Glocalization in Education for Community Colleges: Intercultural Competency Skills for Local and International Student Global Workforce Readiness

College graduates are expected to acquire certain skill sets that are necessary andsought after by potential employers, as many industries in the United States continue to grow a global footprint. Employers also value good communication skills, and communication classes are a staple of most general education curricula, including those taught on community college campuses. The diversity of the student populations on community college campuses in the United States is vast, as is the cultural wealth accompanying this diversity. Diverse and internationalized student populations at community colleges include local students living in communities surrounding community colleges and international students studying abroad in the United States. This action research study infused intercultural intelligence activities into a third culture Communication 100 classroom using the prescribed course objectives to prepare both local and international students to enter a global, or a glocal-local (glocal) workforce. This was done by having local and international students communicate, share, and teach each other and their instructor via their cultural capital in a third culture classroom. Mixed methods were employed by collecting student reflection journals after completing four class activities that introduced them to the principles of cultural intelligence. Students in an experimental class and two control classes completed the Global Perspectives Inventory (GPI) as a pre- and post-assessment. The experimental students’ GPI scores indicated they perceived themselves to have grown more on all seven variables in the study and felt more prepared to enter a global workforce. In the experimental class, results from both qualitative and quantitative data indicated that the international and local Latine students had comparable cultural intelligence skills upon entering the class and that they felt they learned more about the world by working with each other. Their perceptions changed in a positive direction regarding their intercultural intelligence growth, and they felt more prepared to enter a global and glocal workforce due to their participation in the Communication 100 third culture classroom.