Abstract

This study examines the challenges facing intercultural competence education in higher education during times of intense conflict. Most of the intercultural competence programs in higher education are based on Western liberal multicultural logic that strives to build trust between groups in conflict to promote peacemaking. The common conception of trust is described as a developmental cognitive–emotional effort that is anchored in a reflective and multi-perspective calculation of events and procedures that require a willingness to give up parts of positions and standpoints. The process is supposed to be mediated by a professional and unbiased facilitator who creates a “dialogic space” based on self-reflection and perspective-taking of the “other”. Previous findings suggest that these programs were relatively efficient before the 7 October war broke out in Israel. Thus, a joint Palestinian and Jewish program that was conducted at a teacher training college after 7 October challenged these findings. Examining the discursive practices used by the participants during the meetings revealed that the basic liberal multicultural assumptions of the intercultural competence model were rejected by students from both groups. The students interpreted the model as a way to contextualize the term peace in a specific ideological–political context. Understanding peace as a concept with a layered meaning contradicts the intercultural competence model’s perception of it as a universal–humanistic–independent position. Thus, the findings further problematize the universal perception of intercultural competence models in order to adjust them to teacher trainees working outside the West during difficult times.

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