International pupil mobility in secondary schools: which variables are most closely associated with the development of intercultural competence?

Mobility is one of the key actions within the process of internationalising school education to develop interculturally competent pupils. The study at the heart of this paper – Developing Intercultural Competence Through Adolescents' Mobility (DICTAM) – seeks to explore which programme design features and individual characteristics are most closely associated with the development of intercultural competence. To reach this goal, a longitudinal study (using open-ended questionnaires and the Intercultural Development Inventory) was conducted with 378 pupils from Italian secondary schools who participated in a mobility programme. Overall findings suggest that different individual characteristics and programme design variables might have a different bearing on enhancing intercultural competence. In our sample, the variables duration (longer is better) and gender (female) are the ones which more likely have a positive impact on intercultural growth.