Promoting Intercultural Competence in Bilingual Programs in Indonesia

Most studies of intercultural competence in bilingual programs have been conducted in non-Asian contexts resulting in little information on how Indonesian educators promote intercultural values within bilingual programs. This research contributes to the body of literature that examines the promotion of intercultural values within bilingual higher education in Indonesia. It focuses on lecturers’ perceptions of their strategies to teach and promote intercultural values in Indonesian higher education institutions (IHEIs). Data collection employed in-depth semi-structure interviews of eight lecturers that teach in three different programs: Math; Economic and Political Science bilingual programs. The findings of this study show that intercultural competent components include open-minded attitudes, reciprocal interaction, and respecting differences. In addition, two important strategies to promote intercultural competence are in-country programs and international intercultural programs. This study has implications for the success of similar programs and the ways to gain intercultural competence within higher education contexts.