United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Open Pedagogy Fellowship
Improving Intercultural Communication Through Mapping Culture
Dr. Andrée Comiskey Betancourt, Montgomery College (Maryland)
Christina Shorthouse, Kwantlen Polytechnic University (BC, Canada)
2022-2023
Introduction:
Welcome to your role in an international mission. This mission is dedicated to expanding
educational access and championing student empowerment through "open pedagogy." In this
approach, you, as a student, are at the heart of an engaging, collaborative learning environment,
with the freedom to access your educational journey. What is this mission's ultimate goal? To
heighten social justice in our community, promoting the free exchange of knowledge and work.
Under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework, this renewable
assignment paves your path to becoming an agent of change within your community. Prepare to
embark on this transformative journey.
For this work, we will integrate the Communication Studies and Public Relations disciplines to
respond to SDG #10: Reduced Inequalities. Within this SDG, we will focus on the specific target
10.2: “By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic, and political inclusion of all,
irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion, or economic or other status.”

Purpose:
This assignment is designed to improve your intercultural communication skills and increase
connections among class members as well as with local and global communities.

Learning Objectives:
Ways in which effective intercultural communication can help reduce inequalities.

Instructions:
Students are asked to create various types of maps.
This active learning practice is a collaboration among students designed to create awareness of
cultural resources in the community while sharing their own cultural experiences through the
production of various types of maps. This multi-part interdisciplinary assignment has local and
global components.
This assignment may be adapted for courses in other disciplines or other communication studies
courses such as COMM 204 Interpersonal Communication, COMM 220 Small Group
Communication, COMM 225 Intercultural Communication, and PRLN 2441 Organizational
Communications. It may also be used as a collaborative assignment between two or more
disciplines such as communication studies and graphic design (e.g., courses such as COMM 220
Small Group and GDES 212 Publication Design with InDesign).
Local Assignment: How Culture Influences Our Communication
These scaffolded local assignments will address the following COMM 108 Foundations of
Human Communication course outcome: “Recognize and accommodate gender and cultural
differences in communication settings and appreciate diverse communication styles.” The
following exercises emphasize the development of intercultural communication skills.
Part 1: Effective Intercultural Communication
The first local assignment focuses on identifying how culture affects communication.
A.

Read the chapter on communication and culture in the course textbook and/or in an OER
book such as the following:
Part 1: Culture in Intercultural Business Communication.
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/communications/part/main-body
Chapter 8: “Communication and Culture” in Communication in the Real World
https://open.lib.umn.edu/communication/part/chapter-8-culture-and-communication

B. Discuss the content in class and/or in the course discussion board forum.
Part 2: Effective Intercultural Communicators
The second local assignment focuses on investigating effective intercultural communicators in
history, as well as building our own intercultural communicator identity.

A. Share an image that comes to mind when you think of an effective intercultural
communicator. These images could be conveyed through a written or recorded
description.
B. Identify an effective intercultural communicator. Briefly describe why you chose this
person, and provide examples that demonstrate their effective communication skills.
C. Share an image of yourself (drawn, created digitally, or a photograph) as an effective
intercultural communicator. Explain why you chose the image and how it represents
effective communication. E.g., Does it portray you overcoming a communication
challenge? Engaging in a difficult conversation?
Part 3: Cultural Body Map
The third local assignment focuses on visually investigating one’s cultural influences.
A. Read the following and/or other assigned reading(s) on body mapping:
“Body-Map Storytelling as Research: Methodological: Considerations for Telling
the Stories of Undocumented Workers Through Body Mapping”
http://www.migrationhealth.ca/sites/default/files/Bodymap_storytelling_as_reseach_HQ.pdf
B. Inspired by body mapping techniques and using your media/technique(s) of preference,
create an image of your body (e.g., drawing, photograph) and use it to map your cultural
influences.
C. Present your body maps in class, and discuss similarities and differences in terms of
cultural influences and how each student represented them visually.
Part 4: Community Culture Map
The fourth local assignment focuses on identifying and building connections among community
members with different cultural backgrounds.
A. In groups of three or more students, brainstorm about a local community. This could be
your college or other institution, the area where it’s located, or another place or
organization that all of the group members have a significant connection to.
B. Identify and discuss the cultures found in the community and related cultural norms.

C. What types of communication challenges do members of this community encounter?
D. Using creative mapping techniques, create a map that illustrates one or more aspect of the
community (e.g., strengths, resources, traditions, events) that can help build connections
among members in ways that lead to improved intercultural communication.
E.

Present your maps in class, and discuss similarities and differences in terms of cultural
representations, challenges, ideas, etc., and how each group represents them visually.

Global Assignment: Mapping Intercultural Communication Initiatives Around the World
The global assignment focuses on identifying intercultural communication initiatives around the
world and mapping their connections.
A. Each student must find an example of a different intercultural communication initiative
created in another country, and report to the class: who created it, and when, where, why,
and how it was created. They must also share the results of the initiative.
B. The class must vote on the initiatives that interest them most. For example, a class of 20
students would vote on the top 5 initiatives. The class is divided into 5 groups. The
students whose initiatives were selected will each lead a group.
C. Each small group of students (e.g., a class of 20 students would be divided into 5 groups
of 4 students) is assigned one of the top 5 initiatives (that were selected in step B). They
then create a map that illustrates the links among the initiatives found by their group
members. A variation on this step: students create their own initiative inspired by or
related to the top initiative or a combination of initiatives.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCE
Crawhall, Nigel. “The Role of Participatory Cultural Mapping in Promoting Intercultural
Dialogue: We Are Not Hyenas: A Reflection Paper.” UNESCO, 2009.
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000190753.locale=en

Format Requirements:
From Part 3: Step B. Inspired by body mapping techniques and using your media/technique(s)
of preference, create an image of your body (e.g., drawing, photograph) and use it to map your
cultural influences.

From Part 4: Step D. Using creative mapping techniques, create a map that illustrates one or more
aspect of the community (e.g., strengths, resources, traditions, events) that can help build
connections among members in ways that lead to improved intercultural communication.
From Global Assignment: Step C. Each small group of students (e.g., a class of 20 students would
be divided into 5 groups of 4 students) is assigned one of the top 5 initiatives (that were selected
in step B). They then create a map that illustrates the links among the initiatives found by their
group members.

Assessment Criteria:
We need to continue to develop this. For a class such as COMM 220 Small Group
Communication, the assignment would be worth 10% of the overall course grade.

Improving Intercultural Communication Through Mapping Culture is licensed by Dr.
Andrée Comiskey Betancourt, Montgomery College (Maryland) and Christina Shorthouse,
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (BC, Canada) under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International (CC BY-NC-SA)