Relating the Need for Intercultural Competence with BA History Honours Subjects
Typically, building intercultural competence among students pursuing a bachelor’s degree in history helps them gain a better understanding of the topic and the subject. They are taught to look into it from a multicultural perspective to understand global narratives. They can identify and analyse the connection of the narrative with different cultures to gain a deeper insight into it.
Today, learning history is not confined to the traditional BA history honours subjects but is much more comparative. This enables students to understand different aspects of different civilisations of diverse eras and how they have evolved with time.
Historical source interpretation
Colleges today teach history to students in innovative ways, which is beyond textbook learning. Several debates and discussions are held among students to help them learn more and have a clear concept of global movements, revolutions, and intercultural subtleties that have shaped societies over time.
Their learning approach also builds cultural sensitivity among students that helps them analyse different historical sources critically, whether it is a primary or secondary sources.
It needs intercultural competence and awareness to develop the crucial skills for understanding different historical artefacts or writing considering biases. It also helps in evaluating different historical documents with proper analysis of the interconnection and effects of cultural standards on them.
Since languages have changed over time, such skills help students to understand pictorial language and decode different symbols to find out the actual meaning. This meaning is different for different cultures, and therefore, students need to understand the cultural narratives first to find the accurate meaning for different cultures.
Typically, interdisciplinary learning and knowledge of oral history play a crucial role in deciphering and representing marginalised viewpoints.
Relating to global problems
Intercultural competence helps students understand the connection between current global issues in a better way by connecting them with different historical cases and events. This significantly helps in addressing real-world challenges.
This specific skill helps students understand historical diplomacy and how it has impacted the modern world by causing specific issues. Students learn a lot by analysing and interpreting earlier conflicts faced, especially when handling cultural variances. This helps resolve similar issues today.
In addition, students learn about the effects of globalisation on cultural heritage and the ways to preserve such heritage. They learn more about different responses of different historical periods to address the challenges due to climate change, pandemics, and more. This helps policymakers to make decisions based on historical insights and feedback. This eventually helps them learn more about social reforms in the past and apply their knowledge to the present context.
Empathy and Ethical Views
Knowledge of intercultural history helps in building empathy and ethical values in students. This further helps in making more productive decisions based on diverse human experiences across different cultures in the past.
Students have a better understanding of how social discrimination prevailed in the past and the impacts it had on society, people, and the entire socio-economic landscape. In addition, they learn more about historical injustices and their effects on people and society.
They gain knowledge on the resilience and resistance of different societies and cultures by studying different narratives.
Intercultural competence also helps in reconciliation and reparation initiatives. It promotes discussion on the need to preserve cultural inclusivity in problem-solving or policymaking. The best part is that everything is done from a global perspective.
Conclusion
In conclusion, intercultural competence in students learning history helps them understand how societies have evolved. It also helps them analyse different types and methods of trade, region conquests, and migration to understand more about colonisation and its needs and effects on different societies. In short, students can analyse the relation and interrelation of art, literature and architecture of different periods and the influence of one on another.