Leveraging Cultural Intelligence in Pre-Service Teachers: An Imperative for Socially Just Pedagogies

“The number one predictor of success in today’s borderless world is cultural intelligence.” – David Livermore. To live and work in harmony in today’s globalized society, like emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence is a conversation that cannot be ignored. Cultural intelligence is the difference between individuals who succeed in today’s multicultural, globalized world and those who fail. Teacher education institutions must be agents and catalysts for cultural intelligence. Since teachers continue to work with an increasingly diverse student population, the integration of culturally responsive curricula and culturally responsive teaching practices into teacher education is imperative to ensure socially just pedagogies. The purpose of this research is to analyse the level of cultural intelligence of pre-service teachers through a critical pedagogical lens, to identify gaps in the different dimensions of cultural intelligence and to make recommendations about how teacher education curricula may be differentiated to improve the level of cultural intelligence thus nurturing socially just pedagogies. A qualitative strategy was employed for this study. The target population of this study constituted preservice teachers. Data was collected using both a survey-type questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study based on the survey indicated that the majority of the respondents rated themselves as having high levels of cultural intelligence; however, individual interviews suggested that students displayed a relatively low level of cultural intelligence. It is therefore recommended that teacher education institutions reimagine their curricula to ensure that cultural intelligence is deliberately embedded into the design of their programme offerings to ensure the promotion of socially just pedagogies.