Mindfulness, motivation and intercultural competency among faculty and staff

There is a great need to foster the intercultural competence of faculty and staff within higher education. Faculty and staff need to provide opportunities for holistic engagement to international students in order to enhance diversity benefits; however, the factors that elucidate intercultural competence warrant investigation. This article discusses in detail a study examining the correlations of motivation, mindfulness, and intercultural competence among faculty and staff through the framework of self-determination theory. Participants included 18 faculty and staff who completed Global Partner Certificate workshops offered at a large public university in the southeastern United States. The workshops included a 12-hour training across four sessions. Results of the study suggested that mindfulness and intrinsic motivation may have a positive impact on intercultural competence. Participants who had a higher level of intrinsic motivation demonstrated relatively higher intercultural competence after the training. Notably, participants who completed the training sessions demonstrated significant increased levels of mindfulness. The article discusses implications of the current study in light of incorporating motivational and mindfulness strategies in intercultural trainings as well as considerations for increasing the timeframe of the intercultural training workshops.