Intercultural competence, a necessity in 21 st century classrooms : are teacher educators in Tanzania interculturally competent?

Kavenuke, Patrick Severine (author), Kihwele, Grace Ezekiel (author)

Recently, teacher educators have been required to possess strong academic credentials and intercultural competencies to teach successfully. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the extent to which teacher educators possess the skills of intercultural competence. Also, the study examines the factors that influence the intercultural competence of teacher educators. A sample of 300 teacher educators selected from two Tanzanian university colleges is used. The results indicate that teacher educators had higher mean scores in the dimensions of attitude, external outcomes, internal outcomes, and skills but significantly lower mean scores in the dimension of knowledge. Furthermore, factors such as living abroad, duration of staying abroad, level of education, academics’ teaching experience, and the faculty from where the academics come are significantly related to at least one dimension of intercultural competence. For instance, academics’ level of education is significantly related to the attitude, knowledge, and skills dimensions of intercultural competence. Therefore, the results have far-reaching implications for policy and future research.

• Language: English
• Keywords: intercultural competence, internationalisation, Tanzania, teacher educators, 21st century classrooms
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 201-224
• Numbering: Vol. 15, no. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-179265
• UDC: 37.011.3-051
• ISSN on article: 2232-2647
• DOI: 10.26529/cepsj.1524
• COBISS.SI-ID: 181576451

Copyright

Podatek o licenci CC-BY 4.0 je naveden na spletni strani revije (https://ojs.cepsj.si/index.php/cepsj/about). (Datum opombe 9. 2. 2026)

• Publication date in RUL: 09.02.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: CEPS Journal: Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal = revija Centra za študij edukacijskih strategij
• Publisher: Pedagoška fakulteta, Univerza v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2232-2647
• COBISS.SI-ID: 254029824

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Medkulturna kompetenca, nujnost v učilnicah 21. stoletja : ali so izobraževalci učiteljev v Tanzaniji medkulturno kompetentni?

Abstract

V zadnjem času se od izobraževalcev učiteljev pričakuje, da imajo dobre akademske reference in medkulturne kompetence, da bi lahko uspešno poučevali. Namen te študije je raziskati, v kolikšni meri imajo izobraževalci učiteljev veščine medkulturne kompetence. Študija prav tako preučuje dejavnike, ki vplivajo na medkulturno kompetenco izobraževalcev učiteljev. Uporabljen je bil vzorec 300 izobraževalcev učiteljev, izbranih z dveh tanzanijskih fakultet. Izsledki kažejo, da so imeli izobraževalci učiteljev višje povprečne ocene pri dimenzijah odnosa, zunanjih izidov, notranjih izidov in veščin, vendar bistveno nižje povprečne ocene pri dimenziji znanja. Poleg tega so dejavniki, kot so: prebivanje v tujini, trajanje prebivanja v tujini, stopnja izobrazbe, pedagoške izkušnje akademikov in fakulteta, s katere akademiki prihajajo, pomembno povezani z vsaj eno dimenzijo medkulturne kompetence. Na primer, raven izobrazbe akademikov je pomembno povezana z naslednjimi dimenzijami medkulturne kompetence: odnos, znanje in veščine. Posledično imajo rezultati daljnosežne posledice za politiko in prihodnje raziskave.

• Keywords: medkulturna kompetenca, internacionalizacija, Tanzanija, izobraževalci učiteljev, učilnice 21. stoletja, izobraževanje učiteljev