Comparative study on the development of intercultural competence of future teachers in China and Russia

Abstract

Against the backdrop of educational internationalization, enhancing the intercultural communicative competence of future teachers in China and Russia is of pivotal importance for the educational development and talent cultivation of both countries. Based on the four-dimensional connotations of intercultural communicative competence, including linguistic competence and intercultural communication, this study adopts the methodologies of comparative education to analyze the disparities between China and Russia in aspects such as teachers’ employment conditions, cultural environments, international exchange platforms and educational infrastructure. It is found that there exist structural differences in the intercultural competence of normal university students in the two countries, with their respective strengths complementing each other. The study concludes that the joint development of curricula and joint training of teaching staff by China and Russia will lead to a collective improvement in the intercultural competence of the two countries’ future teachers. The study shows that these differences stem from teacher remuneration and academic promotion systems, from the national cultural environment and the prior experience of intercultural contact of students, from the scale of international educational platforms, and from the level of digitalization of universities. The limitations of the existing joint programmes are also noted: weak coordination of curricula, the absence of a common system of joint teaching practice, and the lack of shared criteria for assessing intercultural competence.