When difference creates dissonance: understanding the ‘engine’ of intercultural learning in study abroad

Why do some study abroad students improve their intercultural skills, while others revert to less sophisticated ways of making sense of cultural difference? Both intercultural competence theory and transformative learning theory attempt to explain why student intercultural learning occurs, but they only provide partial answers. Building on our previous study assessing intercultural competence in a 2015 field school in India, this article applies the concept of cognitive dissonance to explain the process behind intercultural learning. In the context of study abroad, students experience cognitive dissonance when they encounter cultural differences or similarities that confound previously held expectations about culture. Adapting Maertz, Hassan, and Magnusson’s cognitive dissonance resolution framework, we employ qualitative analysis of students’ written reflections to show how the resolution of cognitive dissonance could act as the ‘engine’ of intercultural learning.     

Hybrid diaspora and identity-laundering: a study of the return overseas Chinese Vietnamese in Vietnam 1

Among the overseas Vietnamese around the world, many are Chinese Vietnamese. They fled from Vietnam for different political and economic reasons during the 1970s and the 1980s. Many of them have returned to Vietnam since the 1990s to work, invest or retire. What is interesting about these returned Chinese Vietnamese migrants is the fact that when they left Vietnam they were called by the Vietnamese the Hoa (華, Chinese) or Hoa ki?u (華僑, overseas Chinese) by the Vietnamese. This identity was actually one of the reasons for their escape. When they returned, they were lumped together with all other returnees into the category of Vi?t ki?u (越僑, overseas Vietnamese) and enjoyed the special rights offered by the Vi?t ki?u policy of the Vietnamese government, which was aimed at boosting the national economy. Although their ‘Chinese’ identity had once made them to risk their lives by sailing out on the roaring sea, their ‘Vietnamese’ identity brought them back to Vietnam at other turning points in their lives. The shifting identity of these Hoa ki?u-turned-Vi?t ki?u has produced an interesting migration story and an intriguing category of ‘hybrid diaspora.’     

Interculturalism in Italian primary schools with a high concentration of immigrant students

The present article focuses on quantitative research carried out on a statistically representative sample of Italian primary schools with a high concentration of immigrant students. Research data show that schools with a higher number of immigrant students offer a greater number and a wider variety of intercultural initiatives. The presence of immigrant students serves as an effective stimulus in enhancing intercultural approaches. Furthermore, the opinions of head teachers about the proposal of ‘separate classes’ for immigrant students and the proposed ‘limit of 30% on the presence’ of immigrant students are negative. These judgements do not change in a statistically significant manner in relation to concentration of immigrant students: in particular, higher rates of immigrant students are not related to more positive opinions. Continuing education on intercultural issues is widely adopted, mainly on behalf of teachers and less often on behalf of head teachers and other school personnel. Finally, activities by ‘linguistic facilitators’ and ‘linguistic and cultural mediators’ are not significantly related to a decrease in perceived concern regarding problematic situations.     

Civic-secular and ethnic nationalisms as bases of the nation-state: multiculturalism at the crossroads? 1

The dominant Eurocentric paradigm of the nation and the nation-state was premised on western historical experience that was indigenous to the west but claimed universality for the rest. Many post-colonial countries, particularly those that went through national liberation struggles, like India and China, with multi-ethnic mobilisations, established sovereign states. The nationalist leaders claimed the unity of nationhood for their culturally diverse countries (states), with their millennia-deep civilisational identity, compelling a new discourse on the untenability of the classic Eurocentric paradigm. The second development witnessed the inevitable cultural heterogenisation of the western countries premised on the expansion of the (immigrant) labour market through an ever-enveloping regime of economic liberalisation and world trade. The catharsis of the invasion of cheaper labour from culturally diverse countries, often native-displacing, resulted in western countries attempting to accommodate the emerging changing reality in the context of mono-cultural nations through the concept and policy of multiculturalism. In spite of this, western countries have been witness to intercultural violence, racial discrimination and threats of home grown terrorism. The paper seeks to distinguish between ‘pluralism’ and ‘multiculturalism’ and argues for a reformulation of the concept of the nation-state that will have greater applicability across states.     

Challenging Ethno-National Division: New Social Movements in Belfast

Literature on social movements in societies undergoing violent ethno-national conflict between two ‘warring factions’ has typically concentrated on civil rights, ethnic revivalists, peace and women's groups. This paper concentrates on two loose groupings – lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender, and ‘ban-the-bomb’ – that have been ignored. I argue that in the context of a ‘divided city’ like Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, these collective actors can be analysed as New Social Movements. Specifically, I look at how these new social movements have sought to experiment with forms of intercultural dialogue, expressive pluralistic communities which embrace unity through diversity and cosmopolitan, global identities which challenges the competitive, monolithic and divisive nationalisms which contribute to the sedimentation of violence and segregation of Irish Nationalists and British Unionists in the city.     

Intercultural education in the multicultural and multilingual Bolivian context

Intercultural bilingual education (IBE) has been discussed in Bolivia since the 1970s. The first Educational Act with a bilingual and intercultural curriculum adapted to cultural and linguistic diversity – Ley de Reforma Educativa – was passed in 1994 with implementation starting in 1996. However, discussions continued: when the Evo Morales government was installed in January 2006, it abolished the act initiating work on a new law – ‘Ley Elizardo Pérez y Avelino Siñani’ (decolonised community education) – arguing that intercultural education is more than bilingualism; the new law would emphasise the main values of Amerindian communities. The article will focus on the contextual background of educational reforms in relation to IBE. How is IBE defined and related to an Amerindian context? Why did the government dominated by ministers of an indigenous background abolish an educational act that emphasised intercultural education? Why would a revision not have sufficed? As the historical process is the basis for the current situation, I will begin by presenting the country’s history emphasising the state of education and progress.

Educación intercultural bilingüe, EIB, se ha discutido en Bolivia desde la decada de los 70. Cuando la Ley de Reforma Educativa LRE fue aprobada en 1994 el curriculo fue adaptado por primera vez a la diversidad cultural y lingüistica del país. Sin embargo, el debate continuaba y cuando el gobierno de Evo Morales tomó posesión en 2006 abrogó el código iniciando el trabajo con una nueva ley, ‘Ley Elizardo Pérez y Avelino Siñani’. La argumentación principal fue que educación es más que bilinguismo; la nueva ley enfatizaría mejor los valores principales de las comunidades indígenas. El enfoque del articulo será la base contextual de la las reformas relacionada con EIB. ¿Cómo se define EIB? y ¿cómo se relaciona en un contexto amerindio? ¿Por qué fue necesario para un gobierno dominado por ministros indígenas anular una ley que enfatiza la educación intercultural? ¿Por qué no era sufficiente hacer una revisión? Ya que el proceso histórico siempre es la base de la situacion actual empezaré con una breve presentación del país enfatizando la situación y los procesos educativos.     

Muslim women between secular state and religion

The main thesis of this paper assumes that, while we are not arguing for a full-fledged personal law system in Italy (which provides Muslims with different legal systems), we assume that diversity-conscious respect for difference and its legal recognition is a better strategy for achieving justice than a blindfolded Eurocentric vision, based on uniformising secular methods. This paper suggests the adoption of a model of legal intervention for integrating Muslims into Italian liberal democracy. I will call this model a ‘pluralistic institutional approach to integration’, based on a ‘a joint governance approach’. It requires a conceptual break with absolute, unlimited and undivided sovereignty and jurisdiction. Such a pluralistic institutional approach to integration encourages the accommodation of some of the most pressing minority demands in some limited areas. In family law – as we will see – there can be different possible solutions available to conduct their private relationship compatible with their understanding of Islam. However, any policy of accommodation needs to pay special attention to the fact that traditional religious Muslim norms contain practices that may cause harm to vulnerable subjects. Therefore the advocacy and introduction of a plural legal order must be based on respect for key liberal values. In this paper I will not use the generic term sharia (Islamic law) but the term Muslim norms, because I would like to underline the fact that some Muslims are calling for accommodation of norms that derive from their understanding of their religion, including not only standards based on or derived from sharia or fiqh (jurisprudence) but also general ethical principles derived from Islamic religious culture (see Nasir 2002). The focus on religious norms or values makes it clear that the main motivation for the accommodation of Muslim norms would be to maximise individual autonomy and minority protection. In this sense, the accommodation of Muslim norms is subject to the ultimate regulation of the Italian constitutional and legal system. The paper is structured in the following way. Section I of the paper deals with the ‘myth of legal centralism’ and presents a general overview of the empirical situation created by the troublesome Muslim integration in Italy. We will provide some quantitative data on Muslim immigration in Italy. Since ‘Muslim’ is a broad category, it needs to be given as much specificity as possible in order to avoid producing images of a monolithic and undifferentiated religious community. Section II sets out the model of what I have labelled ‘a pluralistic institutional approach to integration’. The substantive claim is that this pluralistic institutional approach to integration provides promising options for the incorporation of cultural and religious minorities, challenging the assumption that it is impossible to grant consideration to religious diversity and gender equality at the same time. Of special interest here are those situations in which claims for so-called ‘Muslim Sharia Arbitration Councils’, religious-based arbitration tribunals, interact with public concerns about power disparities between men and women in the resolution of family law disputes. We will demonstrate the possibility of implementing such a vision by reference to a recent decision by the Supreme Court of Canada, Bruker v. Marcovitz (2007), which breaks new ground.     

Cultural Responsiveness: a framework for re-thinking students’ interculturality through study abroad

While intercultural competence is commonly a goal of university study abroad programmes, debates around criteria for assessing this competence have highlighted the challenges in appropriately identifying students’ intercultural learning in relation to specific university programmes. To overcome these issues, this research moves beyond conceptualising the intercultural in terms of ‘competence’ and instead proposes a framework termed Cultural Responsiveness to illustrate students’ intercultural learning. Through questionnaires and interviews, the experiences and perceptions of undergraduate students after a year of exchange in France or Switzerland were collected and analysed. Using the Cultural Responsiveness framework, three parameters of students’ intercultural experiences emerged: Awareness, Engagement and Bringing Knowledge Home.     

Intercultural education and communication in second language interactions

This article analyses intercultural education outcomes produced in the setting of teaching Italian as a second language (ISL) in an Italian school. Intercultural education is produced in interactions which are based on specific cultural presuppositions, i.e. expectations regarding learning, role hierarchy and evaluation of student performances. Sixteen hours of interactions associated with ISL teaching in a multicultural classroom were audiotaped, transcribed and analysed. The analysis highlights three ways in which cultural diversity becomes meaningful. First, cultural diversity is constructed as one task of learning. Second, cultural diversity is constructed as conflictive interaction. Third, cultural diversity is constructed as a point of departure for positive school performance. These three ways of giving meaning to cultural diversity reveal a prevailing ethnocentric form of ISL teaching, as a consequence of educational presuppositions which do not take the difficulties of intercultural communication seriously. Recently, ‘dialogue’ has been invoked to address ethnocentrism; however, the conditions of effective intercultural dialogue are uncertain.

Questo articolo analizza l’educazione interculturale prodotta nell’insegnamento dell’italiano come seconda lingua (ISL) in una scuola italiana. L’educazione interculturale è realizzata in interazioni che sono basate su specifici presupposti culturali, che sono aspettative di apprendimento, di gerarchie di ruolo e di prestazioni degli studenti. L’educazione interculturale si occupa del problema della diversità culturale, basata su presupposti culturali diversi che emergono nella comunicazione. Sono state audioregistrate, trascritte e analizzate 16 ore di interazione durante l’insegnamento di ISL in una classe multiculturale: l’analisi ha evidenziato tre modi in cui la diversità culturale è resa significativa. La diversità culturale è costruita anzitutto come compito di apprendimento, in secondo luogo come interazione conflittuale, infine come punto di partenza per conseguire una prestazione scolastica positiva. Questi tre modi di costruire la diversità culturale rivelano una forma prevalente di tipo etnocentrico per l’insegnamento ISL, che è una conseguenza di presupposti educativi che non permettono di prendere seriamente le difficoltà della comunicazione interculturale. Recentemente, si è proposto di usare il ‘dialogo’ per superare l’etnocentrismo; tuttavia c’è incertezza sulle condizioni di un dialogo interculturale efficace.     

Shaping ways of managing diversity in Portuguese schools,from the student's perspective

This article examines the results of an empirical research project that analysed the political socialisation processes of the students at three Portuguese public secondary schools in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area in 2011. Against the background of the implementation of an ‘education for citizenship’ programme in the official Portuguese school curriculum (2001), the project basically sought to know what attitudes the students mobilised in the face of a hypothetical situation involving the presence of ciganos (gypsies) in a school context. In this respect, and based on a pragmatic and comprehensive perspective, we attempted to test the concept of multiculturality and how it is seen and experienced by the students at these schools. Our aim is to answer the question: In a school context, how do students think the coexistence of gypsies and non-gypsies should be managed? In seeking to answer this question, the methodology that seemed to us most appropriate to this study's objectives is founded on the mobilisation of a scenario-based questionnaire, and to this purpose we surveyed 700 secondary students in a classroom environment. We were able to identify and characterise four possible coexistence formats within the overall framework of a synoptic vision of the available ways of managing a multicultural experience: separation; socialisation; universalism; and co-operation.     

Writing Experience: Does Ethnography Convey a Crisis of Representation,or an Ontological Break with the Everyday World?

L'auteur pose comme prémisse la «brisure ontologique», telle qu'imaginée par Alfred Schutz, qui sépare deux champs: le «monde des coassociés», dans lequel la réalité sociale est directement expérimentée en face à face avec le présent intense, et l'«univers des contemporanéités», dans lequel l'autre est représenté selon des «types». Il soutient que cette coupure constitue un véhicule incitant à présenter une méta‐exposition de revendications majeures problématisant l'autorité traditionnelle en ethnographie. À la lumière de cette brisure, les tentatives postmodernistes d'acquérir ou de conserver la compréhension ici et maintenant de la signification subjective, ou de la «voix» des ethnographies, ne forment que des impossibilités épistémologiques. L'auteur conclut que le privilège postmoderniste accordéà une «ethnographie naïve» insistant sur les processus «expérimentaux», «interprétatifs», «dialogiques» et «polyphoniques» ne peut remplir sa promesse sur le plan méthodologique, pas plus qu'il n'est adaptable à la brisure ontologique de Schutz sur le plan théorique. This paper is premised on the “ontological break” as coined by Alfred Schutz that disconnects two realms: the “world of consociates” where social reality is directly experienced face‐to‐face in the vivid present, and the “world of contemporaries” where the other is interpreted in terms of “types.” It is argued that this break is a suggestive vehicle for conducting a meta‐exposition of major claims which problematize the traditional authority of ethnography. In the light of the break, the postmodernist attempts to attain or retain the here‐and‐now understanding of subjective meaning, or “voice” in ethnographies are but epistemological impossibilities. It is concluded that the postmodernist privileging of a “naive ethnography” which emphasizes “experiential,”“interpretive,”“dialogical,” and “polyphonic” processes is neither able to deliver on its promise at the methodic level, nor amendable to Schutz's ontological break at the theoretical level.     

Public rejection of the ex-mental patient: are attitudes changing?*

Selon une analyse détaillée des articles écrits sur l'attitude sociale envers les patients ex-mentaux, il ressort que la société adopte une attitude plus tolérante envers ces ex-malades. Toutefois, il est à noter que le degré de tolérance révélé vane selon les études. Afin de permettre une analyse plus complète de ce changement social, nous avons choisi l'étude de Cummings intitulée « Closed Ranks » comme base de nos recherches présentes. Faisant usage des méthodes habituelles pour notre recherche, nous arrivons à la conclusion qu'aucun changement important n'est à noter. En fait, de toutes les études, les résultats de 1974, corroborent le plus à l'original de Cummings; des cinq changements statistiquement significatifs que nous notons, il en ressort deux points importants (10 per cent des points). La premiere concerne « un des enfants de l'ex-patient se mariant », la deuxième « la famille dans laquelle l'ex-malade se marierait ». En général, il en ressort que l'ex-patient mental jouit d'une attitude quelque peu plus tolérante dans la société. Toutefois l'ampleur de cette tolérance est bien moindre que ne laisse supposer la lecture des textes. Pour conclure, il est suggéré que plus de discernement soit porté aux facteurs de méthode et de théorie dont il est fait usage dans de telles études. A review of the literature and a detailed analysis of standard social distance items reported in the various studies suggest that attitudes towards ‘ex-mental patients’ are becoming more tolerant. However, there is considerable variance in the magnitude of the change reported. In order to look more closely at the extent of this change, we re-examined the Cummings' baseline Closed Ranks study area, using essentially the same research instruments and tactics. The findings show no dramatic change. Indeed, the 1974 results were more like the original Cummings' results than most other studies. Of the five statistically significant changes reported, only two questions concerning ‘one for the respondents children to marry’ and ‘a member of a family into which the respondent would marry,’ are of a substantial (10 percentage points) magnitude. An overall view indicates that attitudes to the ex-mental patient have changed somewhat in the direction of increasing public acceptance of the mentally ill, though the magnitude of the change is less than what one would expect from reading the literature. It is suggested that more attention be paid to the methodological and theoretical factors involved in the study of public acceptance of the formerly mentally ill.     

The transformation of Saudi Arabia’s rentier state and ‘the international’

ABSTRACT

The Saudi state is conventionally characterized as a neo-patrimonial rentier state that emerged out of a combination of traditional domestic social structures and oil wealth. However, the conceptualization of the rentier state as endogenously generated based on ‘traditional’ society is an example of Eurocentric institutionalism. In this article, I draw on literature that has sought to ‘internationalise’ the East Asian developmental state concept to show that Saudi rentier state formation has historically always been ‘international’. Thus, while Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman claims that his current economic reforms are opening up Saudi Arabia’s rentier economy to globalization, the restructuring of the rentier state is only the latest episode in this process, which was shaped by the colonial era in the Gulf and the transformation of an American-dominated global economy since World War II. The ‘internationalisation’ of the rentier state concept thereby also holds wider lessons for other neo-Weberian statist concepts such as failed or weak states.     

Understanding cultural singularities of ‘Indianness’ in an intercultural business setting

Analysing data from the Indian information technology (IT) industry, this paper advances an understanding of cultural singularities of ‘Indianness’. The research context of an intercultural meeting place of IT and business process outsourcing firms’ overseas subsidiaries, Belgium in this case, allows the authors to identify 10 cultural singularities that typify ‘Indianness’. This ethnographic, reflexive study is further validated by employing Ghoshal's ‘smell of the place’ metaphor through the authors collective experiences as consultants and researchers, and builds and extends upon the popular cultural dimension frameworks for understanding intercultural business and management. Existing cultural dimensions do not sufficiently describe the contemporary intercultural dynamics that typically take place in workplaces, especially so in offshore and outsourcing environments. A provisional set of parameters for understanding Indian culture, with its relevant impact on business life (customs and manners), business processes and business deliverables are proposed in this study.     

The post Second World War Canadian society*

Ce texte porte surtout sur ce qui est arrivéà la société canadienne depuis la seconde guerre mondiale. Cependant l'auteur soutient que pour comprendre les changements qui ont eu lieu dans cette société il faut retourner au passé et faire l'étude de la façon dont la société canadienne a évolué au cours des années d'avant la seconde guerre mondiale. On peut parler non seulement d'un « ordre ancien » de la société canadienne française mais aussi d'un ordre ancien de la société canadienne; et de cette façon qualifier de « révolution tranquille» les évènements qui se sont déroulés depuis la guerre tant au Canada français qu'au Canada anglais. The primary concern of this paper is with what has happened to Canadian society since the Second World War. In seeking to understand the changes that have been taking place in this society, however, the author argues that it is necessary to go back and examine the way in which Canadian society developed over the years before the Second World War. One can speak of an ‘old order’ of Canadian society, not simply of an old order of the society of French Canada, and what has happened since the war, in English-speaking as well as French-speaking Canada, can be described as a ‘quiet revolution.’     

Plea in favor of ‘trivial mathematics’ in a multimathemacy educational perspective

Sketching three different approaches to mathematics education, I choose for a pluralistic view, called multimathemacy. The focus is on cultural diversity and particular and local skills and insights in the out-of-school knowledge of the children. ‘Trivial mathematics’ as Hardy called it can be used as a bridge between these skills and insights and the abstract thinking in so-called pure mathematics. The sociocultural learning theory of the Vygotsky school and its contemporary elaborations should be adopted in teaching procedures and curricula to that end.     

Intercultural education in everyday practice

While there is substantive work in intercultural education, especially that which proposes intellectual or conceptual road maps for pedagogic interculturalism and, more specifically for the classroom, there is a need to surface the complexity of everyday intercultural classroom practices. This article reflects on some Singapore students’ responses to materials designed to help them engage critically with intercultural issues. These responses can be categorized into three types of tajectories: reifying, critical and conflicted. Reifying practices basically mean that students essentialize individuals, communities and countries despite (and perhaps because of) the intercultural approach to the teaching of communication. Critical trajectories, on the other hand, showcase students’ ability to identify stereotypes and provide much more nuanced characterizations of individuals and countries. Conflicted trajectories, however, seem to be the most dominant classroom practice: these are attempts of students to be critical but, in practice, their criticality is enmeshed in reifying tendencies. In other words, ‘criticality’ as it is envisioned is always incomplete on the ground. Thus, we need micro-lenses in interculturalism and intercultural education to help us critically reflect on and surface essentialisms, tensions and struggles in everyday classroom practice.     

Citizenship education for a pluralistic world: the selection of children’s literature in Dutch Protestant primary schools

The goals of citizenship education are often contested in Protestant schools with an ethnically heterogeneous population of pupils in multicultural European societies today. This is connected to the tension between the inclusive goal of citizenship for a pluralistic world and the exclusive goal of education in the Christian faith. This paper presents an explorative study on citizenship education. It describes the opinions of teachers and parents on the selection and use of children’s literature in Dutch ‘liberal’ Protestant primary schools. The results show that most teachers favour the avoidance of books that might not fit in with the Protestant identity of the school or possibly raise objections from orthodox parents. There is considerable diversity in the positions parents take on the issue.     

The quest for Mennonite peoplehood: ethno-religious identity and the dilemma of definitions*

La relation entre la convention et la tradition, d'une part, et l'innovation, d'autre part, est un aspect essentiel de la notion d'identité collective en tant que processus dynamique de (re)construction et de (re)présentation. Cette communication aborde dans cette optique ce que les Mennonites appellent aujourd'hui leur «crise d'identité». L'auteur insiste plus particulièrement sur l'ambiguïté et parfois le conflit qui caractérisent les tentatives des Mennonites de se donner une vision renouvelée de leur «spécificité,» empruntant à Pierre Bourdieu le concept d'habitus comme cadre d'analyse théorique des causes et des manifestations de cette lutte contemporaine pour définir la principale caractéristique distinctive de l'identité mennonite. The relationship between convention/tradition and innovation is indispensable to the notion of group identity as a dynamic process of (re)construction and (re)presentation. This paper applies this perspective to what Mennonites currently refer to as the Mennonite ‘identity crisis’ by focussing on the ambiguity and, at times, conflict which surrounds Mennonite efforts to articulate a renewed vision of peoplehood. Pierre Bourdieu's concept of Habitus provides the theoretical basis for understanding the causes and manifestations of this contemporary struggle to isolate the key defining feature of Mennonite identity.