It is appropriate to justify why this course was included in the programme.
Flanders and Europe have been the subject of different historical migrations and form a community of different cultures. We live in a multicultural society. Moreover, the increasing economic globalization and the development of new and faster forms of transport and communication have caused distance and time to shrivel. The world has become a "global village". The care worker is increasingly confronted with people from different cultural backgrounds and should handle those differences properly and be aware of his own "cultural" glasses.

Through the application of the CLIM method within a multicultural group, the students learn by experience.

The classes correspond with the chapters of Edwin Hoffman’s book “Interculturele gespreksvoering” and his TOPOI model. TOPOI is the abbreviation of language, structure, persons, organization and effort. These are the five areas in which cultural differences and misunderstandings can take place. The TOPOI model includes a practical analysis and intervention framework to detect and deal with these cultural differences and misunderstandings in an intercultural contact. Besides, there will be room for dialogue and exchange with Flemish social work students.

There are no prerequisites for this course.

The arrangements regarding prerequisites applied for this course unit are in the Faculty’s educational and examination regulations (FOER).

OLR 1 Reflect critically on social work interventions, in a combinative spirit of self-reflection and social analysis.

OLR 5 Methodically guide stakeholders (both individuals and groups) as members of society in the conservation, improvement or change of social work situations.

OLR 9 Communicate professionally with all stakeholders in diverse social work contexts.

OLR 11 Act from a social political awareness based on human rights, social justice, collective responsibility and respect for diversities.

Lecture with interactive elements
Group assignment
Cooperative learning in multicultural groups (CLIM methods)

Dialogue sessions with Flemish students social work
This course supports, linked to its intrinsic individuality, the possibility to implement international guest lecturers and/or visits in an international context.

Supervision by appointment

First exam session
Non-periodical evaluation (25 % of the total assessment)
Presentation group assignment (25 % of the total assessment)
Written examination (50 % of the total assessment)

Special regulations:
The criteria of evaluation for the group assignment will be announced in an assignment format
Presence in the lessons is obliged for the assessment in this training module. A prerequisite for the evaluation, is to attend the scheduled lessons, to participate actively in all the course components, to accomplish the assignments en to respect the given deadlines of these tasks and assignments.

Second exam session
Individual paper (100 % of the total assessment)

Special regulations:
Students are obliged to come and collect the assignment for the paper during the feedback of the first examination period.

This unit of study is marked out of 20 (rounded to a whole number).

The cost of the written study material is estimated at about 5 euro
Possibly extra costs for exhibition visit or movie.

culture
intercultural communication
social identities
colliding values
social representations
TOPOI model
interculturalisation