The Importance and Relevance of Cultural Intelligence (CQ) in Today’s World  

Cultural Intelligence (CQ) refers to the (cap)ability to relate with people from different backgrounds and work effectively in an environment that is culturally diverse. A relatively new field of research, CQ research was built on growing interest in real world intelligence that focuses on specific content domains such as social intelligence, emotional intelligence and practical intelligence. CQ’s contribution to its research is through its emphasis on the specific domain of intercultural settings, especially in a globalized world.  

“At Wellington Primary School (WTPS), we see the value of CQ education as it is necessary and critical to prepare our students to be future-ready when they join the working world, especially in a rapidly globalized world,” shares Ms Fadilah Abdul, Form Teacher for a Primary 4 (P4) class.  

Embedding CQ in the Character Citizenship Education (CCE) and Social Studies (SS)syllabus goes beyond the existing notions of cultural sensitivity and awareness on a surface level, as WTPS’students will also learn how to strategically stretch their thinking and understanding to relate and work effectively with people from various backgrounds. “This is to create more authentic integration and healthy interaction, so that they can better navigate and plan effectively in light of cultural differences, as well as to adapt their behaviours accordingly to any scenario,” Fadilah adds.

Four Domains of the CQ Framework

Figure 1. The CQ Model.

CQ pioneers Professor P. Christopher Earley and Professor Soon Ang described CQ to consist “three aspects, including cognitive, motivational and behavioral elements” (2003), with specific relevance to functioning in a culturally diverse setting. 

“Therefore, ‘Drive’ is critical to facilitate the growth of ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Strategy’. The four dimensions of CQ are qualitatively different aspects of the overall capability to function effectively in a culturally diverse setting and more essentially, CQ is a malleable state-like construct that we can actually develop,” Fadilah explains.

Weaving CQ into Character and Citizenship Education and Social Studies Syllabus

Character and Citizenship Education (CCE)

Under the CCE syllabus, there are macro concepts such as diversity and inclusivity which may be difficult for young students to grasp. Fadilah explains that there needs to be a deliberate effort to unpack these concepts and come up with actionable steps for students to learn and not leave it to everyday spontaneous interactions.

The next course of action was to carefully plan conversations and discussions that a teacher can facilitate in the classroom. Through scaffolded discussions, students become more aware of these sensitivities and can understand the factors that shape the identities of people which contribute to Singapore’s diverse society. By developing students’ CQ, it helps them to reflect and examine their experiences with their peers, so that they can appreciate the effects of living in a multicultural society. 

“Additionally, by examining societal issues, they are able to demonstrate sound reasoning, responsible decision making, and perspective thinking on a much higher level,” Fadilah adds.

Social Studies (SS)

For SS syllabus, some tweaking was required when P4 students were taught on the topic of early settlers. Guiding questions were modified to address how diverse cultures of early settlers form the early social fabric which is part of Singapore’s identity today. Some examples include:

• • How did the landmarks and cultural beliefs that Singapore have today were introduced and built upon by her early settlers?
  • How did they interact with each other when they speak, dress, and eat differently from one other?
  • What CQ Drive, Knowledge, Strategy or Action did they adapt?
  • How did they continue to contribute to the growth of early Singapore as well as what we see today?

Similar approaches can be used to introduce CQ for Primary 5 (P5) and Primary 6 (P6) students as well.“This is how we can use pockets of social studies lesson to integrate CQ and get students to develop it at the same time as CQ ties in closely given the multicultural situation in Singapore, which allows students to learn how to appreciate living in diversity and develop personal and collective responsibility in maintaining harmony,” Fadilah shares. 

Developing the CQ Board Game with Students

Figure 2. The CQ Board Game.

The CQ board game (see Figure 2) was put together by students and they have the ownership to design the game pieces which validates their voices and experiences. Firstly, the “Oh No” cards represent the unpleasant experiences that students may have gone through when CQ was not exercised.

Next, the “RICE” cards were designed after WTPS’ school values and written by the students, as the school wanted to inculcate a deeper understanding on how these values can nurture disposition that will inspire them to show concern and empathy, as well as to encourage perspective thinking while applying CQ in the local context. Finally, “Power” cards were introduced to inject a little bit of fun and competition in the board game. 

To facilitate the gameplay, Bloom’s Taxonomy Question Stems was projected on the board to scaffold the different student profiles so that students can be respectful in their questioning and answering techniques without diluting the authenticity of the conversation. 

The teacher takes up the essential role as a facilitator as he/she needs to model the approach in using the question stems to ask relevant questions when students are drawing the various card pieces. Naturally, it would be ideal for the grouping to be as diverse as possible to allow more authentic conversations to happen amongst them. 

Things to Consider Behind the Effective Design of a CQ Board Game

Prior to developing the CQ board game, three key components were necessary. Firstly, multi-faceted activities were held with their students, where their perspectives on contemporary issues were crowdsourced and used as game pieces. By addressing the cognitive dissonance through discussions, reflective writing and hot seating, students were able to consider multiple perspectives where the goal was to deepen their discussions and engagements on the topic of racial harmony.

Next, to build students’ CQ disposition, it was essential for students’ voices to be centered and heard. This was done in a safe and inclusive classroom environment where students can have honest, respectful and open discussions on various cultural, racial and religious aspects of different ethnic groups. By doing so, students learn to challenge assumptions based on their lived experiences. Additionally, when they debate and deliberate, it helped to illustrate how existing fault lines could deteriorate due to implicit biases. This helped in the development of the direction of the board game, where it was intentionally student-driven, designed by students for students. 

Lastly, the school conducted a privilege walk which had the most impact when putting the CQ board game together. WTPS felt that surface level discussions were insufficient as they wanted to push the conversation further to be more authentic and develop students’ understanding of who they are as individuals to heighten their awareness of diversity in Singapore’s society. The privilege walk helped students to recognize and unpack race, religion and their associated beliefs, as well as the disadvantages of stereotypes and prejudices.They learned the harms of jumping to conclusion and importance of suspending judgement when interacting in a diverse society.

Through the development of the CQ board game, students learnt that their identities are contingent on narratives and that people constantly construct and reconstruct their identities to meet the needs of the situations they encounter. This creates a positive impact and provides better student outcomes in identify formation.  

The CQ board game also gave students the freedom to express their likes, dislikes, and opinions, which acknowledges the importance of their voices. A classroom culture of validation was created for the students, which is a critically important experience especially for those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.  

Through these activities, Fadilah believes that it has increased the motivation in future CQ learning in terms of community building. These experiences taught students life skills to work cooperatively among differences in community building. They practice explicit conflict resolution skills when faced with disagreement and work together to reach an agreeable point.  

“This develops a sense of community, camaraderie, and shared responsibility when engaging in cross-cultural, appropriate and effective interactions amongst their groups,” Fadilah adds. “Personally, it has been a great learning experience for me as the CQ board game is a compelling way for me to move away from the top-down narrative, and to use case scenarios centered around students’ voices and contestation of ideas based on local context which makes for better internalization of CQ.”  

She encourages everyone to keep the conversation going so that collectively, more can be achieved for students to go beyond the level of tolerance and move towards genuine respect and appreciation for diversity.