Global competence as an imperative of the ХХІ century

Abstract

The global interdependence of people and cultures is becoming the norm of our life. Increasing communication between people of different cultural, ethnic, social, and religious backgrounds requires the development of intercultural/global communication competence, with the help of which students will know how to see things through the eyes of others and add their knowledge to their own personal repertoire. In other words, only through global competence they will be able to communicate effectively in globalized world. Therefore, global competence becomes a critically important ability for adapting people to the requirements of the 21st century. The interest in global competence is mainly reflected in the US views on this concept. This is partly because much of the literature on global competence comes from US organizations such as the Council on International Educational Exchange, the American Council on International Intercultural Education, the Stanley Foundation, and the American Council on Education. All these organizations emphasize the development of the role of such competence in the daily and professional life of US citizens. The definition of global competence describes a concept that is characterized by a complex set of characteristics, as well as a theoretical relationship between them. This article attempts to outline a model of global competence, which consists of four dimensions: development of global thinking, self-disclosure, cultural reflection, and interaction management. As a psychological process, global thinking helps students broaden their perspective to eliminate inaccurate stereotypes and prejudices about people from different cultures. Self-disclosure requires constant self-improvement, development of a healthy self-identity for the joint construction of an integrative and integral future of human society. Cultural reflection refers to the process of acquiring knowledge to characterize one's own and another's culture, cognitive understanding of cultural similarities and differences. Finally, interaction management requires students to develop the capacity for intercultural mobility to function effectively in a global communicative environment without violating the norms of their own and other cultures to achieve a global civil society.