Abstract: The development of a multicultural competence of the future teachers in Belarus still remains a matter of a distant future for a large part of pedagogues, as Belarusian schools are not as much filled with immigrants from Eastern countries, as classes in other European schools, and the problem of integration of children from other cultures today is not a priority problem for teaching public. However, this position is very unreasonable. Usually multicultural competence relates to general social competence, not connected to a certain profession. But the content of multicultural competence of teachers is wider than that of other specialists. Future teachers not only have to live in a multicultural environment, but they have to work in international teams in frames of educational projects, to establish long-term relations with foreign partners, to demonstrate ethics and culture of multicultural communication, to solve professional tasks in a multicultural society, etc. Therefore, they need to speak a foreign language at a proper level that allows participating in written and oral professional discussions at the international level. These qualities do not appear spontaneously, they require development. Teachers face a controversial situation when they are required to demonstrate results of international collaboration not obtaining special competences for that, as pedagogical universities in Belarus do not regard development of multicultural competence of students as a task. In this article the status of multicultural competence shown as a key requirement to the 21st century teacher needed for the effective implementation of professional activities; a possible structure of this competence according to changing professional requirements is discussed, a framework of its development is marked.
Key words: Cross-cultural situation, modern teacher competenceы, multicultural competence, organizational competence, global/international competence, intercultural communication competence, multicultural academic competence multicultural, virtual academic space.
Rhetoric and Communications E-journal, Issue 8, April 2013, http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464