and had to relearn how to be engaged as a student, consistent with research that found that students had low motivation and lacked engagement during the pandemic [25]. The impact of COVID-19 was an unexpected major theme that emerged from the data.

A final objective is to compare the qualitative data with quantitative data to detect similarities and differences. Except for the impacts from COVID-19 on student learning, similarities were detected between the qualitative and quantitative findings. Similarities were observed in cultural competence between student surveys and course assignments. Students reformulated their attitudes, acquired knowledge, and developed cultural skills through their intercultural interactions with peers in class and children in the community. Students also developed empathy over the course of the semester. In contrast, differences were noted for cultural and racial awareness. Student survey reports revealed that they did not improve their cultural awareness or color-blind racial awareness from the beginning to the end of the semester, although self-awareness and multicultural awareness were detected in their critical reflections, incongruent with previous research [3, 9]. The political and social climate that occurred at the same time as the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced students' racial and cultural awareness prior to taking the course. Protests about the removal of statues, the violence against Black and Asian Americans, and Black Lives Matter movement were documented on social media and in other mediums in general. Most students noted that they needed to be more informed about these issues at the beginning of the course; therefore, they may have rated their awareness of White privilege, racism, and institutional discrimination higher than previous student groups [9]. It is also plausible that

ceiling effects are associated with student survey reports of cultural awareness and racial color-blind attitudes [12]. Students may have rated their responses too high at pretest, which would limit the amount of change that could be measured at posttest, thus contributing to the lack of observed difference in cultural awareness and color-blind attitude scores.

## **3.1 Implications**

Student learning in a multicultural psychology course is predicated on the diversity content, pedagogical strategies (i.e., diversity learning and service-learning), intercultural experiences (i.e., in and out of class), and interventions (i.e., assignments and activities) [1]. Diversity learning and service-learning practices were intentionally integrated with each other to increase self-reflection, cultural awareness, and multicultural knowledge in students. These high-impact practices can be incorporated into any undergraduate course to advance student learning of cultural competence. The course assignments were purposely designed to increase students' multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills, while the critical reflections were designed so that students could connect the course content to the service context and examine their own learning over the course of the semester. The assignments also lend themselves to any undergraduate course that includes diversity, social justice, or critical thinking objectives and outcomes.

## **3.2 Limitations**

Assessment of student learning should be ongoing, and data should be used to refine teaching to improve student learning. It is important to point out that we did not detect differences in student learning outcomes for students enrolled in face-to-face and online courses. The multicultural psychology course was taught synchronously and was a close replication of the in-person course. An asynchronous multicultural psychology course that does not replicate in-person activities online may contribute to differences in student learning outcomes. Future researchers should measure differences in student learning of cultural competencies for students in diversity courses exposed to asynchronous, synchronous, and face-to-face instructional modalities. In addition, more than half the sample of students took the multicultural psychology course during the pandemic and endemic phases of COVID-19. There is a degree of uncertainty if the COVID-19 pandemic influenced student attitudes. Similarly, there is a degree of uncertainty if the racial and political climate in the United States influenced student social justice attitudes, cultural skills, or general empathy. The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to racism and violence against Asian Americans in the United States. Protests, movements, and marches occurred as a result. Moreover, on January 6, 2021, a mob of supporters attacked the United States Capital Building in Washington, D.C., in an effort to prevent Congress from counting electoral college votes so that President Donald Trump would retain his position of President of the United States. Student awareness of both the attack and protests (i.e., the attack made me aware that I need be more aware politically, I need to work on my own racism) may have influenced their attitudes. A replication of this study post-pandemic would address some of the historical research limitations that are most likely associated with the results. Homogeneity effects are most likely associated with our sample of White females at a teaching university in

a metropolitan area, which limits our ability to generalize the results. Researchers should expand this area of scholarship by replicating this study with larger and more diverse samples of students.

## **4. Conclusion**

The goal of a multicultural education is to instill cultural competence in students. Multicultural psychology courses provide students with the foundational skills so that they can continue to develop and improve their intercultural competence beyond the course [1, 5]. The most salient finding from this study was that students improve their multicultural and social justice attitudes, increase cultural and problem-solving skills, and develop empathy after engaging in intercultural interactions in and out of a multicultural psychology course. The use of a mixed-method approach expands previous scholarship and increases the reliability of our findings that characteristics of cultural competence such as multicultural attitudes, cultural skills, and empathy shift over the semester in a multicultural psychology course. Additional research is warranted if this area of scholarship is to advance. Future researchers should replicate and expand this study with a larger and more diverse sample of students enrolled in diversity courses in different academic disciplines at multiple institutions located in and beyond the United States. Researchers may want measure differences in student learning outcomes for students enrolled in diversity courses that use different instructional modalities including face-to-face, synchronous online, and asynchronous online formats.

## **Author details**

Lori Simons\*, Sara Schoneman, Madeline Hoffman and Nancy Blank Widener University, Chester, PA, USA

\*Address all correspondence to: lnsimons@widener.edu

© 2023 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Equity, Inclusion, Diversity, and Belonging in a Multicultural Psychology Course… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109316*

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[17] Neville HA, Lilly RL, Duran G, Lee RM, Browne L. Construction and initial validation of the Color-Blind Racial Attitude Scale (CoBRAS). Journal of Counseling Psychology. 2000;**47**:59-70

[18] Narvaez D, Endicott L, Hill P. Guide for using the multicultural experience questionnaire (MEQ ) for college students and adults. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame; 2017

[19] Spanierman LB, Heppner MJ. Psychological costs of racism to Whites scale (PCRW): Construction and initial validation. Journal of Counseling Psychology. 2004;**51**(2):249-262

[20] Spreng RN, McKinnon MC, Mar RA, Levine B. The Toronto empathy questionnaire: Scale development and initial validation of a factor-analytic solution to multiple empathy measures. Journal of Personality Assessment. 2009;**91**(1):62-71

[21] Creswell JW. Educational research. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall; 2005

[22] Mio JS, Baker LA, Domenech Rodriguez MM, Gonzalez J. Multicultural psychology: Understanding our diverse communities. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2020

[23] Baldwin SC, Buchanan AM, Rudisill ME. What teacher candidates learned about diversity, social justice, and themselves from service-learning experiences. Journal of Teacher Education. 2007;**58**(4):315-327

[24] Bell CA, Horn BR, Roxas KC. We know its service, but what are they learning? Preservice teachers' understanding of diversity. Equity & Excellence in Education. 2007;**40**:123-133

[25] Usher EL, Golding JM, Han J, Griffiths CS, McGavran MB, Brown CS, et al. Psychology students' motivation and learning in response to the shift to remote instruction during COVID-19. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, Advance online publication. 2021:1-14. DOI: 10.10.1037/st10000256

## **Chapter 6**

## Do Engineers Need Intercultural Competence?

*Irina-Ana Drobot*

## **Abstract**

The purpose of this paper is to present, from the perspective of intercultural communication, how foreign languages, and especially English, could be taught to students at the Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest, Romania. Starting from what they claim their expectations with respect to how foreign languages would help them in their future jobs, we could devise lessons following several aspects. Among these, the fact that English is a lingua franca, and also the language of intercultural competence at the world level, shows why most students opt to study English. Another aspect has to do with skills that can be taught during foreign language seminars. What is more, awareness of differences among cultures and culturalspecific features could also be included. Last but not least, organizational culture also matters, since in their future jobs, students will need to establish business cooperation and may also need to communicate efficiently with an international team.

**Keywords:** cultural awareness, communication skills, high power distance, low power distance, English as a foreign language

## **1. Introduction**

When we speak about learning foreign languages, we need to look at the reality surrounding us at the respective time. There is always a context, which includes certain ways of thinking and behaving that are distinctive to the time we live in. We speak of a certain culture, defined "as patterns of human thought" [1], and also as "The collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another" [2]. Moreover, those members of the same culture "share a language, a historic period, and a geographic location" together with "the standards for perceiving, believing, evaluating, communicating, and acting among those" [3].

Some countries and cultures where the language is spoken may, at some point in history, be very nationalistic and closed to international collaboration. At other point in time, this may all change to the opposite: the countries and cultures can become very open to international collaboration in all domains. If the country is closed, it is compulsory for the visitor to know its very language; if the country is open to international collaboration and traveling, then the visitor can rely on a lingua franca, or a language that is used at an international level to help people of different culture find a common language to communicate. English is nowadays well-known as the lingua

franca of the world in all areas, such as studying, working, and traveling for leisure. If English can be regarded as a lingua franca of the world, then it is important to make it clear to students the distinction in culture in areas where English is spoken in the world, such as Great Britain, the USA, Australia, English in Hong Kong, English in Africa, and others. When speaking English as a lingua franca, students will need not to rely on body language that is specific to Great Britain or the USA, for example, and they will need to either keep neutral or adapt to the possible extent to the body language of the country those that they are talking to come from.

Today's world can be considered to have globalization as the main value and as the main feature, which leads to frequent contact at an international level. The main contribution of globalization is the following: "the intensity of globalization in recent years has brought intercultural competence acquisition studies back to the center stage" [4]. Thus, globalization appears to be the main trigger for the necessity for intercultural competence. The perspective of "Working across cultures [5] should be taken into account in contemporary foreign language teaching. There is an expected difference between the world in the past and the world as we know it today: "With increasing globalization, countries face social, linguistic, religious, and other cultural changes that can lead to misunderstandings in a variety of settings. These changes can have broader implications across the world, leading to changing dynamics in identity, gender, relationships, family, and community" [6]. Thus, first of all, when we are planning to teach a foreign language seminar, we should understand the main features of our contemporary world. In this way, we can make use efficiently of old textbooks, and adapt them to today's context, or just select some relevant information, exercises, and other activities. With the passage of years, various methods and approaches to teaching foreign languages have emerged, from the grammar-translation method to communicative approaches, and lately teaching methods have focused on the use of technology more than in the past, since various platforms and applications have been made available and developed. We could also just add textbook material created for intercultural communication purposes next to old textbooks material, since some materials can be universal, such as those related to grammar, translation, vocabulary, listening practice, and dialog building. Next to all these we just need to make students aware of today's world values and makeup, so that they have the necessary skills related to intercultural competence to adapt to the professional world.

In 2001, the research mentioned in resource [7] remarked the following about our contemporary world, and the process of change it was going through: "Revolutionary advances in electronic technologies and globalization are transforming the nature, reach, speed, and loci of human influence". Moreover, our contemporary world has been described as "an emerging global village" [5]. However, in spite of this, there is a strong respect for preserving the specificities of each and every culture. Intercultural competence takes this into account.

Intercultural competence could be defined, briefly, as "an individual's ability to function effectively across cultures" [5, 8]. This definition focuses on the capacity of adaptation of an individual to the values and mindsets of members of other cultures, being able to establish communication in a cooperative manner with them. Another definition of intercultural competence has in view "the ability to think and act in interculturally appropriate ways" [9], which continues the ability mentioned previously, adding to it the element of cultural empathy, of understanding other cultures' beliefs and habits, not just being informed about them. Cooperation is the focus of the following definition of intercultural competence, since it is understood as "an individual's effectiveness in drawing upon a set of knowledge, skills, and personal attributes in

#### *Do Engineers Need Intercultural Competence? DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109259*

order to work successfully with people from different national cultural backgrounds at home or abroad" [10]. Some elements comprised by intercultural competence are the following: "empathy, flexibility, cross-cultural awareness, and managing stress," to which we can add "technical skills, foreign language proficiency, and situational factors," together with "skills to interpret and relate; skills to discover and/or to interact; valuing others' values, beliefs, and behaviors; and relativizing one's self" [11].

Why should the foreign language professor take into account intercultural competence when teaching foreign language seminars to engineering students? This question comes up as preparing students for behaving and adapting "competitively in the global marketplace, and staying abreast of the electronic deluge of information and globalized knowledge" is one of the tasks and challenges faced by institutions of higher education in general [11]. The research mentioned in the resource [12] refers to the particular case of the United States, yet the issue is valid for universities all over the world during the start of the twenty-first century.

Reasons, why intercultural competence can be regarded as one of the students' needs in the context of the foreign language classroom, can be found once we go through the literature review related to this topic. The way that the world is made up today leads to engineers' needing intercultural competence: "technical expertise is not sufficient for engineers today, given the complex intercultural global contexts in which they are required to work" [13]. Intercultural competence would help them "to become competitive specialists at the labor market" [14]. The need for considering intercultural competence when teaching a lingua franca, such as English or Spanish, can be related to the reality that "learners are more likely to interact with non-native speakers of different nationalities" [15]. English language seminars should have in view for engineers the following: "concepts such as intercultural teams, international meetings, geographical mobility, worldwide negotiations, and globalization," since these "are associated with the professional profiles of graduates and reveal the need to include intercultural communicative competence in their courses" [15]. To sum up, the need for intercultural competence has to do with the way the world is structured today, and according to the values that belong to our contemporary world, such as globalization, multiculturalism, cultural awareness, and respect for all cultures. Moreover, in the business world, the value that is appreciated nowadays is cooperation among teams belonging to different cultures. The existence of transnational corporations, which operate in different countries, leads to these values to be crucial for a business to succeed. The way staff works will have implications related to communication having in mind the different cultures, functions of the country where certain corporation parts are based. It is assumed that some engineering students will later work in transnational companies, and will need specific communication skills, which they may expect to acquire in the foreign language seminars.

## **2. Engineering students' needs regarding foreign language seminars**

The findings in this section are based on test one of the groups of students in engineering took at the beginning of the academic year 2021/2022 at the Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest, so that teacher and author of this chapter would understand their needs and expectations from the English as a foreign language seminar. The students were from the first year, from the section Engineering and Management in Constructions, within the Civil, Industrial, and Agricultural Building Faculty. This group of students was divided into two further groups to study the English language: one group studied with the author of the chapter, and the other group with another member of the staff from the Department of Foreign Languages and Communication. Students were divided into these groups mainly according to their own preferences regarding friendships, or according to the way they were divided into two groups for their engineering classes. When the essay was given, during the first class, students from both groups were actually present. This gives all the more a better understanding of the way the students from this section think. Other engineering students at other faculties and sections are divided at the beginning of the academic year through a similar test, consisting of an essay written in English on a given topic, if the majority of the students at that section/ faculty want to study English, while there are too few if any at all students willing to sign up for other foreign languages, such as French, German, or Spanish. What is worth noting here is that these latter three languages are all languages of the European Union as well, together with English. However, the reasons for them choosing English could be due to the fact that they have started to study it as a first language. Some students may have even studied English since kindergarten, and it has likely been the first foreign language studied during their primary school years. It is believed that the earlier learners study a second language, the easier it is for them to express themselves using this language, and up to a point, it could be felt almost like a native language. The English language is also the language of most films that are popular, and of most fictional works, so we could say that the students have shared the same youth culture in a very strong connection with the English language, which makes them feel so attached to it. Games have been or still are part of their interests, as well as social media and all these use the English language. Music hits are also mostly in English. Everything is present in Romania mostly in English, with the exception of cases when other cultures are promoted, for example, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Albanian, Czech, Turkish, etc. Mostly these cultures are promoted as part of various European Union projects, respecting the diversity and uniqueness of cultures. The European Union also tries to raise awareness of the specificity of each and every language. This state of affairs could, in the long run, prove useful for popularizing other foreign languages for these students. However, currently, words from the English language often enter their everyday Romanian vocabulary and are still frequently used by students, as such and not necessarily as neologisms. This can show that they share a similar mindset as a generation, and not studying English can mean for them at some point to feel left out of their peers' groups.

The majority of the students having a beginner, intermediate, or advanced level of English according to the essay will study English, while the rest of them are sent to the other language groups, following their stated preferences of other languages to study. The topic for the students in Engineering and Management in Construction for the academic year 2021/ 2022 was the following: "How is English as a foreign language going to help me in my future job?" Based on the answers the teacher can understand what the students will be expecting from the seminar for the academic year, as well as how their answers correlate with the topic of intercultural competence, which can be suggested by what they mention in their essays. The level of the entire group can also be assessed through such an essay, allowing the teacher to know which notions to insist upon during class, and, if needed, which students should be given additional materials as a recommendation to reach the level of the majority of their colleagues.

In **Table 1**, the author of this chapter mentions the significant aspects students have highlighted in their papers, together with the number of papers mentioning each aspect.

*Do Engineers Need Intercultural Competence? DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109259*



#### *Multiculturalism and Interculturalism – Managing Diversity in Cross-Cultural Environment*

#### **Table 1.**

*Reasons mentioned by students regarding how English as a foreign language could help them in their future professions as engineers.*

A number of 46 essays were handed in during the first English class by those students that attended the first seminar. Out of these, 45 essays mentioned knowledge related to the fact that English was an international language, a lingua franca, that is, it was spoken all over the world. The 46th paper that did not mention English as a language of the world belonged to students whose level of English was beginner, so he simply used the opportunity to write about himself and his work and personal interests. However, he did mention traveling, so he may have been aware of the role of English, yet lacked enough language skills to express it. Students are well-aware

#### *Do Engineers Need Intercultural Competence? DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109259*

of how helpful this common language is at an international level regarding situations that are business related, travel-related, or simply related to communication for entertainment purposes with their peers from various cultures related to their current interests in movies, video games, and song lyrics. Students are aware of the role of a lingua franca in their future job opportunities, such as business collaborations with investors or colleagues from other cultures, getting projects for their company, and getting self-development opportunities, both at home and abroad. Some dream of starting their own company, in their home country or abroad, while other dream of working in a multinational company. Some also dream of becoming managers and getting hold of international projects. Some believe that knowing a lingua franca will help them get better salaries in their home country and abroad, and also be regarded highly by colleagues or employees for their fluent skills in English. They seem eager to start collaborations and cooperation at the workplace. They are also aware of other cultures' different backgrounds, values, and ways of thinking, and they are open to learning more about them. English as a foreign language speaker can be regarded as forming a culture, or even a subculture, in itself.

Dreaming about a career is a usual feature of youths their age. We can see this feature in their essays from the above-mentioned aspects. They are eager to improve their skills, which mainly include communication skills, that we frequently hear about in various organized workshops nowadays in Romania, and abroad. English for these students is a problem-solving language that can help them when in need, and can help them achieve a universally needed skill to communicate with anyone from any culture from all over the world. Indeed, the community of foreign language speakers of English seems to share a universal code of communication, which presents English as a very clear, easy-to-use language to make your point go through to your interlocutors. The language, being shared by other non-native speakers as a second language, does not present a barrier between native and non-native speakers.

We could say that the students see themselves as citizens of the world, willing to adapt to the requirements of their domain's standards at the world level. Due to this willingness, they could be regarded as having great potential to sign up for training and scholarships for students' mobility organized and supported by the European Union. In this way, they could improve both communication skills and understanding of how to achieve opportunities in their career by establishing contact with the right persons.

From the essay given as a task to complete in class during the first English language seminar at the beginning of the academic year, the teacher can find out the following: first of all, the students are well-aware of the role of the English language in the world today, both personally and professionally, for communication for various purposes, such as traveling, making friends of the same age and with the same interests all over the world, as well as for professional communication for working together with an international team, being able to be involved in international projects, establishing various partnerships and even being able to start their own business in their home country or abroad. Only one student believes that he could make it eventually even without having a very high level of English proficiency if he did not work abroad as an engineer. However, he is also aware of the extent to which English is helpful in all areas of life. His plan of making it like this is, however, a worst-case scenario. The students who took the test are well-aware of the world situation and of their need to adapt to this world in order to succeed professionally, starting from being, first of all, accepted for a job, and moving on to achieving success and getting high salaries, together with great opportunities for international collaboration in their careers. They are aware of the existence of the possibilities of working in multinational companies, as well as of the existence of transnational corporations since they mention establishing collaborations with foreign investors and businessmen from abroad with their firm from Romania, but which can have headquarters all over the world. These students are well-aware of the possibilities given by knowing English for communication purposes. They are also aware of the existence of differences in mindsets, in thinking and behaving of different cultures. Given all this information about these students, which is visible from their essays, the teacher can realize that no classes should be dedicated to particular to making them aware of the situation of the world nowadays and of the English language since they already have these notions. The teacher does not need to argue in favor of them knowing English and improving their knowledge, since they are already aware of these issues.

What is left for the teacher of English is to select those materials that will answer these students' needs right away, especially oriented toward their future profession and their future career opportunities. The students have been shaped in their mindset by having been taught according to European Union standards in general school and high school, yet they could benefit from further in-depth knowledge about the relationship between the English language and their main domain of activity. Since most students already have foreign language competencies certificates, such as Cambridge and TOEFL, the main motivator for them to continue the study of the English language would be to further progress from what they already know. If the seminars are only about what they already know, and if they can recognize the textbooks used by teachers in high school, they lose interest.

## **3. Using English as a foreign language textbooks for teaching intercultural competence**

Researchers such as the one mentioned in Ref. [13] have noticed the issue of the need for notions of culture for engineers, that could help them in their profession. According to this research, engineers need to also take into account other skills than those required strictly by their technical knowledge of their jobs. The researcher refers to other notions of culture than those creating stereotypes.

Back in 2006, the issue of a "global engineer" with intercultural competence was raised: "The highly-analytical, technically-focused engineering "nerd" is a person of the past. They seek engineers who are technically adept, culturally aware, and broadly knowledgeable... What they seek is a global engineer" [16]. However, nowadays, as seen from the essays, students are already aware of this issue and prepared for adapting to working in a global world. They only ask for the necessary tools and skills to be given to them in the English language seminars. It is confirmed by research that engineers are required to have intercultural communication skills in order to be hired, as expected by the students who wrote the essays: "engineering companies, professional organizations, and accreditation bodies alike have consistently and increasingly called for graduates with effective communication skills that enable them to collaborate with a diversity of people in a globalized professional environment" [13].

Since most of the students of the group from the academic year 2021/2022 tested by the essay mentioned earlier are, in the majority, either intermediate or advanced level, the teacher can focus on teaching them English for specific purposes, by choosing textbooks for engineers, which are tailored to their domain of activity, with the necessary types of scientific texts, vocabulary, and work-related situations.

#### *Do Engineers Need Intercultural Competence? DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109259*

One of the textbooks that could be used, at least selectively, is *English for the Construction Industry*, by Graham and Celia Waterhouse, which was published in 1981 [17]. Even if it is so old, it is useful since it applies grammatical and vocabulary notions to real-life situations, such as communication on-site, regarding various professional contexts, and areas specific to the domain, alongside elements of pragmatic knowledge, such as making suggestions, giving advice, giving instructions, warnings, reasons, opinions, showing certainty/uncertainty and agreement/ disagreement, making statements about the future (such as estimation, prediction, possibility, and speculation), asking for information, describing things, finding fault, admitting and denying, putting right, expressing permission, obligation, prohibition, making requests, agreeing/refusing, and persuading. On other occasions, grammatical notions are applied to the specific professional context, such as reported speech, in passing on what other people have said on the construction site. Students can improve their English language for social use in their work context by using the dialogs given as a model and also by exercising in creating similar dialogs with a colleague. The units of this textbook are structured according to the progress of work on a construction site, starting with *Unit One: Site Establishment, Setting Out and Substructure*, continuing with *Unit Two: Superstructure*, *Unit Three: Roof*, *Unit Four: Cladding, Glazing, and Scaffolding*, and ending with *Unit Nine: External Works and Landscaping*. Students are presented with elements of language, such as grammar notions, for instance, modal verbs, but applied to a communication context related to the field of work in future for the students. By selecting some of the material from the textbook, and even recommending the rest for individual use and further reference to students, students can get a perspective of how work on a construction site and especially communication can go on in Great Britain. This can be relevant to them since a good part of them would like to work abroad, and even specifically on a construction site, which they would like to lead as construction managers. This textbook can also make the object of discussion during class regarding particularities of culture and the use of language in Great Britain. For example, notions such as specific British politeness could be pointed out from the dialogues. Students could then be encouraged to look for information in other textbooks or even online lessons, regarding the use of language and cultural particularities for construction sites elsewhere in the English-speaking world. This could be the starting point for discussions regarding specific values, ways of thinking, and behaving for different cultures.

Another textbook that could be used for the selection of teaching materials in class and further individual references is *Engleza pentru ingineri si tehnicieni*, a title in Romanian which could be translated as *English for Engineers and Technicians*, by Viorica Danila, published in 1967 [18]. While the first textbook mentioned is an international one, and the only language used in it is English, this 1967 textbook contains information in Romanian on the occasions of translation of vocabulary items and also on the occasion when students are given to translate short paragraphs from Romanian into English. Titles of lessons, including grammatical notions are also translated, together with certain sentences. This textbook is addressed clearly solely to a Romanian students audience. The level of English used starts from beginner, with basic sentences, which are applied to the profession of engineer. Numerals, pronouns, and basic questions such as "What is this?," "What is that?," and "Who am I?" "I am an engineer" are all clearly applied to this field of activity, and are also accompanied by relevant pictures. Tables for drills are also present, based on situations and vocabulary related to the field of engineering.

Another textbook that could be used in a similar way, to some extent during classes and later on individually for reference by students, is *A Course in Basic Scientific English* by J. R. Ewer and G. Latone, published in 1970 [19]. This is, like the first textbook mentioned, an international one, and the information is only in English. The book is divided into units related to various grammatical notions, such as simple present active, simple present passive, simple past active and passive, −ing forms, present perfect, present continuous, past perfect, and conditionals, which are present in scientific texts and based on which exercises regarding comprehension, language, and vocabulary use are present. This book could be used in particular for those students that will, later on, be involved in scientific research. They will need to understand the specificities of technical texts in order to write their own directly in the English language for occasions, such as paper presentations and publishing. These notions are also useful for reports for those involved in international projects.

Another, more recent textbook, published in 2008, *Take-Off: Technical English for Engineering* by David Morgan and Nicholas Regan [20] could also be used in a similar way as the previous textbooks. According to the authors, this textbook "covers general engineering topics, but has an aeronautics focus, so is also particularly suitable for anyone working in the aeronautics industry from co-MRO opera-rives to supervisors, managers, and pilots" [20]. It can be, up to some extent, used for English language seminars for engineers in a broad sense, as engineering students are expected to be interested in traveling, but also in the way that various machine work, so the fact that this textbook is about airplanes in a technical sense may be found attractive by them, at least for a few selected units or sections from units. This textbook "assumes that you have a basic grounding in English grammar and some knowledge of technical terms, but that you need to improve your listening, speaking, reading and writing skills" [20]. The textbook is also accompanied by a CD, so it may be used for listening comprehension exercises for engineering students. At the end of the 2 years of study of English as a foreign language, the students in engineering at the Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest will sit for a competence test, which is meant to check their level of knowledge of English using 45 questions, with variants of answers to check, based on listening comprehension, reading comprehension, grammar and vocabulary, and the last section where they write in a single word of their choice in blank spaces. Each unit in this textbook is an engineering subject, such as *Design and Innovation*, *Manufacturing Techniques*, *Safety and Emergency*, *Electrical Systems*, and others. Topics are also from the field, for example, properties of materials, design rationales, aircraft specifications, electrical maintenance, repair, etc. Skills and language are applied to various situations of communication. For instance, students are asked to give safety information and explanations, discuss and interpret diagrams and schematics, or use language referring to measurement and calculations, and others.

Another example of the more recent textbook that could be used related to the technical domain which will be presented in this chapter is *Cambridge English for Engineering*, by Mark Ibbotson, published in 2008 [21]. This textbook is based on units focusing on general engineering, with titles, such as *Technology in use*, *Materials technology*, *Components and assemblies*, and others. The skills involved sound are as follows: describing technical functions and applications, explaining how technology works, describing specific materials, categorizing materials, and so on. There are associated grammar issues discussed such as adverbs of degree.

These textbooks, however, focus on engineering culture, and not on raising cultural awareness with respect to taking into consideration the current opening of

#### *Do Engineers Need Intercultural Competence? DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109259*

the world, or the age of globalization related to work. In addition to selecting materials from these textbooks, which have the advantage of making students feel that they are learning something new during the English seminars, and not just repeating the same notions related to grammar and vocabulary from high school, feeling that it is worth attending English class at university, other international, English-only textbooks could be used to select materials from. These textbooks could contain units related to job interviews, small talk in a professional environment, where people from various cultures meet and English is their common language, as well as professional communication textbooks, which focus on various situations of communication at the workplace in various domains of activity.

Certain culture-related notions could be helpful to be given to students in engineering such as the group whose essays have been discussed previously in this chapter. Another faculty within the Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest, namely the Faculty of Engineering in Foreign Language, offers in its curricula a course of lectures focused on culture and civilization, called humanity science. The students in engineering at the faculties in the Romanian language do not have such a course, at least not in a compulsory format. It is only available at the request of the students, as an optional course. However, lately, there had been discussions regarding the too much burdened curricula for students at the engineering faculties, and since students already have a high workload for their technical subjects, they have not signed up lately for the course in culture and civilization in optional format. However, certain notions from such courses could be introduced, briefly and occasionally, during the English language seminars.

Hofstede started from the analysis of corporations to develop his theory of cultural dimensions, to see in what ways and according to what criteria mindsets differ across cultures, to the extent that, "if we go into another country and make decisions based on how we operate in our own home country—the chances are we will make some very bad decisions" [22]. The dimensions apply not only to corporate cultures but to the mindset of the respective cultures at large, in their personal lives and in the way various institutions and even the state, work.

Hofstede has identified five cultural dimensions: high vs. low power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity, high vs. low uncertainty avoidance, and short vs. long-term orientation. Power distance has to do with the way people relate to authority. If the relationship with authority is relaxed, the power distance is low, if the authority has to be obeyed and people have to do as they are told at all times, the power distance is high. If power distance is high, in the family, the father and mother are obeyed, in school pupils have to do as they are told, same for university and the workplace. If power distance is low, at school, for instance, the teachers and students can talk from equal to equal, and students can be creative and negotiate tasks. Individualist cultures focus on the good and opportunities of achievement for the individual, while collectivist cultures focus on the good of the entire group and society. Masculinity refers to the focus of culture on achievement and competition, while femininity focuses on welfare and cooperation. High uncertainty avoidance cultures take strict measures against unexpected situations, while low uncertainty avoidance cultures are more open to the unexpected and are not so anxious about it. As for long- and short-term orientation, the focus is on the following values: "Values associated with long-term orientation are thrift and perseverance; values associated with short-term orientation are respect for tradition, fulfilling social obligations, and protecting one's 'face'" [22]. Regarding high scores for high power distance, collectivism, masculinity, high uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation, these can

generally be found in Asian cultures. Low scores for these dimensions, short-term orientation, together with individualism, can generally be found in the Western world. Students can be helped by keeping this theory in mind when they start working abroad, collaborating in international projects, and establishing connections with specialists from other cultures. However, they should also keep in mind that sometimes there can be distinctions between organizational culture and the overall country culture and that these tendencies may not be homogeneous at all levels of life and institutions.

Students could also benefit from getting informed about which countries value punctuality, which countries expect people to be in time for a job interview or business meeting, or even a few minutes ahead of the established time, and which countries are very relaxed in this respect and do not even expect you to ever show up on time.

Just like Spain, mentioned in the study in Ref. [23], Romania also needs to prepare engineering students to be able to work abroad, yet at the same time maintain their relationship with the country of origin. This is why cooperation at the international level is preferable to having them migrate. Romania needs engineers in order to build and maintain existing engineering works. With the COVID-19 crisis, and the difficulties encountered to travel abroad, Romanian students are more numerous in the university. This can be encouraging for the future, yet teachers need to do their best in order to keep them experiencing learning suited to their needs. Otherwise, before COVID-19, there were few students remaining in Romania for university studies and few graduates remained in the country to work here as well. Awareness of their own identity at the national level should also be communicated to students during these foreign language classes, so that they do not neglect their own country by focusing on communicating with other cultures *via* English to the benefit of their domain and career.

The teacher should also keep in mind the advice given by the research paper [24], which mentions that "intercultural communicative-professional competence" should not be the only focus of teaching English to engineering students. At the same time, attention should be given to teaching English having in mind the development of "technical thinking" for these students. We can take this advice to the extent of paying special attention to the way the activities are structured and formulated. Problemsolving activities could be relevant to these students' mindsets. These activities, in turn, could be achieved through project-based activities. These activities based on project form are suggested as means of "optimal combination of theory and practice," as well as "to encourage students to resolve their everyday issues themselves" [25]. Therefore, we could treat engineering students as forming a subculture and as having shared values and preferred practices.

During foreign language classes, students can develop cultural awareness next to improving their knowledge of the language. Through various exercises, they can improve their communication skills related to their future profession. Aside from the textbooks and notions of cultural dimensions already mentioned, students can be presented in class with watching videos of interviews or business meetings, and commenting on the way the interview or business meeting goes on, including body language, style of dress, small talk, focus on experience, and cv. Other types of exercises may include allowing students to organize themselves in pairs or groups and collaborate together on various tasks, including presenting some materials related to culture or to engineering, making up dialogs related to professional situations, as well as working together on a translation. This can be regarded as training

#### *Do Engineers Need Intercultural Competence? DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109259*

for communicative and collaboration skills, which are needed for teamwork. Some students may be more suited as leaders, coordinating everything, while some others may be more suitable as team members, doing the work. This can be good training, especially considering students in their first year, the first semester hardly know each other and can practice their collaboration skills with different personalities, as it will later happen with people from different cultures.

## **4. Conclusion**

The question in the title of the chapter has been answered positively, by examining existing research, as well as by looking at the opinions of a group of students at the Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest. A few textbooks that have been used to teach English to engineers during English language seminars have also been examined, as to how they could improve the students' communication skills. Since students have been aware of the role of English as an international language and the way the engineering profession can nowadays be carried out having in mind collaborations from international partners, these notions were not taken in view to be developed upon during the seminars. Instead, notions related to cultural awareness and differences among cultures, both corporative and national, were taken into account.

Since the students in the group mentioned had the majority, at least at an intermediate level of knowledge of English, improving their language came up with applying the language to the engineering domain, as well as communicative situations related to professional situations, and exercises meant to improve their collaboration skills. The communicative approach to teaching English could be efficiently used with students that are in the majority, at least at an intermediate level of English language knowledge.

As some students have mentioned in their essays, or better put, implied, all professions nowadays can benefit from intercultural competence. What is more, intercultural competence could be considered, as they suggested, a must and one of the basic needs for a candidate to be successful at a business interview.

Teaching foreign languages having intercultural competence of students is mind is, after all, a common practice, legitimated at the European Union level, for example, by the Council of Europe's guidance present in the *Common European framework of reference for languages* [26]. Therefore, every teacher should keep it into account during classes and adapt the requirements present there to the very needs of the particular group of students that they are teaching. Both students and teachers need to integrate themselves into this culture of teaching and studying foreign languages based on intercultural communication competencies proposed by the European Union, and to make the best of this experience for their future benefit. While the skills of the students are both supervised at national and supranational levels through controls, they should also come up naturally, at least to some extent, since the younger generation may have already had contact with these practices and have been raised according to them. Different generations are educated differently. However, both teachers and students should keep open to learning new notions and skills and use them to their advantage.

The English language has a special status: that of an international language, used for common understanding at the world level, and also that of a language that can be used for comfortable intercultural communication [27].

### *Multiculturalism and Interculturalism – Managing Diversity in Cross-Cultural Environment*

The author of the chapter has applied the notions of intercultural competence to her own experience with one particular group of students, starting from the very beginning, based on the needs they suggested at the beginning of the academic year.

## **Author details**

Irina-Ana Drobot Technical University of Civil Engineering, Bucharest, Romania

\*Address all correspondence to: anadrobot@yahoo.com

© 2022 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Do Engineers Need Intercultural Competence? DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109259*

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## **Chapter 7**
