CIICPD 2023

HEAD DIVE into Diversity Management: An innovative approach to assess critical incidents in higher education Martina Gaisch, Victoria Rammer 1. Introduction The global knowledge economy has created new challenges for higher education systems, the job market, industry and society, and these challenges are unprecedented in scope and complexity. It has put a premium on (further) education, innovation, creativity and collaboration across the globe. Today, there is a pressing agenda in tertiary education that is in accord with sustainability, massification, equity and inclusion of previously underrepresented student groups. Against this backdrop and given that a nation’s educational level has become increasingly synonymous with economic growth and competitiveness (Gaisch, 2019), it is of little surprise that the required skillset for graduate employability has also radically changed. These paradigm shifts from the Humboldtian model of education to one of increased commercialisation of knowledge and graduate employability has led to a competence portfolio that largely extends fact-based knowledge. Today, it requires more sophisticated and top-quality higher education to educate graduates capable of navigating the globalised 21 st century economy (Altbach, 2015). What is more, the desire for social mobility, reinforced by technological transformations, the growing importance of lifelong learning, and heightened demands for graduate employability is encouraging more and more previously underrepresented students to pursue higher education studies (Gaisch et al., 2019). In today’s VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) and BANI (brittle, anxious, nonlinear, incomprehensible) world, reflective thinkers that can look beyond the seemingly obvious and navigate our globalised and digitalised world have become a critical asset (Gaisch, 2014). It is for these purposes that this contribution introduces and seeks to marry two concepts, namely the HEAD Wheel and the DIVE Strategy to make more informed decisions when being confronted with critical incidents. On their own, both concepts already have the potential to transcend current narrative frameworks of diversity management and intercultural competence. But applied together, they can enrich each other in innovative ways and allow for a much more multifaceted interpretation of critical incidents. At the same time, they facilitate questioning one’s own implicit biases and engagement with deep level thought processes such as categorisation, comparison, classification, prediction and self reflection. Such an approach is particularly fruitful in higher education contexts where there is a constantly growing need to educate global citizens who can adopt different viewpoints and critical and reflective approaches. It is argued here that by drawing on a variety of perspectives that promote diversity, educators may encourage their students to generate and cultivate their cognitive flexibility. In our globalised and interconnected world, critical incidents frequently occur in intercultural communication. They can be described as brief descriptions of situations in which a misunderstanding, problem or conflict arises because of cultural differences.

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