@article { , title = {‘Intercultural competence’ as an intersubjective process: a reply to ‘essentialism’}, abstract = {In this paper, we problematise a competence-oriented reflective approach to intercultural education by drawing on four students’ reflective essays about their experiential learning experiences on an ‘Intercultural Competence’ (IC) module. Their reflections sometimes evidence much-vaunted IC attributes such as ‘tolerance’ and ‘empathy’, but often indicate individually-developed, non-teleologically based IC criteria. Furthermore, reflection was often painful and at times led to a ‘falling back on’ essentialist notions of culture. We suggest that rather than reject essentialism as a ‘simplistic’ starting point, it should be recognised as existing symbiotically with non-essentialist notions and could be used critically throughout intercultural learning.}, doi = {10.1080/14708477.2017.1400510}, eissn = {1747-759X}, issn = {1470-8477}, issue = {1}, journal = {Language and Intercultural Communication}, pages = {125-143}, publicationstatus = {Published}, publisher = {Routledge}, url = {http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1003071}, volume = {18}, keyword = {303 Social processes, HT Communities. Classes. Races, Languages, AI and Technologies, intercultural competence, essentialism, non-essentialism, reflection, experiential learning}, year = {2018}, author = {Zhou, Vivien Xiaowei and Pilcher, Nick} }