intercultural competence: strategies for teachers &...
TRANSCRIPT
Intercultural Competence: Strategies for Teachers & Students
Katie Dutcher, Assistant Director, Intensive English Programs
Alisyn Henneck, Enrollment Marketing Manager
Plan for the Day
● Why Intercultural Competence
● Definitions of Culture
● Diving deeper into culture
● Tips for administrators, staff, and faculty
● Tips for teachers in the classroom
● Continued learning and resources
Introductions
Language training programs designed to prepare rising leaders for cross-cultural and
multilingual academic and professional environments
Why Develop Intercultural Competence?
• Conflict/misunderstanding
• Heightened awareness of our own
culture
• Curiosity about & sensitivity to
cultural differences
• Avoid unintentionally offending
others
• Less apt to take offense at
perceived “insults”
• Help ourselves & others work
through conflict
International Student Data
• International students constitute about 15% of boarding school enrollment in TABS
schools (TABS)
• International student enrollment increased by 7% from 2012-2013 and is now at an all-
time high (Open Doors)
Who needs to develop Intercultural Competence?
Trick question…everyone! Administrators, staff, faculty, students
● Linked to tolerance for ambiguity, behavioral flexibility, communicative awareness, knowledge
discovery, respect for others, empathy, curiosity, motivation, global attitude (Laura B. Perry and
Leonie Southwell)
● For our students→ give them the tools & strategies to ease their adjustment
Hofstede (1994):
• collective programming of the mind which distinguishes
the member of one group or category of people from
another
Hall (1983):
• invisible control mechanism
• only become aware of it when it is severely challenged
Spencer-Oatey (2000)
“Culture is a fuzzy set of attitudes, beliefs, behavioral norms
and basic assumptions and values that are shared by a group
of people, and that influence each member’s behavior and
his/her interpretations of the “meaning” of other people’s
behavior.”
The Field of ICC: Definitions of Culture
Activity
A photo will appear on the next slide.
Please turn to your neighbor and tell them something
about the image.
Tell me something about this...
D-I-E
*Through our own cultural lens: normal, but need to stay aware of this
Description Interpretation* Evaluation*
What I see
(only observed facts)
What I think
(about what I see)
What I feel
(about what I think…
positive/negative)
The real photo caption
Kyrgyz Nomads, Afghanistan
Photograph by Matthieu Paley, National
Geographic
Kyrgyz herders adore their cell
phones, which they acquire by
trading and keep charged with
solar-powered car batteries. Though
useless for communication—cellular
service doesn't reach the isolated
plateau—the gadgets are used to
play music and take photos.
Iceberg Model
The Field of ICC: Layers of Culture
Onion Model (Spencer-Oatey)
Many ways of categorizing or viewing cultural aspects:
Different dichotomies/continua
● based on behavior
● based on thought patterns
● based on broad philosophies
Examples:
power distance
high context/low context
individualism/collectivism
uncertainty avoidance
long-term orientation
The Field of ICC: Categories & Patterns
“High context cultures make greater distinction between the insiders and outsiders than low-context
cultures do. [...] When talking about something they have on their minds, a high-context individual will
expect his interlocutor to know what is bothering him or her, so that he or she does not have to be
specific. The result is that he will talk around and around the points, in effect putting all the pieces into
place except the crucial one. Placing it properly-- this keystone-- is the role of his interlocutor.”
Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture (1976, p. 98)
Example: High/Low Context
● Build our own and our staff’s intercultural competence
○ Training w/ staff, experiential activities
● Institutional level (if possible)
○ Policies, mission, objectives
○ Culture of institution/department
○ Clarity about what you are doing and why this is a
priority
● Communication
○ Set communication expectations for the
classroom/program, and help people hold to them--
transparency
○ Discuss various viewpoints/shy away from absolutes
○ Listen, listen, listen
○ Open communication + trust relationships
● Research main cultural groups
○ Generalization vs stereotype-- learn about the group,
but be open to the individual
Tips: Administrators, Staff, & Faculty
● Research shows: experiences/experiential
learning is the best way to learn about culture--
we learn and understand when we actually
experience the feeling of being in/working with
another culture.
○ Maximize experience with reflection and
discussion to identify and process what
was learned
● Qualitative methods: observations, interviews,
portfolios-- more deep, authentic, accurate
(Laura B. Perry and Leonie Southwell)... though
harder to assess
● Same tools that we use with ourselves
● Comparisons and sharing activities
● More homogenous class→ less focus on
culture, more focus on other differences
Tips for the Classroom
Suggestions about other strategies?
Questions?
Katie DutcherAssistant Director
Intensive English Programs
Alisyn HenneckEnrollment Marketing Manager
Language & Professional Programs
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 831-647-4115
Questions?