Intercultural Education
Vol. 20, Suppl. Nos. S1–2, 2009, S1–13
ISSN 1467-5986 print/ISSN 1469-8439 online
© 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/14675980903370763
http://www.informaworld.com
EDITORIAL
Defining, measuring, and facilitating intercultural learning: a
conceptual introduction to the Intercultural Education double
supplement
Supplement 1: State of the art research on intercultural learning in
study abroad
Supplement 2: Best practice for intercultural learning in
international educational exchange
Milton J. Bennett*
Intercultural Development Research Institute, Hillsboro, Oregon, USA
Taylor and FrancisCEJI_A_437254.sgm10.1080/14675980903370763Intercultural Education467-5986 (pri t)/1469-8439 (online)Edit ri l2 09 & FrancisS1-20 0002009Professor MiltonBennettmil on.bennet @idrinsti ute.org
If you do not already think so, the papers in this volume will convince you that study
abroad has changed. At the university level, it has transcended its history as a ‘grand
tour’ for the leisure class and the more plebian ‘junior year abroad’. Now university
study abroad encompasses massive mobility of students among European Union
universities and to and from the US and other countries through a myriad school-based
and consortia-based programs. At the secondary (high school) level, the traditional
AFS Intercultural Programs year in the US or Europe has been expanded by AFS and
other organizations to include shorter programs to and from a broader range of coun-
tries. Added to the change in format and destination are educational foci that go well
*Email: milton.bennett@idrinstitute.org
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the
author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

S2 M.J. Bennett
beyond traditional study to include internships, service learning and other learning
opportunities.
However, a basic tenet of international educational exchange and study abroad has
remained unchanged. Every program, no matter at what level, format or focus,
continues to claim that educational cross-cultural contact contributes to intercultural
competence and thus to global citizenship. Whether that citizenship takes the form of
transnational European, or international American, or citizen of the world, it is based
on the idea that exposure to cultural differences is ‘broadening’ and therefore a
legitimate aspect of education in the modern world.
Although the concern is not new (M.J. Bennett 2009 this supplement; Vande Berg
2009 this supplement), the rapidly expanding horizons of study abroad have given
new urgency to the question of exactly what is meant by ‘global citizenship’ or ‘inter-
cultural competence’, how they should be addressed pedagogically in programs, and
how they should be assessed. A related question concerns how governments and
school systems can differentiate bone fide study abroad from student tourist programs
and provide appropriate support to the educational programs.
It is to that end that the conference on Moving Beyond Mobility was organized by
a consortium of secondary international educational exchange organizations – the Euro-
pean Federation of Intercultural Learning (EFIL). Co-sponsoring the conference were
AFS Interkulturelle Begegnungen/Germany in cooperation with AFS Intercultural
Programs/New York, the Intercultural Development Research Institute Europa (IDR
Institute) based in Milan, Italy, AJA (Arbeitsgemeinschaft gemeinnütziger Jugendaus-
tauschorganisationen), and the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena. The conference
received funding from the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union. The
overall objective of the conference was to provide an international platform for the vari-
ous players in the field of study abroad and international educational exchange to share
research results and best practices at both secondary and tertiary levels. In addition,
policy-makers, researchers and potential sponsors engaged in a discussion on how to
overcome obstacles and create a supportive environment for the programs.
In the call for papers for Moving Beyond Mobility, the conference sponsors agreed
on a definition of ‘intercultural learning’ and ‘intercultural education’ as a point of refer-
ence for Research and Best Practice proposals. Presentations in each category were then
selected competitively by a committee of researchers and practitioners in the field of
study abroad, and a few of those presentations were, in turn, selected by the committee
for publication in two special issues of Intercultural Education (to be published as a
double supplement): ‘State of the art research on intercultural learning in study abroad’
and ‘Best practice for intercultural learning in international educational exchange’. In
this introduction to the double supplement, I explicate the rationale for the definitions
used in the selection process and consider some contemporary issues in measuring and
implementing such learning.
Intercultural learning
The definition of intercultural learning used for the conference was: ‘Acquiring
increased awareness of subjective cultural context (world view), including one’s own,
and developing greater ability to interact sensitively and competently across cultural
contexts as both an immediate and long-term effect of exchange.’
The primary aspect of this definition is the idea of context. The term is often used
casually to refer to some objective circumstance, such as ‘in the context of an Italian