Developing intercultural citizenship competences in higher education by using a literary excerpt in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context

Abstract

The objective of this study is to develop intercultural and critical citizenship competences by using a literary excerpt among a group of EFL university students in Spain. For this purpose, the focus group method was adopted, and a qualitative study was designed. The core aim was to implicitly work on aspects such as otherness, the rejection of racism and the use of revenge as a response to a perceived unethical action. The findings demonstrate that the approach dealt effectively with all these concepts. The literary excerpt triggered discussions against racism and religious intolerance. Revenge was rejected as a constructive solution to discrimination and the cohort expressed their connection to ‘others’ through a common humanity, which is linked to human rights principles. These values are closely aligned to the theoretical reference points known as Intercultural Citizenship Education (ICE), Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and cosmopolitan citizenship.