ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author discusses intercultural competence development within study abroad and how the work others and he are doing with the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) and IDI Guided Development is helping students, faculty, and study abroad professionals achieve increased capability in shifting cultural perspective and adapting behavior across cultural differences. He then discusses the impact of the "immersion assumption" as a common raison d'etre for supporting international education and summarize how IDI findings challenge the veracity of this assumption as it applies to developing intercultural competence during the study abroad sojourn. IDI research reveals that when educators make use of IDI Guided Development in intervening in their students’ learning abroad, they are able to increase substantially their capability to adapt to diverse cultural values and practices. IDI research demonstrates that intercultural competence development depends on interventions that help students increase their cultural self-awareness as well as their cultural other-awareness.
