Welcoming Differences: Cross-Cultural Communication Activities and Strategies for Enhancing Interculturality Among Students

The growing cultural diversity of higher education calls for systematic and curriculum-embedded approaches to the development of students’ intercultural competence. This article explores strategies for fostering intercultural sensitivity and effective cross-cultural communication, drawing on Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) and Deardorff’s intercultural competence framework. The study situates these frameworks within an Internationalization at Home perspective, emphasizing the role of intentional pedagogy, assessment, and attention to the hidden curriculum in supporting intercultural learning. Adopting a design-based pedagogical research approach, the study examines how intercultural competence frameworks can be operationalized through developmentally sequenced classroom interventions in higher education. The pedagogical framework and activities, including cultural artifact presentations, critical incidents, simulations, role-plays, and structured reflective practices, were developed and implemented in culturally diverse bachelor’s and master’s level courses in Spanish higher education institutions within the Erasmus+ MULTICLASS project. Classroom-based evidence collected in Spanish higher education contexts, including reflective discussions, written reflections, and observed communicative behaviors, indicates that approximately 70% of students (n = 44; N = 63) demonstrated observable progression in intercultural sensitivity, most commonly from Minimization toward Acceptance. The contribution of this article lies in linking established intercultural competence models with practical guidance for curriculum design and pedagogical sequencing within Internationalization at Home contexts.