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Practice Stories from the Field

Vol. 19 No. 4

The Need for Improving Intercultural Collaborative Activities With Structured Institutional Systems of Support

Submitted
December 24, 2015
Published
2015-12-24

Abstract

Evaluation of an international, grant-funded program must communicate the program’s value to a variety of stakeholders: the funder, the agency operating the program and its community, and the citizens of the country where the program is implemented. An intercultural research team can achieve that goal only through a thought-out strategy. This article summarizes the challenges that intercultural teams of researchers faced as they crisscrossed a host country while evaluating a teaching and learning materials program. It concludes with three recommendations for effective collaboration: (1) Research coordinators must use rigor in selecting researchers and research assistants. (2) Researchers must receive in-depth and extensive training in both intercultural collaboration and evaluation skills. (3) Institutions involved in intercultural collaborative projects should have an intentional structure for ensuring that orientation curricula are aligned or adjusted to project objectives and that logistical arrangements are coordinated through an intercultural response mechanism.