Reflections on the NAFSA IE Competencies: Teaching, Learning, and Facilitation

Editor’s note: This article is one in a new series for 2023 that explores one of the 12 International Education Professional Competencies 2.0 in each issue of International Educator. Each written by a NAFSA member, the articles cover how that competency is critical to the future of the field and what it looks like in practice. 

Global issues and crises of the past few years have demonstrated the need for international educators to work across cultures and geographic borders, underscoring the role of teaching, learning, and facilitation. Arguably, learning is the most important component of this competency framework, and international educators have a vital role to play in developing and sharing effective modalities of communication. 

International educators work to acknowledge and integrate various academic disciplines, stakeholder groups, and skill sets as they are understood and practiced around the globe. We must understand the importance of research and scholarship to a field and develop well-tailored resources to share that information. By doing so, we will produce learning that reflects the belief that all education systems have equal value although they impart knowledge in different ways.

The power to design and deliver content for and with participants, both virtually and face-to-face, is a critical competency for international educators. It requires specific skills and abilities. Defining learning outcomes and employing an experiential learning methodology are critical to ensuring that international educators can successfully facilitate intercultural learning.

The Key to Developing Successful Learning Opportunities

When I need to design a learning activity