The present study addresses the impact of experiential strategies in teachers’ intercultural education, aiming to explore the effects of some experiential methods (role playing, discussing critical incidents, video records of intercultural communication events) in transforming teachers’ educational perspectives and practices. After using experiential methods in continuous teachers’ intercultural education, may teachers adapt and apply those methods in their classes? Are teachers more capable of reflection on their own intercultural teaching practice for improving it? Did teachers deepen the awareness of their own professional development process? The conceptual background includes interdisciplinary connections within multiple areas of inquiry: theoretical models of intercultural competence, experiential learning strategies, and teachers’ intercultural training. Today intercultural education is an imperative, not a choice throughout professional preparation of teachers (Fox, Gay, 1995), while they are expected to assist students in developing intercultural competence (Ruben ap. Lustig, Koester, 1993, Bennett, 1993, McAllister, Irvine, 2000, Otten, 2004). Intercultural competence may be conceived as a structural synthesis of personal traits (Ruben ap. Lustig, Koester, 1993), or as a continuous process of becoming interculturally competent or sensitive (Bennett, 1993). Experiential learning theory (Kolb, 1984), with the four complementary ways of learning (concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, active experimentation), provides a theoretical support, useful in the struggle of developing teaching–learning strategies aiming to improve the transfer of knowledge, skills, attitudes from educational environment to professional practice environment. One of most powerful way of adults’ education is experiential learning, while this may be conceived as a process that connects training, professional activity and personal development (Kolb, 1984, Moon, 2004). Experiential learning strategies used in teachers’ intercultural education include field experiences (Brown, 2004), mediated cultural immersion (Bradfield-Kreider, 1999), service learning (Billig, 2000), role playing (Perrenoud, 2008), observing videos recording others experiences, lectures, talks by guest speakers (McAllister, Irvine, 2000, Lawrence, Tatum, 1996), reflections and discussions on critical incidents, critical thinking methods (i.e. reflective journals), lesson planning (Bradfield-Kreider, 1999, Keim et al. 2001, Psalti, 2007) etc. Each experiential learning strategy is a different combination of educational methods that access own or others’ concrete experience, allows reflective observation of concrete experience, deepening understanding of observed phenomena by means of abstract conceptualization, experimenting in action new concepts and transforming own action by using new acquired concepts. Based on this theoretical background, we decided to use role playing, critical incidents method, and videos in designing an in-service intercultural training program for teachers, and observing potential effects/outcomes.

Forty six secondary school teachers participated to this qualitative study, thirty women and sixteen men. Previous teachers’ intercultural preparation experiences were Comenius international mobility programs (eighteen), pre-service intercultural education (eleven) and in-service intercultural training programs (four). After-course journals and portfolios were used in collecting data on teachers’ field observations and reflections about straightness and weakness points of some experiential learning strategies used in intercultural education. We have designed a 16 hours intercultural education program for in-service secondary school teachers. Six hours integrated theoretical backgrounds; ten hours were dedicated to applicative issues using experiential strategies. Teachers were required to consequently adapt and apply some experiential methods in their classes and to transmit to the trainer (six weeks after) a portfolio with descriptions of intercultural activities accompanied by a reflective journal. Two independent evaluators proceeded to a content analyze of the qualitative data gathered trough portfolios and reflective after-course journals.

Teachers’ after-course reflective journals analyze revealed an important effect of intercultural education program - improving intercultural awareness of teachers. They identified intercultural issues in their professional field that previously remained unobserved. Teachers positively appreciated experiential approaches in intercultural training, because these allow them to learn effectively and help them transferring the experiential approaches in their professional practices. Ways for continuing and improving intercultural experiential training was suggested. Portfolio analyze demonstrated that intercultural training determined teachers to apply experiential strategies in students’ intercultural education and to reflect critically on their educational impact. Straightness and weakness points were revealed, and also ways of increasing usefulness of intercultural experiential strategies.