Intercultural Communicative Competence and Critical AI Literacy: A Professional Development Framework for Teachers Working with Local, Refugee, and Migrant Students

In schools receiving refugee and migrant students, teachers work daily with students and families whose languages, cultures, and legal circumstances may differ from their own. Teachers therefore need intercultural communicative competence (ICC) to build relationships, communicate across differences, and respond thoughtfully to students’ needs. Yet research repeatedly finds teachers underprepared for this work. At the same time, generative artificial intelligence is becoming part of teachers’ everyday practice. Teachers use these tools to prepare lesson plans and materials, translate, and seek information about students’ cultural backgrounds. As a result, teachers’ intercultural practice increasingly takes place alongside AI tools that can shape what they know, communicate, and teach. This paper argues thatprofessional development for teachers working with local, refugee, and migrant (LRM) students must address ICC and critical AI literacy together, rather than as separate provisions. Building on intercultural competence and transformative learning theory, it conceptualizes ICC as a situated and developmental professional practice and proposes the Critical AI-Literate Intercultural Communicative Competence (CAI-ICC) framework. The paper also sets out design principles for professional development that is reflective, collective, sustained, and situated in authentic practice, and discusses implications for teacher education, research, and educational policy.