INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION AND TRANSCULTURAL EDUCATION
INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION AND TRANSCULTURAL EDUCATION

Summary/Abstract: It suffices to replace the concept of “disciplinary paradigm” (Thomas Kuhn, 1962) with that of “cultural paradigm” in order to realize that the limits of communication between scientists are valid for the communication between any human groups – since any group can be considered a cultural or sub-cultural community (ethnical communities, religious communities, social communities, professional fellowships, political parties etc.) The globalization of contemporary society generates multiple interethnic and interracial contacts in which the general-semiotic component becomes a sine qua non condition of efficient communication; in return, the absence of this communicational competence leads to the blockage of communication between natives and non-natives, opening the way towards interethnic conflicts, religious wars or clashes of civilizations (Huntington). So, as we believe, the intercultural perspective must be urgently adopted in order to improve dysfunctions, to reduce the areas of insecurity and also to enhance communication, taking into account that we are witnessing a real explosion of contacts between peoples and cultures, between cultural paradigms. The concept of transcultural competence determines qualitative clarifications that lead to the increase of the communication capacity between individuals, beyond natural, cultural and linguistic borders. As we believe, intercultural communication must be based on the communicative action that requires an explicit relation between “knowing” and “doing” in a intercultural communication situation. This paper is referring to the transcultural competences, a concept which implies the dialectic relation between personality and society (culture).

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