The Teaching Quality Standard requires teachers to build positive and productive relationships with students, parents and the school community to support student learning by honouring cultural diversity and promoting intercultural understanding (Alberta Education 2018).
Intercultural understanding is a mindset, a way of thinking and being in the world. It has three components:
* Recognizing culture (values, beliefs, customs, and ways of thinking and behaving) and developing respect for cultural diversity in the school community
* Interacting and empathizing with others from different cultures
* Learning from intercultural experiences, challenging stereotyping of cultural groups, and taking responsibility for understanding why other peoples’ choices can be different from your own because of cultural perspectives.
These booklets are part of a series developed by the Alberta Multicultural Education Foundation in partnership with the Alberta Teachers’ Association.