International primary school teachers' intercultural communicative competence: a case study of an international programme in Bangkok

Intercultural communicative competence plays a significant role in education. This study aimed to investigate international primary teachers’ intercultural communicative competence perceptions in the studied international programme and examine the teachers’ attitudes and experiences towards intercultural communicative competence. Seventeen international primary school teachers participated in this study, and it was a case study of a whole international programme. Questionnaires were used to collect the data in the study. The questionnaire was adapted from Rydblom (2018). Byram’s ICC model (1997) was used to be the foundation and criteria to choose the items from Rydblom’s questionnaire. Additionally, content analysis was applied to analyse the qualitative data from open-ended questions. The findings of the questionnaire revealed that ICC played an important role in the classroom which could be summed up into two aspects; understanding how different cultures and societies work and strengthening the learning experiences. In addition, having the experiences of teaching in Thailand could develop and improve teachers’ ICC for all five dimensions; attitude, knowledge, skills of interpreting and relating, skills of discovery and interaction, and critical awareness. The findings suggested that it can be beneficial to the international school to provide the international primary school teachers with appropriate directions, suitable practices, and relevant suggestions to support and give the information about intercultural communication as it is a very important skill for international teachers.