Office of Intercultural Learning and Engagement
The Office of Intercultural Learning and Engagement (OILE) seeks to nurture a culturally responsive and inclusive learning community on the residential campus of Indiana Wesleyan University. The framework for this work includes: curricular, co-curricular, advocacy, assessment, and institutional responsiveness. Committed to both international and domestic diversity, the OILE collaborates with others to inform, inspire, and invite learning opportunities that effect policy and promote culturally responsive pedagogy and praxis, resulting in reconciliation and transformational learning outcomes.
The Office of Intercultural Learning and Engagement consults with faculty, staff, and students and facilitates seminars, workshops, conferences, and other experiential learning opportunities that raise awareness regarding issues of diversity, equity, justice, and inclusion—locally, nationally, and globally. Intercultural Academic Development and Learning is a vital part of diversity, equity, and justice work. Providing curriculum development and intercultural classroom engagement fosters a campus climate of cultural responsiveness. From collaborating with academic divisions to student life offices, OILE works to create spaces of belonging and gives voice for all.
The Office of Intercultural Learning and Engagement also services the CAS General Education Committee by facilitating the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IES) online assessment for all courses and experiences that satisfy the Intercultural Experience General Education requirement. The Intercultural Learning and Engagement Office also provides training to faculty in how to utilize the IES online assessment in their classrooms.
There are a number of courses and experiences that satisfy the Intercultural Experience General Education requirement. All of these courses and experiences require the use of the IES, as well as the Intercultural Experience Rubric which suggests a systematic way to measure a student’s capacity to identify her/his own cultural patterns, compare and contrast them with others, and adapt empathically and flexibly to unfamiliar ways of being.
The IES was developed to evaluate the competencies critical to interacting effectively with people who are from cultures other than our own. The competencies assessed by the IES are equally applicable to evaluating how well people work effectively with people who are different from them (gender, generation, ethnic group, religious affiliation, and so forth). The IES focuses on three dimensions of intercultural effectiveness: Continuous Learning; Interpersonal Engagement; and Hardiness. These three dimensions are combined to generate an overall intercultural effectiveness score, which is reported in an individual feedback report that students receive immediately after taking the IES. This report includes analyses of the dimension scores, explanations of scoring profiles, and personal development planning for intercultural effectiveness. Faculty members are responsible for debriefing IES reports with their students and for incorporating the Intercultural Experience Rubric into their courses/experiences. For more information about the IES online assessment, go to: www.kozaigroup.com.
There is a fee for taking the IES that is charged to a student’s account after she/he has completed the IES. If a student has taken the IES online assessment for a previous course/experience at IWU, the student should notify her/his professor in order to avoid being charged again. It is not necessary for a student to retake the IES if taken previously, but the student will need to have access to the previous IES report to utilize in the class. Students will receive an automated email from the Kozai Group, which gives instructions on how to take the IES.
Department of Multicultural Access Programs (MAP)
The Department of Multicultural Access Programs (MAP) creates initiatives to increase access and positively impact the success of incoming and current underrepresented groups (students of color, first generation college students, and low-income students) at IWU.
MAP coordinates the following initiatives that promote college access and graduation success of underrepresented and underserved groups of students:
• Pre-College Programming
• IWU Near You
• Parent University
• Multicultural Student Access/Support Programs
• The Luther Lee Scholas (LLS)
• Multicultural Endowed Scholars (MES)
• Ongoing research on Access and Equity for underrepresented and underserved students in higher
education
Department of Intercultural Student Engagement
The Department of Intercultural Student Engagement uses a model of Cultural Responsiveness to plan initiatives and programming in order to create a sense of belonging and meet the needs of Indiana Wesleyan University’s diverse student population while engaging the greater community as a whole with themes of reconciliation, diversity, equity, justice, and inclusion.
• International Student Association (ISA) – A student organization for missionary kids, third culture kids, and international students that aims to facilitate transition, create spaces of belonging, support, and engagement through informal interactions and formal planned programming such as:
- Transition to American College Living (TACL)
- “Intercultural” Local Field Trips
- Weekly ISA dinners
- Monthly Cultural Dinners
- Semester retreats
- Mentoring Program
- Host Family Initiative
• Intercultural Ambassadors – A student leadership program anchored in the commission given in 2 Corinthians 5:12-21, in which “Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” These student leaders engage reconciliatory community building initiatives centering around themes of diversity, equity, and justice. Annual, semester, and weekly learning opportunities and programming include:
- Speak-Up
- Coffee Talks
- Passport to Culture
- Love Revolution Week
- Film Festivals
- His & Her Story
- Common Day of Learning: Courageous Conversations
