Intercultural reflection through the Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters: students' accounts of their images of alterity

摘要

The Council of Europe's Autobiography of Intercultural Encounter (AIE) is a tool to develop intercultural competence (IC) in education by encouraging users to reflect upon and learn from momentous intercultural encounters they have experienced face to face. Its parallel resource, the Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters through Visual Media (AIEVM), helps users explore the intercultural experiences they have encountered through images portrayed in television, films or the Internet. Both of them favour the analysis of the image of the other as either somebody the user has personally met or somebody featured in photographs, portraits or paintings. This paper looks into the intercultural reflection the AIE fosters through a case study of three autobiographies. The stories show the complexities behind the image of the other(s) and how they are seen by the users of the AIE. The findings indicate that the users have developed intercultural attitudes, skills and knowledge, and take action as an important part of their IC. The data show that the AIE facilitates reflection on key intercultural aspects and that it enhances self-awareness.