Transformative Pedagogy as a Reflective Approach for Promoting Intercultural Self-Awareness in the Context of Teamwork

This study implemented transformative pedagogy as a reflective approach to promote intercultural self-awareness and its potential consequences in the context of teamwork. The context was a second-year systems analysis and design course with 118 students in the fall 2021 semester and 155 students in the spring 2022 semester. The research question was: What are students' beliefs regarding their own cultural values and the potential implications of those values on their teamwork interactions? Findings from the study indicate that students realized that team dynamics and values are crucial to team experience. We found that students believed that commitment to the team and communication of values contributed to the experience of teamwork and teamwork success. Students also believed that coming together and making decisions together in a collectivistic manner would help the progress of the team.

I. Introduction

Effective team interaction is critical for the organization. With technology connecting us to people from around the world more easily than ever before, entities are becoming more globalized by the day. This enables people to interact with others from around the world, where cultural norms and values may vary greatly from what one is familiar with. A lack of proper understanding of these cultural values can cause communication problems in the academic and professional spheres. Thus, higher education institutions must better prepare future professionals capable of effectively communicating and interacting with teams locally and globally.