Framings of intercultural competence in Australian teacher education: conceptual bases and implications

Developing an interculturally competent teaching workforce remains an ongoing priority in Australia, yet preparation practices vary in their conceptual grounding. This theoretical paper examines four broad paradigmatic framings that inform strategies to develop intercultural competence in preservice teachers: cognitive, dispositional, critical, and linguistic. We analyse how each paradigm foregrounds particular assumptions about culture, communication, and development, and consider the implications of their partial application in teacher education. Rather than positioning these paradigms as competing models, the paper argues that they function as complementary lenses through which intercultural preparation can be understood and refined. Particular attention is given to the linguistic paradigm, which highlights how culture is enacted through everyday communicative practices. In contexts where extended immersion experiences are not universally accessible, intercultural language education may offer one pathway for linking perspective-taking to communicative enactment. The paper concludes that greater theoretical clarity can assist teacher educators in integrating cognitive, dispositional, critical, and linguistic dimensions in proportionate and context-sensitive ways.