Due to the mobility of people and interdependence in global world, intercultural competence and sensitivity towards diversity are needed in order to function in multicultural contexts. The challenges facing education and teacher education are urgent. In diverse school settings teachers’ intercultural competence, which is associated with global, international or multicultural education and culturally relevant or responsive education (Banks & Banks, 2004; Gay, 2000), facilitate quality education for all students.   Talib and Hosoya have studied intercultural competence among pre-service teachers in Finland, Japan, and in the US.  Finnish and Japanese pre-service teachers showed very different tendency in terms of intercultural competence; the Finnish pre-service teachers seemed to show less defensive and more distinct attitudes of tolerance of differences than their Japanese counterparts.  The aspects of teachers’ intercultural competence including sense of mission, empathy and social responsibly appeared differently in each group.  American pre-service teachers showed similar tendency with Finnish counterparts, however, the data showed that multicultural environment does not necessarily promote their intercultural competence.  Pre-service teachers acquire the competence through their culture, environment, personal experiences, and education.  Some aspects of intercultural competence are influenced by culture, the others by personal experience and education. 

     In this paper we include Turkey as the next country of comparison.  Diversity has increased in most societies; however, each society tends to deal with multicultural challenges in a different ways.  Since the 1990’s Finland has been accepting immigrants and refugees from other European, Asian, and African countries, where people have different ethnic and religious background; Japan have foreign residents from Asian countries who can hardly be recognized by their looks; Turkey historically has its own ethnic minorities and now new comers.  These three countries have different cultural values and educational systems as well. However, cultures can no longer be understood as independent entities but products of ongoing negotiations and young people in each country are not necessarily reproducing their culture as such. On the other hand, institutions tend to change slowly and traditional norm and values are transferred through education. Similarly, the experiences of minority students can be different in each society. 

     Our research questions are:  (1) What are the variables which have impact on pre-service teachers’ intercultural competence?  (2) What are the essential elements to be a teacher with intercultural competence who are effective in any kind of society?  (3) How can we include these essentials into teacher education?

     We attempt to find out the answers to these questions and to contribute to future teacher education so that teachers can be well prepared for the multiple needs of students.

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