Promoting Intercultural Understanding in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme: A Qualitative Case Study in Hong Kong Second Language Chinese Classrooms

1
Promoting Intercultural Understanding in the
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme A
Qualitative Case Study in Hong Kong Second
Language Chinese Classrooms
Alliance for International Education  Mumbai, 10
12 October, 2014 Strand D. Intercultural
Understanding in the Curriculum Kwok-Ling
LAU PhD candidate, Faculty of Education The
University of Hong Kong Supervisor Dr. Mark Shum
2
The Aim of Study

• The aim of this study seeks to examine the
  enabling factors for successful implementation of
  intercultural understanding and ?international
  mindedness' in the International Baccalaureate
  Diploma Programme (IBDP) in a Chinese as a second
  language Chinese classroom in three international
  schools. The IB programme promotes intercultural
  understanding and international mindedness in
  education and it is of great interest to see how
  it is implemented in second language Chinese
  classrooms in Hong Kong

3
Research questions and Methodology
Research Questions Research methodology
1. How successful do the teachers of Chinese as a second language of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme teach the concept of international mindedness and intercultural understanding in Chinese lessons? I apply multi-methodological approach in order to get triangulation. Classroom observation, In-depth interview teachers with semi-structured questions. Classroom discourse analyze (Christie, 2008) , Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) (Halliday, 1994) and Appraisal theory (Martin and White 2005) are be applied.
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Research questions and Methodology
Research Questions Research methodology
2. How successful do the students of Chinese perform in class work in the teaching and learning cycle? Classroom observation, In-depth interview students with semi-structured questions. Classroom discourse analyze (Christie, 2008) , Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) (Halliday, 1994) and Appraisal theory (Martin and White 2005) are used for student text analyze.
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Research Methodology

• Choice of the Case Study
• I collected the data from three IB schools which
  were not be chosen only for the sake of
  convenience.
• School A was opened in 1894 which has been
  authorized as an IB school and it has been
  authorized to offer the IB Chinese B Diploma
  Programmes since in 2005.
• School B was opened in 1983 and it has been
  authorized to offer the IB Chinese B Diploma
  Programmes beginning in 1991.
• School C has been authorized to offer the IB
  since 2000.
• Since the choice of the representative cases
  contributes much to the external validity of the
  case study, it is important to show that the
  school in question is typical example of the
  implementation of an IB Chinese Diploma
  Programme.

6
Theoretical Framework

• In the theoretical framework, I refer to Thompson
  (2012), Haywood (200786-87), UNESCO Declaration
  in 1974 and Hill (2006, 2012), McKenzie
  (2012227) and Harrison (201395-96) contribute
  new insights on international mindedness.

7
Theoretical Framework of International mindedness
Adapted from Thompson (1998, 2013), Hill
(2012258-259 and 2014 HK Seminar)
Adapted from Thompson (1998, 2013), Hill
(2012258-259 and 2014 HK Seminar)
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Table 3 Judgement of IBOs mission statement
Text Judgement positive
The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. inquiring, knowledgeable (Social esteem positive ?capacity?) caring, better , peaceful, respect (Social sanction propriety ?ethics?)
To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment. challenging, rigorous (Judgement positive ?capacity?)
These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right. active, lifelong learners (Social esteem capacity) compassionate, respect (Social sanction propriety?ethics?)
(www.ibo.org/mission/)
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Analysing Appraisal Theory

• White (1998) indicates that JUDGEMENT is
  obviously a system which is very much culturally
  and ideologically determined and particular
  judgements of behaviour will depend on
  socio-semiotic position, on the set of social
  values to which the evaluator subscribes.
  JUDGEMENT provides one of the most explicit means
  by which writer/speakers can inscribe their
  heteroglossic position in a text. They thereby
  confront those who would ascribe a different set
  of judgements to those behaviours. We are
  concerned with, what Fairclough (1989 78) terms
  the conception of the world, including
  normative values.

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Curriculum Macrogenre
Curriculum Macrogenre School B (Christie
2000162, Shum, 2010 140) each lesson 60 minutes
Curriculum Macrogenre School B (Christie
2000162, Shum, 2010 140) each lesson 60 minutes
Curriculum Macrogenre School B (Christie
2000162, Shum, 2010 140) each lesson 60 minutes
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Curriculum Macrogenre
Table 1
Curriculum Initiation Introduction Teacher gave an introduction on aims of the unit plan objectives in the first lesson. Task Specification Teacher set the task and gave the instructions and expectation about the aims of tasks and define the definition of poverty by scaffolding through question and answers . Teacher initiates students' learning motives and fixes the direction of learning by inquiry based learning give assignment of homework by group research in lesson 1.
Curriculum Negotiation Students were divided into 5 groups to research about the topic of Poverty in China and the world in group discussion. Teacher gave comments on each groups presentation. Students had group presentations from lesson 2 and lesson 5 as shown in Figure 1.
Curriculum closure Teacher gave comments and drew the conclusion of the lesson.
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Intercultural Understanding

• ????????,????????????,?????,????????,???,????????
  ,?????????,?????,?????????,?????????????????????,?
  ???????????,???critical thinking (ve Judgment
  Social Esteem Capacity ) ,???????????????????????
  ?????? ?????,(-ve Judgment Social Esteem
  tenacity (resolve) ?????????????????,???? (ve
  Judgment Social Esteem tenacity
  (resolve)????????????????????????????1?????2????
  ?3?????4?(????????????????)??5?????????????(??),?
  ?????????? (ve Judgment Social Esteem Capacity
  ),??????????????????,????(ve Judgment social
  sanction propriety (ethics) ????,?????????????

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Intercultural Understanding

• Hill stresses that intercultural understanding is
  the most important component in international
  mindedness.
• International mindedness has the following
  components to it I think the first and most
  important is intercultural understanding,
  awareness and what we sometimes called
  intercultural literacy and that is absolutely
  fundamental without that you cant have
  international mindedness. (Interview with Hill
  2012)

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Intercultural Understanding

• Harrison (201395-96) indicates that
  intercultural understanding is an important
  component in and subset in international
  mindedness. Students develop intercultural
  understanding and respect for cultural diversity
  through learning experience and languages in
  internationally minded curricula.
• Cambridge (200026) indicates that it was very
  important to have sustainable development and
  intercultural dialogue in a global village.

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Intercultural understanding

• School A
• ??Why are we learning global issues? This is
  because you can understand and respect other
  cultures and heritage.
• ??????????????,??????????????????? understand
  other cultures (ve Appren)?????,??????????
  respect (ve Appren)??
• TeacherWhy are we learning global issues? This
  is because you can understand other cultures and
  heritage, (ve Appren)and ?? respect (ve
  Appren)them.
•  

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Intercultural understanding

• School B
• Group Presentation Group 1
• Chris Moreover, internet promotes learning
  cultural heritages such as Cantonese Opera and
  Chinese Opera around the world. It can also
  promote and preserve cultural heritages.
• Chris The fourth point is that we can use
  internet to admire the essence of the cultures of
  all other countries. ve Apprecn intercultural
  understanding ,respect other cultures. For
  example, people from other countries can also
  watch the Cantonese or Beijing opera.
• Appreciateand preserve cultural heritage

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Intercultural understanding

• Teacher indicated that students should cultivate
  intercultural understanding as students were come
  from different cultural background. She asked
  students to explore global issues in the world in
  order to cultivate intercultural awareness,
  cultural diversity and knowledge of cultural
  identity in a global village through learning
  Chinese.
• Students answered that Hong Kong is part of China
  and they were living in Hong Kong and they have
  to know about the cultural identity in Hong Kong
  through learning Chinese language. Students also
  need to learn the world through global issues.
• ???????????,????????????,??????????????????,?????
  ?????,???????????????????????,????????Why are we
  leaning ???????
• ?????????????,??????????,??????

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Values Education

• In the following group discussion, students make
  moral judgement on the social sanction such as
  gender equalities. In their research
  presentation, they criticized that gender
  inequalities caused poverty in China. They
  criticized the government not to improve the
  quality of living of girls in rural villages
  because of government corruption.
• Student ????,???????causing poverty.

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Values Education

• Lee (2004139) indicates that values education
  promote orderly and caring school communities,
  improving human rights for girls and women and
  promote values of justice and equity.
• Teacher asked students to think why girls cannot
  go to school because they have to do household in
  the family and give birth for the next generation
  in traditional Chinese ideology. Students make
  the Judgment social sanction propriety (ethics)
  and criticize that the inequalities and social
  injustice were caused by the governments
  corruption and the unreasonable Chinese
  traditional ideology and discrimination. Students
  make the inscribed judgment on world-view or
  ideological position or heteroglossic diversity.
• Therefore, students think that girls should have
  same human right to receive education.

20
Values Education

• Students also learn caring and compassion. In
  their presentation, students found that they did
  not have caring for others. However, students
  reported that they learn the human values and
  caring for others through discussion of case
  study. They reported that they were willing to
  help and give donation in order to improve the
  life of poor children. They learn and cherish
  these valuable experiences and understand social
  injustice and discrimination.

21
Global Citizenship

• Harrison (201397) indicates that global
  citizenship and intercultural understanding
  embrace the large scale of human civilization,
  issues that affect global populations and what
  can happen when cultures interact. Global poverty
  is one of the global issues, which is related to
  large scale of human civilization.

22
Global Citizenship

• Students build up the knowledge of global
  awareness to think globally.
• Teacher used transdisciplinary approaches to ask
  students thinking about the transdisciplinary
  knowledge of poverty. Students can connect prior
  knowledge of other subjects such as geography and
  history to generate questions about economy,
  education, poverty and inequity and health
  problems with poverty in the rural area. Students
  mentioned that the poor were facing illness and
  death caused by lack of healthcare in the poor
  countries.

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Human Rights and Democracy

• Group 2
• Student FengAs the first effect, the network
  can be used as a platform for discussion.
  Everyone can comment or express their own opinion
  so we have to protect the freedom of speech and
  respect human right. When it comes to express our
  opinions, we can promote (social esteem
  capacity) the democratic development. (propriety
  (ethics) inscribed Positive judgement). We have
  a good example, it is the Arabic Spring.

24
Human Rights and Democracy

• Student C The Internet has also become a tool
  for controlling thinking. (Ideological position
  (propriety (ethics) inscribed Negative
  judgement) It is beneficial that the government
  has closed down certain websites for propagating
  their own political thinking. displacing and
  replacing the culture of the indigenous country
  (propriety (ethics) inscribed Negative
  judgement)
• Some developed countries do not realise promoting
  forcibly (a high value of INTENSITY FORCE) their
  own cultures and values to other countries by
  depending on their economies and political
  standing in the international society. (Propriety
  (ethics) inscribed Negative judgement)

25
Human Rights and Democracy

• Students discussed human rights and democracy in
  their group presentation.
• It was like China closing down the websites
  regarding Liu Xiaobo ???after winning this Nobel
  Peace Prize (propriety (ethics) inscribed
  Negative judgement) because Liu fought for
  democracy. (propriety (ethics) inscribed
  Positive judgement)

26
Human Rights and Democracy

• Another example is that a lot of the local
  mainland Chinese do not know the truth regarding
  the June 4 incident. (inscribed negative
  judgement, veracity (truth)
• Because the Chinese government has closed down
  these websites so that the Government does not
  want others to know what they had done and what
  had really happened. (inscribed negative
  judgement, propriety (ethics) inscribed Negative
  judgement)

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The Pedagogical approaches

• The pedagogical approaches include scaffolding,
  inquiry based learning, research skills, critical
  thinking, collaborative learning,
  student-centered teaching.
• Students realized international mindedness by
  making moral judgments and applying
  interdisciplinary knowledge of social issues to
  learn the concepts of intercultural
  understanding, global citizenship.
• I hope that this study will contribute to promote
  intercultural understanding and international
  mindedness and give suggestions on improvement in
  IB curriculum development, teaching and learning.

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The Pedagogical approaches

• Student-centered teaching
• In the teaching cycle, teacher implemented
  inquiry based teaching. Teacher identified that
  they had discussed regarding the social issues
  such as poverty and media by questioning in order
  to enhance students understanding, engagement in
  the classroom interaction in order to arouse
  their curiosity and confidence in further
  discussion.

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Scaffolding

• Vogotsky (1978 86, Christie 2000, 125 )
  indicated that Zone of proximal development is
  the distance between the actual development level
  as determined by independent problem solving and
  the level of potential development as determined
  through problem solving under adult guidance or
  in collaboration with more capable peers. The
  teacher showed scaffolding in her teaching in
  order to help her students to reach their level
  of potential development.

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Scaffolding, collaborative learning, research
skills and critical reflection

• Teacher If you look for the poverty definition,
  you have read the United Nations and World Bank,
  United Nations dedicated to improving the well
  being of present and future generations through
  the promotion of sustainable development.
  (inscribed Social Esteem capacity Positive
  Judgement)
• ???????,??????????,??????,???????????????,???????
  ?,????????,??????????????,?????????????,??????????
  ????????????????

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Communication skills

• In the communication skills, teacher taught
  students to read the poverty references not only
  learning for vocabulary expansion, comprehension
  skills but also learning culture and the global
  poverty problems. They learn how to understand
  and analysis the poverty line.
•  

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Research skills and Collaborative skills

• Davies, L. (200623) indicates that global
  citizen should have research skills and the
  schools should encourage research skills on
  global issues such as rights, poverty or conflict
  in their local area.
• Hill (2012259) indicates that critical thinking
  and collaboration are applied beyond the national
  borders in the education for international
  mindedness which will help teachers and students
  to shape the attitude towards intercultural
  understanding, peaceful co-existence and global
  sustainable development for the future of the
  human race. Students found that poverty will be
  caused by war because of unstable political
  situation.

33
Collaborative learning, research skills and
critical reflection

• Teacher encourages students to develop research
  skills, collaborative and critical reflection
  which are the key components of ways of knowing.
  They are applying new knowledge in real-life
  situation.
• Teacher Now, I want all of you to search for
  information and after 2 to 3 weeks present an
  oral presentation. The main theme is related to
  culture, that is the influence of the internet on
  cultural exchanges. As far as the economics part,
  it is better that all of us learn together
  because it is a bit more difficult. Sometimes, we
  do not know how to analyse it.

34
Conflict resolution skills

• UNESCO (20108) and Oxfam (20061) stress that
  learning conflict resolution skills are important
  components in international mindedness which
  requires mutual understanding, nondiscrimination,
  respect for difference, inclusion and equal
  opportunity, regardless of race, culture, gender,
  language or religious or political beliefs. It is
  difficult for a society without equity or justice
  to remain peaceful or socially cohesive. Without
  peace or harmony, economic and environmental
  sustainability are also threatened.

35
Conflict resolution skills

• In the following student presentation, students
  found that poverty was globalised including
  social problem, climate change and civil war.
  Civil war caused a lot of children were killed
  and they lost their homes
• Students Poverty was globalised which was mainly
  caused by war, social problems, climate change.
  Civil war caused a lot of children were killed
  and they lost their homes and destroying
  infrastructures. Children could not receive
  education and therefore it took a lot of time to
  rebuild the society. Moreover, the government
  should provide education and necessities.

36
Critical thinking

• TeacherThis is a Chinese class. You have to know
  about poverty in China and Hong Kong,because you
  are living in Hong Kong. Then you need to look
  for poverty in another country. You have to
  express your opinions critically (ve Judgment
  Social Esteem Capacity ) on how the government
  solve the poverty problems effectively. ( -ve
  Judgment Social Esteem tenacity (resolve)) You
  have to criticize the government should handle
  the poverty problems but they had did not handle
  the poverty problems properly. (-ve Judgment
  Social Esteem tenacity (resolve) )
• You hav to look for the definition, cause and
  effect and suggested solutions and compare with
  other countries in the world which can help you
  to learn international mindedness (ve Judgment
  Social Esteem Capacity ),You are caring the
  global issues. (ve Judgment social sanction
  propriety (ethics).

37
Critical thinking Skills

• Teacher used probing questions to engage students
  to make judgement and self-reflection on personal
  beliefs and ethics. Students have to think the
  relationship between poverty and ethics. She
  encouraged students to learn from the peers
  through discussion and critical thinking.
  Students criticize that poverty was caused by the
  corruption of the government. Students make the
  Judgment social sanction propriety (ethics) and
  criticize that the inequalities and social
  injustice were caused by the governments
  corruption and did not care the poor in Africa.

38
Critical thinking

• Chris?????????,????????????????,???????????????,
  ???????????????????????,??????????,??????????????

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Critical thinking

• Chris The large volume of information on the
  Internet makes it difficult to differentiate
  between genuine and false information, causing
  misunderstanding and errors when the information
  is received. This will lead Internet citizens to
  have incorrect impressions of the cultures of
  other countries. This will give rise to bias.
  Under more severe conditions, it will lead to
  racial discrimination. (inscribed Social
  Sanctionpropriety (ethics) Negative Judgement).
  Students analyze casual relationship of the
  reasons of internet abuse, which caused ethics
  problems.
• Students engage in self-reflection on personal
  beliefs and values.

40
Critical thinking

• ?????????,?????????,????????,?????????,????????
  ??,??????????,???????
• Teacher For each argument point, you must have a
  corresponding evidence. Then, you need to prove
  that argument. Evidence for the argument is the
  fact. Facts are the examples that you can find in
  real life.
• Teacher requests students have to apply
  reasoning, justification, induction and deduction
  in order to get rid of biases.

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Critical thinking skills

• Discussion of controversial issues can build
  skills such as listening, debate, handling
  conflict, self awareness, distinguishing between
  fact and opinion, creative problem solving,
  critical thinking, ethical reasoning, recognizing
  bias, evaluating evidence, justifying an
  argument, logical "We should be teaching students
  how to think. Instead, we are teaching what to
  think." (Clement and Lochhead, 1980, Cognitive
  Process Instruction). Critical thinking can help
  students to have self reflection and
  classification of values. Teacher promotes
  thinking and discussion can encourage students to
  have critical thinking skills and whole class
  engagement which can offer more opportunities for
  students to share their opinions, receive
  feedbacks and achieve challenge tasks by groups.

42
Results and Discussion

• It is very important that teacher to be a role
  model to promote international mindedness.
• Halliday points out (2007187) that the second
  language learning likes the first language
  learning is a problem solving activity and
  information processing.
• The teacher encourages students to learn and
  respect different points of view on social
  issues. Christie (2000169) indicates that
  teachers open-mindedness will help students to
  develop international mindedness and their
  independent points of view critically.

43
Results and discussion

• Interview with teacher
• Teacher I think the ideology of the IB mission
  statement is very deep. It hope to educate
  children to be internationally minded. It is very
  important. So they will also be open-minded and
  willing to express their own opinions. Therefore,
  I think in the classroom they should be able to
  express their own view freely.
• ?????,??IB Mission Statement???????,?????????????
  ??,????,????????,?????????????????????????????????
  

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Conclusion

• In order to be able to accept and respect other
  cultures and have tolerance towards cultural
  differences. Both teachers and students need to
  cultivate intercultural understanding and have
  the ability to think globally in a critical and
  logical way, mutual trust and respect and work
  co-operatively, take responsibilities in society,
  resolve conflict in a non-violent manner.
  (Judgment Social Esteem Capacity ).
• The teaching and learning tradition has been
  shifted to conceptualized international
  mindedness, global citizenship, knowledge
  acquisition as well as shifted towards
  independent learning. (Judgment Social Esteem
  Capacity ).

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Conclusion

• Zhou (2006) advocates Learning to be developing
  professional attributes, including commitment,
  sense of responsibility and love for teaching and
  for learners to improve human communication
• Learning to live together breaking isolation for
  team work and guiding learners as coach of
  learning and as co-learners with their pupils in
  achieving educational aims of human development
  and full flowering of human potential.

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Peaceful World

• IBOs mission statement is to create a better and
  more peaceful world through education.
• Confucius advocated a perfect world of
  brotherhood of mankind which is an ideal world or
  Utopia Da-Tong ???? encompasses equality,
  union, harmony, welfare, justice and universal
  peace.
• Mencius promoted peace and justice for the entire
  world.
• As Liu (2000) argues that Neo-Confucian
  philosophers promote respecting different
  cultures, multiculturalism, humanitys ultimate
  concern ???? and compassion by sustainable
  development and intercultural dialogue in a
  global village.

47
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