Intercultural education through a bilingual children’s rights project: reflections on its possibilities and challenges with young learners

Despite the growing importance of intercultural education, literature is still lacking in related research with young learners. This study reports on a yearlong university–school collaborative research project that aimed to promote students’ intercultural competence and critical bi-literacy skills through their exploration of the issue of children’s rights. Grounded in the critical perspectives of intercultural pedagogy and dynamic bi-/multilingualism, the two collaborating Grade 3 teachers engaged their students in critical inquiry of children’s rights in both English and French. Through a range of hybrid translanguage literacy practices and experiential learning activities, students came to understand what children’s rights are and appreciate the importance of solidarity, equity, and compassion. Apart from highlighting some activities developed during this project and the impact of the activities on student participants, the study also attempts to critically reflect on some of the challenges in conducting intercultural education with young learners, in particular their emergent but conflicted understanding of other cultures. Further, the study speaks to the issue of how such an important education can be practiced in a non-reductionist and non-simplistic manner yet still be accessible to young learners.     

Cooperative learning in intercultural education

Implementation of intercultural education implies that teachers command the strategies to use the skills and knowledge that children bring into the classroom, to create opportunities to communicate and cooperate in heterogeneous groups, and to provide equal opportunities to participate in the learning processes which are organised in the classroom. The use of small groups in which students learn together and benefit from each others skills and knowledge is a logical option, but conditions have to be fulfilled on the levels of teachers’ communication and management skills, curriculum and pedagogical climate in order to achieve the aims of ‘doing justice to diversity’ and the provision of equal opportunities to participate.     

Encountering and dealing with difference: second life and intercultural competence

With increasing cultural diversity as a result of globalization, intercultural competence (IC) to interact and co-exist in multicultural environments is recognized as being very important. Research indicates that cultural knowledge alone, or even being immersed in a different cultural environment does not necessarily lead to the development of IC necessary to deal with differences in behaviour, communication styles, and values and beliefs. Rather, it requires intentional development particularly of critical awareness of an individual’s cultural identity, and the values and beliefs that underpin one’s attitude and behaviour. Providing effective learning and teaching approaches to facilitate development of these affective and behavioural dimensions, challenges traditional pedagogical practices. Second life (SL), a multi-user virtual environment, potentially provides effective intercultural experiential learning opportunities to develop the desired IC by challenging personal beliefs and assumptions underpinning cultural frameworks and identity. This paper evaluates SL as one of the approaches used to develop IC in a first year IC module in a New Zealand university. Based on data from two case studies, it presents and discusses significant findings in terms of using SL and the development of students’ IC.     

Establishing a framework for blending intercultural education with differentiated instruction

Despite the fact that both intercultural education and differentiated instruction are based on the premises of inclusion, equality, and equity, most research and publications have focused on one in isolation of the other. Scholars from each tradition often use the same argumentation, propose similar strategies and reach similar conclusions. Nevertheless, the emphasis is different: while intercultural education celebrates students’ cultural backgrounds and draws upon culture for the development of effective classroom instruction and school environments, differentiated instruction focuses on academic aptitude, therefore, requiring a systematically planned curriculum and instruction that meets the needs of academically diverse learners. Differentiation of instruction focuses on the individual and its prerogative for success and happiness; intercultural education is focused on the community and therefore, it is mostly concerned about the preservation of collective identities. The aforementioned distinction helps us realise that the challenge for educators in contemporary multicultural classrooms is twofold: to sustain collective identities and to facilitate individual academic success. Visiting both approaches and utilising an eclectic approach, this paper discusses the rationale for the development of a comprehensive framework that can be useful for theory deliberation as well as a guide for instructional practice.     

Developing intercultural competence and global citizenship through international experiences: academics’ perceptions

International education is a key priority for Australian universities, government and employer groups. For students, an international professional experience is uniquely placed in providing opportunities for developing intercultural learning, intercultural competence and global citizenship. Employers see graduates with international experiences as interculturally competent, viewing them as proficient in analysing and responding appropriately to culturally significant values and perceptions. This research seeks to understand how students are prepared for international experiences and how intercultural learning is integrated into course programmes. Academic staff responsible for international experiences were interviewed in one-on-one qualitative interviews about their practices and perceptions of preparing students for these experiences. Although all international programmes were procedurally well planned, we found that most participants did not include intercultural pedagogies into their programmes, nor did they purposefully seek to develop intercultural competence and global citizenship in their students. Professional development opportunities need to be created for academics to rethink their pedagogical intent regarding international experiences. Immersion in culture is not, on its own, an assurance of intercultural learning. Providing international experiences without a pedagogical framework that helps students to reflect on self and others can be a wasted opportunity and runs the risk of reinforcing stereotypical thinking and racist attitudes.     

Social dynamics of the multicultural classroom

Instruction and learning are socially determined activities, where social forces such as classroom atmosphere, social feelings, cultural sentiments, prejudice and stereotyping, interpersonal relations and expectations, as well as the reflection of social reality in subject matter all have a significant influence on the effectiveness of teaching and learning. The effective "multicultural" teacher has to be concerned about each individual student, and also be sensitive to the group and cultural affiliations of each of his or her students. Intercultural relations in the classroom may be a source of knowledge and mutual enrichment between culturally diverse learners if managed proactively by teachers. Frustration, misapprehensions and intercultural conflict are a more likely outcome if teachers do not deal with diversity in a sensitive manner.     

Towards proteophilic competence? Intercultural learning and language education in Latvia

The new paradigm of language education envisages that teachers become intercultural mediators. However, there is no agreement about implementing the new paradigm in school practice and language teacher education. The author believes that the intercultural dimension of language education is strongly linked to integrating intercultural learning in language education. It implies cooperation with teachers from other subject areas and attitude change. The author recently designed a new course to prepare language teachers for understanding the processes involved in intercultural learning. The present article presents a case study carried out while piloting the course ‘Integrating intercultural learning in language education’ at the University of Latvia, Faculty of Modern Languages. The student teachers commented that pupils’ intercultural competence cannot be fostered by teachers alone, without the support of parents and broader Latvian society. The author recommends introducing a special course on intercultural learning in the compulsory part of all higher education programs.     

Deliberations on the development of an intercultural competence curriculum

Committed to developing an institution-wide intercultural competence curriculum for master’s-level students preparing for international careers, a team of nine professors from across disciplines deliberated for a year on their fundamental understandings of intercultural competence and what it would mean to facilitate the development of that competence in students. This article recounts the team’s philosophical debates related to intercultural competence: definitions, effective methods of teaching, intersectionality of identities, Western bias in the literature, power and inequity, and the role of language learning. The deliberations became the foundation for an institution-wide curriculum, focused on helping graduates to be not only effective workers and managers in multicultural settings, but also to be leaders in social change. This article shares the conversations and considerations of the planning process and the breadth and emphasis of the curriculum that emerged. Reflections on students’ learning and recommendations for curriculum developers are offered.     

Interactions among future study abroad students: exploring potential intercultural learning sequences

The study presented in this article aims to explore if and how intercultural learning may take place in students’ class interaction. It is grounded in the assumption that interculturality is not a clear-cut feature inherent to interactions occurring when individuals with presumed different linguistic and cultural/national backgrounds talk to each other, but that interculturality is co-constructed during interaction. In other words, every ‘interdiscourse interaction’ is potentially intercultural. We have assumed this perspective while investigating student–student class interactions that took place in an intercultural education course aimed at enhancing students’ intercultural learning in view of their sojourn abroad. Interactional data were analysed from the perspective of conversation analysis. Then, drawing on the notion of séquence potentiellement acquisitionelle as well as on a constructivist approach to intercultural learning, we conclude that, in interaction with their peers, learners can co-construct ‘potential intercultural learning sequences’ (PILS), which present recognisable interactional and discursive features.     

In/visible dimensions: framing the intercultural communication course through a critical intercultural communication framework

This article highlights how course material on ‘culture’ and ‘intercultural communication’ faces a distinctive challenge in crafting an engaged power‐focused positionality for students. I discuss the importance of incorporating a ‘critical intercultural communication perspective and practice’ into an upper‐division diversity/intercultural communication course in the US academic context.     

Critically engaging with cultural representations in foreign language textbooks

There is currently strong recognition within the field of intercultural language teaching of the need for language learners to develop the ability to actively interpret and critically reflect on cultural meanings and representations from a variety of perspectives. This article argues that cultural representations contained in language textbooks, though often problematic, can be used as a useful resource for helping learners develop their capacities for interpretation and critical reflection. The paper draws on data collected in an English language classroom in Japan to highlight some of the ways that language learners construct critical accounts of cultural content in a language textbook, highlighting not only the content of their accounts but also the discursive strategies they use to construct them. It therefore illustrates the potential for working with imperfect materials to develop intercultural competencies.     

Developing intercultural understanding for study abroad: students’ and teachers’ perspectives on pre-departure intercultural learning

This study reports on students’ and teachers’ perspectives on a programme designed to develop Erasmus students’ intercultural understanding prior to going abroad. We aimed to understand how students and their teachers perceived pre-departure materials in promoting their awareness of key concepts related to interculturality (e.g., essentialism, stereotyping, otherising) during an intercultural education course for mobile students. Twenty pre-departure Erasmus undergraduate students from an Italian university, four teachers and one observer participated in the study. Seven hours of audio/video recordings of classroom discussions and teachers’ retrospective narratives were analysed thematically. Although students initially subverted the goals of one of the tasks, they demonstrated foundations of intercultural thinking; followed by movement from self-interest to intercultural awareness of the other; and finally, developing intercultural awareness, supported through opportunities to express emotions/feelings and discussion and application of key concepts of interculturality. Teachers’/observer’s perspectives confirmed the quality and flexibility of the materials in developing students’ intercultural awareness. The findings suggest that pre-departure materials can help students to recognise variety and complexity in self and others in intercultural encounters. But students’ primary needs for practical information should first be satisfied; interactive spaces for expressing emotion and feelings are important for understanding self and others; and scaffolding activities help students to understand intercultural concepts.     

Teaching tourism in Jamaica: developing students’ critical consciousness and intercultural competence

Within this article, we convey ideas about stereotypes and ethnic supremacy that many university students tend to hold about Jamaica and the challenges of disabusing travellers of these notions and to achieve educational goals related to equity, diversity and inclusivity. We explore the concept of the tourism imaginary and key ideas in critical pedagogy, critical literacy and critical race theory that guided our course development, and we explain how we used these concepts as a framework for building intercultural competence within our student population. By addressing the complexities of Jamaica’s transnational cultural identity and using tourism to deconstruct the idea of experiencing an ‘authentic’ Jamaica, this two-part immersion course works to shift student consciousness from racial and ethnic superiority to a place of intercultural competence.     

Digital learning across cultures: an account of activity theory

ABSTRACT

This paper explores a teaching and learning process as it unfolds in an online offshore classroom. The paper reports on teaching and learning narratives distilled from different cultures, namely the cultures of educators and students in the context of digital learning environments. Drawing on activity theory as a conceptual framework to analyse the narrative, we employ self-study as a methodological tool for capturing the dynamism and complexities that unravel in intercultural and technology-enabled teaching activities. The framework explores the relationships, tensions and opportunities of diverse activity elements that constitute the design and delivery of digital pedagogies. In the networked intercultural system, sustaining the position of activity elements and the specific relational circuit that they institutionalise is a key task for understanding digital technologies as an influential tool for effective learning and teaching practices. We argue that seeing the digital platform from the perspective of its role in creating dynamic interrelationships in a complex activity system is one way to move beyond the cultural confines of any particular element in the system.     

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.     

Interkulturelle Kompetenz Beleuchtung eines Entwicklungsprozesses

Intercultural learning processes are multi-dimensional and cannot be limited to cultural Do??s and Don??ts. A core competency is the ability to manage change and to remain in control in situations with additional intercultural complexity. The methods used for developing intercultural competence are most effective in a combination of intercultural training and coaching. This learning arrangement covers different levels of learning including personal abilities, which build the foundation for intercultural success. During a coaching process existing abilities can be discovered and weak areas systematically developed. Knowledge is passed on most effectively in a training environment. Culture-general and culture-specific knowledge and the reflection upon one??s own cultural reference points build the foundation for exploring the nature of intercultural collaboration. The willingness to enhance one??s own behavior using new perspectives could be seen as the aim of the intercultural competence development. New perspectives can lead to innovative and culture sensitive strategies. Intercultural learning is more than learning rules of behavior and subsequent cultural adaptation. Intercultural competence can be defined as an extended ability for problem-solving in combination with personal abilities and cultural relevant knowledge that encourage effective intercultural team work.     

Intercultural education and academic achievement: a framework for school-based policies in multilingual schools

The paper reviews quantitative and qualitative research evidence regarding the relationship between intercultural education and academic achievement among students from socially marginalized communities. Intercultural education is conceptualized as including a focus both on generating understanding and respect for diverse cultural traditions and challenging inequitable distribution of resources and educational opportunities across social groups. As such, intercultural education incorporates notions such as critical literacy and culturally responsive education. By definition, socially marginalized communities have experienced social exclusion and discrimination, often over generations. Thus, educators who adopt an intercultural education orientation are also committed to challenging the operation of coercive relations of power within their school environments. The operation of societal power relations that affect marginalized group students’ academic achievement can be conceptualized along a continuum ranging from structural/societal, through structural/educational, to interpersonal. Structural/societal forms of discrimination are largely outside the scope of what educators can influence directly (e.g. housing segregation). However, the research evidence suggests that educators have considerable power to resist and challenge coercive power relations operating at both structural/educational (e.g. curriculum materials) and interpersonal (e.g. classroom interactions) dimensions of the continuum. Thus, the proposed framework represents an explanatory model to account for patterns of school success and failure among marginalized group students and a predictive model to specify educator behaviors that are likely to promote academic achievement.     

Intercultural teaching competence: a multi-disciplinary model for instructor reflection

Abstract

This article presents a model for Intercultural Teaching Competence (ITC) that instructors may use as a tool for reflection as they prepare to facilitate learning across cultures. Building on previous research on intercultural competence, culturally relevant teaching, intercultural trainer competencies, and student-centred approaches to teaching, the model identifies concrete facilitation techniques for instructors who would like to further develop their own teaching practice or mentor colleagues in effective teaching across cultures. The model consists of 20 instructor competencies grouped into three categories: foundational skills, facilitation skills, and curriculum development skills for intercultural learning. While intended as a tool to guide instructors in individual and group reflection on inclusive teaching practices, the ITC model may also be used by educational developers to guide feedback during classroom observations or while supporting curriculum internationalisation initiatives. Recommendations for use in faculty learning communities and workshops are included at the end of the article. The ITC model will benefit instructors in a variety of disciplines who teach in diverse and multidisciplinary classrooms, discuss global or social justice issues in their class, and those who seek to include intercultural and Indigenous perspectives in their curriculum.     

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.