The Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters through Visual Media: exploring images of others in telecollaboration

Positioned against the background of the Council of Europe's interest in developing intercultural competence through education, the study presented in this paper investigates the impact on intercultural visual literacy of the Council of Europe's Images of Others – An Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters through Visual Media (AIEVM). In our study, the AIEVM was used within the context of an online intercultural exchange between pre-service language teachers. Findings indicate increased intercultural awareness as students at universities in Germany and Spain engaged with the visually ‘mediated other’ through working systematically with the AIEVM. Multiperspectivity and critical cultural awareness in particular were shown to be enhanced through discussing ‘images of others’ in culturally diverse tandem teams.