presented by Taira Stuart (The Third Alternative LLC & Utah State University)
Sunday March 1, 2026 | 1:00pm – 4:00pm MST
This session introduces Wave-Fit™, a practical framework for intercultural competence that shifts focus from static “culture fit” models to attunement with dynamic cultural currents. Grounded in lived experience, it equips educators to foster relational, empathic, and adaptive learners in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world.
Abstract:
In an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, traditional notions of “culture fit” fall short of the deep, relational intelligence required to navigate today’s intercultural realities. This session introduces Wave-Fit™, an original framework developed by Taira Stuart, a global higher education consultant and founding director of the Intercultural Communications Department at Utah State University.
Wave-Fit™ offers a dynamic alternative to static frameworks for intercultural competence. Drawing on experiences designing and implementing intercultural training programs in academic and international contexts, this approach emphasizes sensing, aligning with, and riding the “cultural currents” of a place, institution, or community. Rather than asking “How do I fit into this culture?” Wave-Fit™ invites the question: “How can I attune to the rhythms of this moment—and contribute meaningfully to it?”
This session situates Wave-Fit™ within the goals of SDG 4.7 by encouraging transformative over transmissive learning. It offers practical tools and reflective exercises to help educators build intercultural learning environments that foster relational empathy, integrative thinking, and anticipatory awareness.
Participants will engage with real-world case studies, including how Wave-Fit™ was used to support international student transitions, enhance global partnerships, and embed intercultural literacy into general education curricula. The session will also explore how intercultural adaptability can be cultivated in hybrid and online spaces through intentional design and facilitation.
Educators will leave with adaptable strategies for:
- Moving beyond checklist models of intercultural competence.
- Fostering learner self-awareness and cultural agility.
- Designing curricula that reflect ecological and emotional sustainability.
- Supporting global citizenship rooted in attunement, not assimilation.
In times of disconnection and disruption, Wave-Fit™ offers a compass. It helps educators and students alike develop the capacity to respond, relate, and reimagine what intercultural learning can become—when it is grounded in presence, relationship, and the shared task of building a more sustainable world.
For full workshop details and link to register please visit: https://icc.cercll.arizona.edu/workshops/
You can also register for the workshop(s) alone, if you don’t want to attend the rest of the conference.
Participants can request a certificate of attendance for 3 hours of Continuing Education for this workshop.
➣➣Visit the ICC website for full details:
ICC 2026 is hosted by the Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL) and co-sponsored by the College of Humanities at The University of Arizona, Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT) Program, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences , Arizona International, UArizona Center for East Asian Studies, Center for Latin American Studies, and Center for Middle Eastern Studies, all at The University of Arizona; and by CALPER-Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research at Pennsylvania State University, the Center for Advanced Research on Language (CARLA) at the University of Minnesota, Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS) at the University of Oregon, and the National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.