The DMIS at Forty

The Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) was conceived to answer the question, “what to do next.” For intercultural trainers, the DMIS offers a clear rationale for sequencing topics so that trainees are not over- or underwhelmed in their path towards increased intercultural competence. For intercultural educators, the DMIS is a coherent pedagogical model based on long-established constructivist principles that encourage critical thinking and consciousness development. For intercultural coaches, the DMIS acts as a powerful diagnostic framework that suggests different interventions depending on mentee’s readiness. And for intercultural consultants in general, the DMIS offers a powerful vision of mutual adaptation that promises organisation and social viability in uncertain social futures.

Forty years later, it is old enough to have been pushed around a bit, but still young enough to be able to push back. Indeed, the DMIS may be the most modern intercultural theory around, with a theoretical base that is at the forefront of neuroscience and social applications of quantum mechanics. Because it operates at multiple levels of complexity, the DMIS is both a good introduction to intercultural work and an equally good advanced application.

Join Dr. Milton J. Bennett, who developed the model, to learn how engaging otherness is the key to overcoming ethnocentrism, consider the co-ontogenic and ethical implications of ethnorelativism, and reflect on how to reframe professional activities to simultaneously support the development of both intercultural competence and intercultural consciousness.

In this course, you will learn how to help yourself and those you work with so that you/they can better:

• Understand the DMIS’s enduring theoretical foundation of perceptual constructivism.
• See how using the DMIS in perceptual terms makes it a more powerful diagnostic and guide for intervention.
• Consider how the DMIS can be used to explain some aspects of our current global unrest and how it could provide a path towards a more viable intercultural future.

This course format is one that uses conceptual inputs, discussion, peer sharing, and demonstrations of different techniques.

This course is for you if you are

• An early-career level intercultural practitioner (trainer, facilitator, consultant, coach) who wants a solid and updated introduction to the DMIS to inform your intercultural work of helping people in overcoming ethnocentrism.
• An intermediate-/advanced-level practitioner (trainer, facilitator, consultant, coach) who designs and delivers intercultural training / learning in either domestic multicultural or global intercultural contexts and wants to support audiences’ development of intercultural competence and consciousness.
• Academic / scholar working in intercultural communication and related fields who wishes to explore an updated introduction to the DMIS from the originator.