Designing a Master Level Class to Improve Agricultural Students’ Intercultural Competence
G. Maria Fabregas Janeiro *
College of Human Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, United States.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service (OCES) has adopted a core competency model that contributes to the actualization and professional development of extension educators. Due to the flexibility of the model, the selected core competencies, intercultural competence could be achieved during extension educators’ undergraduate and/or graduate studies, as well as after they are hired as extension educators, through an online course. However, it is always preferred to hire extension educators who had received intercultural competence training and potentially could successfully work with people from other cultures. To support this initiative, this paper describes the process of developing a graduate course in intercultural competence, aiming to contribute to the development of extension educators’ intercultural competence.
Keywords: On line, core/intercultural competencies, training, master classes.