The Intercultural Programs team in the Global Learning Hub offers a variety of interactive, engaging workshops for groups looking to explore topics such as culture, intercultural learning, working across differences and personal growth. This service provides an opportunity for on-campus groups of all types to deepen their understanding of global diversity, growing participants’ knowledge of and skills in effective cross-cultural engagement so that they are better prepared to take global action at UC Davis and beyond.

These workshops can be offered in-person or virtually for groups of different sizes and backgrounds, and are primarily geared towards students. They can also be adapted based on the group’s specific goals and the desired workshop length.

Intercultural Learning Workshop Topics:

What is Culture?

This workshop defines culture, introduces dimensions of culture, and covers stages of intercultural learning. It gives an overview of culture and cultural differences so that participants have a foundation which they can use to think about and discuss culture and the way it shapes individuals and interactions.

General objectives:

1. Assess a variety of definitions of and analogies for culture and key elements of cultural dimensions.
2. Contrast culture-general and culture-specific learning.

Culture and Values

After a brief overview defining culture, this workshop asks participants to think about cultural groups that have shaped them and to examine the values learned from those groups. This examination prompts participants to consider how deeply held cultural values, beliefs and norms can be, starting with themselves and then moving outwards.

General objectives:

1. Assess ways that culture informs values, including one’s own values

Culture and Identity

This workshop compares and contrasts culture and identity and defines power and privilege before asking participants to assess how their identities relate to privilege in a specific society. Participants are able to identify some of their own identities and analyze how these identities relate to intersectionality as well as how this exploration relates to intercultural learning.

General objectives:

1. Distinguish culture from identity
2. Analyze elements of their personal and social identity and assess how these elements confer privilege or lead to oppression in particular settings at particular times

Practical Tools for Intercultural Growth

This workshop introduces cultural humility and Kolb’s experiential learning cycle, connecting both to intercultural learning and the importance of lifelong learning. It then introduces some practical tools to facilitate personal growth.

General objectives:

1. Analyze the concept of cultural humility as a way to think about developing skills to be lifelong “intercultural learners”.
2. Practice the describe, interpret, and evaluate process to begin to consider how to suspend judgment.
3. Examine other reflective practices and evaluate their usefulness personally

Culture and Conflict

This workshop defines conflict and examines its connection to culture before introducing conflict styles and relating them to cultural dimensions in order to explore how culture influences our approaches to conflict.

General objectives:

1. Evaluate conflict and its links to culture.
2. Critically examine their personal conflict style and how it is influenced by culture.

Developing Cultural Awareness to Grow as a Leader

This workshop covers the basic introduction to culture and cultural dimensions with an additional analysis of how culture influences our views on leadership and how this knowledge contributes to a global leadership skillset.

General objectives:

1. Assess a variety of definitions of and analogies for culture and key elements of cultural dimensions.
2. Contrast culture-general and culture-specific learning.
3. Critically examine how an understanding of culture enhances global leadership skills

Beyond Thank Yous and Shout Outs: Making Appreciation Meaningful

Using an adaptation of five “languages of appreciation,” this workshop explores how our preferred means of appreciate may be affected by our cultures and how effective leaders can recognize and adapt appreciation methods and styles.

General objectives:

1. Name and understand five overarching methods of expressing appreciation
2. Analyze how cultures impact the way we understand and receive appreciation
3. Examine ways that leaders can use these concepts to strengthen relationships and effectively motivate individuals.

What is Global Learning?

This workshop helps participants understand what we mean by global learning at UC Davis and why this type of learning is so important, regardless of academic or career focus. It can be easily combined with an overview of the services offered by the Global Learning Hub.

General objectives:

1. Define the term global learning and examine previous global learning experiences to identify lessons learned.
2. Describe how global learning connects to personal, professional and academic growth.

Learn More

If you are interested in learning more, please contact the Intercultural Programs Team. Please note that for more customized requests, lead time of at least four weeks is requested. 

Examples of groups who have experienced intercultural learning workshops:

• Arboretum’s Learning by Leading program
• Center for Leadership Learning’s annual conference
• Avenue B & E
• Quarter at Aggie Square, Immigrants, Refugees and Human Rights
• EAP 90X/190X: Becoming a Global Professional: How to Prepare for Careers in an Interdependent World
• Global Engagement Opportunities Living-Learning Community (GEO LLC)