Intercultural competencies of Polish and Kazakh teachers explored in their Facebook profiles

Abstrakt

The aim of the study was to analyze Facebook profi les of teachers in Poland and Kazakhstan as the virtual educational space where intercultural competencies are manifested and further developed. The rationale for intercultural learning was derived from the pedagogies of Abay and Korczak while the list of attitudes, skills and knowledge to be observed was adapted from Deardorff’s (2009) model. Digital ethnographic research approach was used for capturing teachers’ behavior and artifacts in the fi eld site. Teachers collaboration on a divergent problem and focus discussion afterwards provided further narrative material of refl ective nature. The results suggest that Facebook profi les show ample evidence of competent intercultural behavior; they could be considered as e-portfolios and further researched for development of proper educational and validation tools for teacher training involving global networks.