Whose act(ing)? Intercultural educators in critical conversation on ethical practice across disciplines

Abstract

This piece introduces and recreates a critical dialogue which occurred in the summer of 2021 among educational practitioners at the University of Rhode Island (USA), during an interdisciplinary teach-in retreat on Intercultural Competence Development for Teachers and Learners. The authors were among the participants who collaborated on this project led by Anna Santucci; here, they offer a snapshot of the exchange that took place on the final day of the retreat. The themes that emerged throughout the teach-in, summarized in that closing conversation, significantly resonate with the RISE Manifesto (Cañas, 2015). These themes include salient values, skills, and behaviors of interculturally competent educators and scholars whose understanding of ethical practice is grounded in empathy, and whose work strives to embrace radical creativity in envisioning possibilities for co-creation among all participants in the teaching and/or research experience – enacting education through and for "action" via human act-ivation and, therefore, act-ivism.

Keywords

• Culture
• Critically reflective practice
• Ethics
• Interdisciplinarity
• Positionality
• Emphaty