The development of intercultural competence: examining the trajectory of mutual learning among diverse students

Purpose This study examines how project-based learning (PBL) facilitates intercultural competence (IC) development in a bilingual Intercultural Collaborative Learning (ICL) course at a Japanese university, focusing on how bilingual course design promotes more equitable participation than monolingual alternatives. Design/methodology/approach An action research approach was adopted. Data comprised students' self-reflection comments and final individual reports from a 15-week bilingual PBL course involving 26 students (13 Japanese, 13 international) from nine countries. The course was grounded in Allport's Social Contact Hypothesis; data were analyzed using NVivo 14 through a consensus-based coding process. Findings Analysis revealed a three-phase mutual learning trajectory: initial linguistic and cultural challenges, organic establishment of shared communicative norms, and sustained collaboration. A key finding is the emergence of “ONAJI DOHYO” (同じ土俵; everyone on the same page) as a student-generated norm mediating equitable participation across linguistic differences. Communication skills were the most prominent learning outcome, followed by language-adaptive expression and multiperspectival social engagement. Research limitations/implications Findings rely on self-reported perceptions from a single course at one institution, limiting generalizability. Future research should incorporate classroom observations and longitudinal tracking across diverse settings. Practical implications Bilingual ICL course design offers a concrete pedagogical strategy for addressing linguistic power imbalances and fostering inclusive collaboration among non-mobile students. Social implications Bilingual ICL provides institutions with a scalable model for cultivating IC across increasingly diverse student populations in multicultural societies such as Japan. Originality/value This study foregrounds learner agency in equitable intercultural collaboration, demonstrating how student-generated interactional norms can complement instructional design in bilingual ICL contexts.