European Cross-cultural Experience
Introduction
Technical students are very likely going to work either with international colleagues or abroad in multinational companies. This will inevitably expose them to cultural differences and potential cultural clashes. Consequently, understanding the cultural logic that inspires the attitudes and behaviours of others is crucial and a first step to leave one’s cultural comfort zone and acknowledge that there are many other possible perspectives to interpret the world.
The Micro module
The Micro module ECCE is a 2 ECTS university course, first held in February-April 2022, and was open to all students of the universities of Twente, Aveiro, Toulouse (INSA) and Kaunas (KTU), members of the ECIU consortium of European universities. The main learning goals of this module are:
- Raise students’ awareness of deep-level cultural differences (and perhaps experiencing a light culture shock)
- Making students understand the cultural logic of other nations to cultivate openness towards, and eventually acceptance of, others’ behaviour
The module thus aims at widening students’ cultural horizons and challenging them to step outside their cultural comfort zone. No prior knowledge is required since this module is tailor to explore cultural differences from scratch. During the course the national cultures of four different European countries will be discussed: Netherlands, Portugal, France and Lithuania. From all four countries students participated. The course was given online.
The content
The micro module started with three general lectures, dealing with the basics of culture, Catholics and Protestants, and nobles and commoners. After which every two weeks a specific country was highlighted. In the first week, students had to interprete correctly four cases, regarding a puzzling situation for foreigners in the specific country. The cases were discussed groupwise and then explained in class. In the second week, a deepening lecture was given to elucidate more thoroughly the cultural logic of the specific country. After the inroductory lectures and each country section, the students had to deliver a group reflection paper. At the end of the course they had to deliver an individual paper on a cultural subject.
The teachers
Teachers of the 2023 course were:
Arnold Enklaar / Lara Carminati / Nienke Smit Organizational Behaviour, Change Management & Consultancy group (OBCC), IEBIS, BMA, University of Twente (Netherlands)
Bruno Costa / João Paulo Silvestre Department of languages and cultures, Universidade de Aveiro (Portugal)
Barbara Moore Foreign language department, Centre des Sciences Humaines, Institut National des Sciences appliquées (INSA) Toulouse (France)
Marija Vėžienė / Saulė Petronienė Centre of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Kauno technologijos universitetas (KTU) (Lithuania)
The micro-module was discontinued in 2024 because the funding from ECIU stopped and one partner could not find an adequate teacher. The micro-module might be revived in a different form in the future. For more info: director@crocsusinstitute.org