Pedagogies for Developing Cross-Cultural Communication Competencies in an Era of Virtual Collaboration

This paper analyzes data from two different approaches to teaching cross-cultural communication skills to engineering students. U.S. students in a junior-level professional development course received classroom instruction in cross-cultural communication and enacted case study simulations; U.S. students in a senior-level capstone design course partnered with Swedish students in a digital media course to develop white papers and interactive Web sites about the capstone projects. Research data includes pre- and post-course surveys, student presentations, focus groups, and transcripts of all exchanges (phone and electronic) between U.S. and Swedish students. Preliminary analysis suggests that although the capstone partnership provided direct experience of cross-cultural communication, the complexity of this real collaboration in fact limited the degree of meta-knowledge students developed in comparison to the in-class simulation

Introduction: Cross-Cultural Communication in Engineering Curricula

The globalization of the workplace has become an inescapable phenomenon, particularly with Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat rising to prominence on the New York Times bestseller's list.[1] But even before Friedman taught legions of readers the difference between outsourcing and off shoring, calls to prepare undergraduates for this globalization have been increasingly insistent. As Barker and Matveeva point out, the call to include cross-cultural or intercultural issues in technical communication dates at least back to 1993.[2] Textbooks with an emphasis on communicating the global marketplace began appearing in the 1990s, including texts such as Andrew's Technical Communication in the Global Community.[3]