Cultural Awareness: Exploring staff intercultural competence for supporting a diverse student group

1
Cultural Awareness Exploring staff
intercultural competence for supporting a diverse
student group
RGU DELTA

• by
• Dr Charles Juwah
• Geoff Goolnik
• Catherine Ogilvie
• Department for the Enhancement of Learning,
  Teaching and Assessment

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Content

• Scene setting
• Globalisation and student diversity
• Globalisation and student diversity RGU
  experience
• Pedagogical considerations
• Dilemmas
• Exploratory study Staff cultural awareness and
  intercultural competence (work-in-progress)
• Preliminary findings
• Preliminary recommendations
• Intervention strategies
• Conclusions
• Further reading

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Globalisation and student diversity

• Globalisation has led to
• Education across national boundaries and movement
  of people across countries and continents
• The cosmopolitan nature of universities and
  higher education institutions across the world
• At Robert Gordon University (RGU) over 60 of our
  postgraduate students are international students.

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Globalisation and student diversity - RGU
experience

• Students have a range of diversified educational
  backgrounds and prior knowledge
• They have limited knowledge of the UK Higher
  Educational system and the British/Scottish
  cultures
• Some find it very difficult at the initial stages
  to effectively engage with academic and social
  life (a situation which impacts on the students
  learning experience)
• Some international students report (perceive)
  that their knowledge and experience are
  undervalued
• Students report that staff are unaware of their
  predicament (and this impacts on the students
  learning experience)
• Their experience is characterised by a
  disengagement with the academy

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Pedagogical considerations

• All knowledge is socially mediated and grounded
  in culture (Lave and Wenger 1991, Vygotsky 1978)
• Integrates with Current Graduates of the 21st
  Century Enhancement Theme
• A rounded graduate who is academically,
  professionally and interculturally competent and
  is able to adapt in a variety of contexts and
  situations
• It is recognised that student diversity/internat
  ional students
• enrich the learning environment as a good
  educational resource
• provide alternative perspectives on way of
  learning and working
• Learners from different cultures exhibit
  different
• Patterns of interactions with teachers and peers
• Values (associated with their customs, traditions
  or belief)

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Pedagogical considerations

• There are conceptual and pedagogical challenges
  for intercultural education and teaching
• There is a need to recognise diversity in how
  students access and engage with learning
• We should show respect for the students (and
  their prior knowledge)
• We should provide inclusive and equal access to
  knowledge, resources and technologies, etc.
• We have to develop learning environments and
  situations which promote quality relationships
  between the diverse cultural groups
• We need to identify effective facilitation
  methods that will both
• engage and respond to the students cultural,
  language and academic needs e.g. What is the best
  intervention strategy when students get stuck?

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Dilemmas

• Drawing on evidence-based practice, we are
  inclined to
• pose the questions
• Is diversity/international students is this an
  awkward problem or a challenge?
• Are our staff culturally equipped to
  effectively support students to achieve the
  required graduate attributes within a
  cosmopolitan learning environment?

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An exploratory study

• Are our staff in fact culturally equipped to
  effectively support students to achieve the
  required graduate attributes within a
  cosmopolitan learning environment?
• Exploratory study undertaken within RGU
• Discussion held with twenty participants on the
  PGCert Higher Education Learning Teaching
  (HELT) course
• Focused interviews were conducted with 6
  academics (two from each of the 3 Faculties. Two
  of the academics were international colleagues)
  

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Preliminary findings

• Staff reported difficulty coping with student
  diversity related to
• mixed abilities in terms of academic literacy
• limited or lack of student to student
  interactions during tutorial sessions
• ethnic grouping/clustering in the classroom,
  etc.
• language difficulties, etc.
• Staff were unaware of
• The culture of their students
• Their students previous educational cultural
  background
• The students value system as it related to
• academic literacy (e.g. the concept of
  plagiarism, etc.)
• interactions between teacher and student

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Preliminary recommendations

• There is a need to support staff to develop
  intercultural awareness and competences to enable
  them further enhance the student experience
  within a multicultural environment
• We should develop multiple intervention
  strategies

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Intervention strategies

• Organise development sessions on
• Understanding international students previous
  educational backgrounds
• Student adjustment to new academic cultures
• Plagiarism
• Provide resources on
• Diversity and the culture of teaching and
  learning
• How to support international students
• Suitable audit tool(s)

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Intervention strategies

• Use the rich and valuable resource of
  international academic colleagues to inform and
  enhance our
• knowledge of how students learn
• pedagogic practices relating to teaching and
  assessment
• support for students (e.g. intra- and
  inter-cultural mentoring/buddying) to enable
  students achieve their potential and the required
  graduate attributes

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Intervention strategies

• Engage staff in pedagogies that facilitate
  effective learning within mixed or monocultural
  groups
• Teaching methods
• use diverse and focused approaches
• Curriculum design to take account of cultural
  issues
• Incorporate cultural issues in course design
• Internationalise the curriculum so as to reflect
  diversity and contemporary (global) practices

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Intervention strategies
A curriculum design that offers intercultural
competence
Personal Attributes
Academic Attributes
Subject/ discipline knowledgeApply concepts
practice to a global context
a) Self aware b) Culturally sensitive

a) Value diversityb) Aware of diversity issues
which are relevant and impact on professional
practice
Intercultural competence, i.e. Think global
and act local!
Professional Attributes
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Intervention strategies

• Aim for inclusivity
• Understand differences and otherness
• Understand both explicit and non-explicit frames
  of references or reference points e.g.
  institutional and societal norms, values,
  beliefs, meanings, conventions, practices, etc.
• Acquire the language of academic discourse and
  modes of operation/engagement in both academic
  and societal settings
• Integrate new knowledge and learning into
  academic practice (Byram Zarate 1997)

Thus, intercultural awareness provides the
interface between declarative knowledge
(knowledge about) and procedural knowledge
(knowledge of how to)
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Conclusions

• Cultural issues are important in fostering
  collaboration amongst multicultural learners (in
  all learning contexts and environments on
  campus, online, blended)
• Devise intervention strategies to benefit all
  students
• Dont regard diversity and international students
  as awkward problems Theyre rewarding
  challenges!
• Use diversity to enrich both the curriculum and
  to promote shared and collaborative learning

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Further reading

• JUWAH, C., LAL, D. BELOUCIF, A., 2006.
  Overcoming the cultural issues associated with
  plagiarism for International students. A Report
  for the Higher Education Academy Business,
  Management, Accounting and Finance Subject
  Network funded Teaching Research Project.
• 2. GIROUX, N.D. (No Date). Critical Pedagogy.
  online. Available fromhttp//mingo.infoscience
  .uiowa.edu/stevens/critped/giroux.htm
• LAVE J. WENGER, E.,1991. Situated learning
  legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge
  Cambridge University Press
• MOLONEY, R., 2008. You just want to be like
  that teacher
• modelling and intercultural competence in young
  language learners. Babel 42(3), pp. 1118
• 5. VYGOTSKY, L.S.,1978. Mind and society The
  development of higher psychological processes.
  Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press