Emotional intelligence and intercultural competence: Theoretical questions and pedagogical possibilities

Against the background of increased global mobility and the need to communicate effectively across cultures, the development of Emotional Intelligence (EI) is of growing importance to those involved in intercultural education. There are important theoretical synergies between EI, which is comprised of components such as self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills (Goleman, 1998), and models of intercultural competence (IC) commonly utilised in intercultural education (e.g., Byram, 1997; Deardorff, 2006). In particular, one of the components of EI, empathy has recently attracted attention from new perspectives (Epley, 2014; Bloom, 2016; Breithaupt, 2017a, 2017b). In this paper, we consider the place of EI within models of intercultural competence and then offer theoretical and pedagogical discussion on one particular element of EI—empathy—that we believe will be useful to intercultural educators.