Intercultural and transcultural competence through collaborative cultural expression

Amidst the unprecedented speed and scale of forced migration and climate mobility in Europe, arts in education has a significant role in promoting social inclusion, diversity and cohesion. Critically exploring cultural hierarchies, divisions and exclusions within arts and education, INTRACOMP develops methods, digital resources and frameworks for advancing Intercultural and Transcultural Competence (ITC) in lifelong learning in Cultural Awareness and Expression. Aligned with NEB, ITC inspires “Together” and “Beautiful” through collaborations on innovative, meaningful, complex and temporary expressions of culture, and enables arts learners to continually transform paradigms and social behaviours. INTRACOMP empowers this disposition and capability through the research and innovation of a viable competence framework (for individuals, groups, organisations and systems) that identifies, evidences, evaluates and scaffolds ITC in performing arts education, from ECE to tertiary and community contexts. To achieve this, the transdisciplinary INTRACOMP consortium explores ITC within diverse societal locations in Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe, through partners situated in cultural organisations and tertiary institutions in Norway, Belgium, Germany, Finland, Italy, the UK, Serbia, Slovakia, Greece and Hungary. INTRACOMP partners in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea provide further opportunities to extend these education and community arts interventions in the Global South, questioning Eurocentric assumptions regarding ITC, acculturative stress and arts in education. The resulting ITC Framework provides learners, teachers, groups and organisations with a common reference point for ITC and its complex internal dimensions and proficiency levels. Through this integrated and multi-pronged approach, arts in education will enhance the inclusion and ITC of all children and young people in Europe and beyond.