Constructing interculturality through intercultural dialogues and autoethnography: building relations, nurturing preparedness and rejecting boundaries

This paper explores the role of a series of intercultural dialogues deployed as an intercultural intervention in scaffolding the development of interculturality of Chinese international students and Belgian undergraduates. The data highlight the fundamentally dynamic dialogic nature and process of intercultural engagement whereby the individuals actively seek to relate and construct meanings collaboratively. Drawing on a constructivist approach to interculturality and employing ethnographic methods, we contend that the efforts to connect play a pivotal role in mediating the process of developing the knowledge of cultural practices and that of becoming willing and prepared to challenge the self and familiar tropes.