Making sense of the unexpected : critical incident training in three Chinese universities

This paper reports the use of critical incidents in three rounds of purpose-designed training events for 87 staff in three Chinese universities. To develop intercultural communicative competence (ICC), we present a possible framework of six intercultural approaches, combinations of which yield relevant principles as a rationale for ways of teaching ICC and for using critical incidents. Feedback through questionnaires and interviews, plus observer comments are analysed for combined evaluations of the training events. The data analysis, with caveats, demonstrates the perceived effectiveness of the training which includes reflexivity towards participants’ developed ICC