Bridging Cultures in Education: Exploring Educators’ and Mediators’ with Immigrant Refugee Background Perceptions of Educational Needs for Intercultural Competence Development

Contemporary school settings are characterized by multiculturalism; Thus, the cultivation of intercultural competence stands as a key element for the promotion of tolerance and acceptance as well as for the elimination of racism and xenophobia. Even though the importance of intercultural education is understood as an emergent issue, educators seem to be unprepared when it comes to the teaching process. Under this rationale, this research aims to investigate the educational needs of teachers and enrich the findings with perspectives from mediators with immigrant and refugee-background through qualitative methods. In the research, 28 individuals participated in semi-structured interviews. Findings suggest that educators and mediators with immigrant and refugee-background may focus on different aspects of the term mainly because of their different experiences and background but they seem to agree regarding the way intercultural competence training should be organized and conducted. These findings contribute to the way intercultural competence can be promoted in school, cultivating a non-threatening environment for all students.