Intercultural citizenship requires awareness and respect of self and other, the desire to interact across cultures, and the acquisition of the knowledge and skills that facilitate constructive, active participation in today’s complex society. According to Guilherme (2007, p. 87), this entails ‘the control of the fear of the unknown (at the emotional level), the promotion of a critical outlook (at the cognitive level), as well as the enhancement of self-development (at the experiential level)’. In that sense, through education and international experiences it is possible to cultivate the understanding (e.g. cultural knowledge, open mindset) and skills (e.g. culture-sensitive behaviors, culture-learning strategies) that characterize intercultural competences and intercultural citizenship (Alred, Byram, & Fleming, 2006, Guilherme, 2002; 2007). To achieve these aims, it is important to employ ‘a combination of both, the cognitive and the experiential and participative approach’ (Byram, 2006, p. 191; Byram, 2009).

Higher education students do not always have the opportunity for living abroad or contact with people from different cultures, however through the interactions between students, texts, and instructors, it will be much easier to approach these topics.

The aim of this paper it is to understand stories from migrants living in another country read by students at the university from a social and holistic perspective.

Stories are recognised as central to learning, facilitating a shared framework for understanding and enabling people to learn from one another (Lave & Wenger, 1990, Snowden, 1999). Within higher education where stories are increasingly accepted as a powerful learning tool, Moon and Fowler (2007) offer a framework to organise and recognise the role of story and how it can be used for greater effect. Pedagogic practices that can be regarded as ‘storytelling’ include critical incident analysis, scenarios or case studies constructed from real experiences and reflective learning journals, all of which present different opportunities for learning, reflection and critical thinking in classroom (Moon & Fowler, 2007).

Therefore, this research reports the findings of a phenomenographic study which sought to identify the different ways in which real stories from another country and written in a different language influence students' professional learning.

Students may assume a deep approach by trying to make sense of what is to be learnt in terms of ideas and concepts that involve seeking connections, relevance and meaning and developing as a person (Entwistle, 1997; Marton & Booth, 1997).

Stories and their interpretation (i.e. narrative) have a pedagogical power that is unique (Brooks, 2000; Kawashima, 2005). Through narrative, one can appreciate embodied knowing: what an experience feels like in a subjective and close way, rather than what it looks like in an objective and dispassionate way; one can learn facts as well as social impacts; one can be moved towards action rather than simply understanding (Girard, 2006). These benefits are crucial for an applied profession such as social education.

Learning through Stories in Higher Education explores ways of using stories as a teaching and learning tool. When stories are formalized into narratives in meaningful ways, it can capture everyday examples of practice and turn them into an opportunity to learn - encouraging both reflection, a deeper understanding of a topic and stimulating critical thinking skills. The technique can accommodate diverse cultural, emotional and experiential incidents, and may be used in many different contexts (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990; Gadow, 1999; Sakalys, 2003). Within narrative methodology, stories and narratives possess different characteristics; stories are simply the telling of something, whereas narrative is the process or conventions used to convey that telling (Woodhouse, 2007). Well-constructed narrative gives a story depth of meaning. Through narrative, stories can convey context, emotion, ethics, values, culture and relationship and, when they are shared, can move people to create change and take political action (Diekelmann, 2003). The methodological approach was a mixed methods research that was developed from the project “Writing through heritage languages as a therapeutic endeavour for adults in mental health recovery”( Jankowska, 2017). At first, two stories from that project written by immigrants living in UK who received therapy were read as a medium of learning experiences in a different language through a professional lense. Second, after reading the stories, students answered a short questionnaire related to the impact of those stories in their personal and professional learning, and language skills, and finally students wrote reflective writing collected at the end of the course. In this project, 32 students from second year out of 90 participated in this innovative method (87,1% women; 12,9% men) in the first semester of academic year 2018-2019.

Students who participated in the stories project reported more awareness of the different problems and difficulties of patients in their personal stories life. The two stories were related to mental and health problems. In addition, students indicated that their English language skills improved through the readings, and they had an increased enthusiasm for working with future vulnerable groups. This research shows that the project “Writing through Heritage Languages as a therapeutic endeavor for adults in mental health recovery” in UK, not only could have positive effects on the participants’ sense of identity, self-esteem and confidence and overall well-being. It has a positive impact on Spanish students who are learning through those stories to give support and professional help. Furthermore, these stories written in English were a challenge for the university students in terms of reading, understanding and transfer that meaning in a classroom discussing different research methods to use in practice and professional life. Students demonstrated an in‐depth knowledge and understanding of solution focused principles and practice, enabling them to own their practice.

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