Cultural Balance In Teaching, Research and Service

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Cultural Balance In Teaching, Research and Service

• Presented by Lucy Delgadillo, PhD

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Family and Cultural Values
Sources Valdes (2000) Noble Lacasa (1991).
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Teaching

• More social oriented
• Longer social protocols
• Story of Costa Rica students
• Language and Culture
• Latinos are more verbose, WHY?
• it takes more words to convey same message
  takes words with more syllabus to say the same
  word (but-ter man-te-qui-lla)
• Use of verbal periphrases

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Teaching Accent

• Research shows that undergraduate perceptions of
  the instructors accent are the strongest
  predictor of teacher evaluation (Rubin Smith,
  1990 Rubin, 1992 Skachkova, 2007)
• How do I get rid of my accent?
• Or should I concentrate on being a good teacher?
• I chose the 2nd option ?
• Because of possible correlation, I take actions

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Compensating for Accent

• Provide written information
• Use humor (ex. sheet vs. sht)
• Ask students to let me know if they dont
  understand me
• Ask them to teach me how to pronounce words
• Call on students who have told me they speak
  Spanish
• I feel my accent increase students sympathy
• Some of them refer to it, as cute

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Cultural Background Mentoring

• Collectivism, rather than individualism, is
  promoted
• Warmth, empathy, nurturing skills are endorsed
• Dont like to spoon feed students, but am very
  caring generous with my time (esp. in advising
  graduate students, and they appreciate this). Use
  event time with them rather than clock time. I
  schedule more clock time than we may need.

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Non-verbal Communication

• People from Latin America demonstrate more
  relaxed, casual behavior
• More comfortable with loud talk, exaggerated
  gestures, physical contact
• Feel comfortable with little personal distanceit
  may be rude to step away from someone when they
  are stepping closer
• (Richards, 2006)

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Culture shock on Non-verbal Communication

• Impolite to toss things to each other
• Walk over and hand it to them
• Exchanging greetingswaves and verbal salutations
  do not suffice
• (U.S. Institute of Languages, Spanish Culture and
  Nonverbal Communication)

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Research passion motivated

• Research to me is like my marriage spouse it
  has to turn me on, I need to be hot about it..
• Passion for Housing
• My second love is financial issues affecting
  Latino and other vulnerable populations, which
  include predatory lending, housing
  discrimination, affordability, payday lending

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Research Writing Style

• Writing style could be a challenge
• Myriam Torres (2002) explains American way of
  writing
• direct, very concise, and formal. It is better
  to avoid rhetorical, persuasive, or metaphorical
  style. this American way contrasts with the kind
  of rhetorical type of discourse that is very
  common in Latin America (p. 80)

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Costa Rican Way of Writing

• Dear members,
• I hope that you and your loved ones are all
  doing well upon receipt of this
• e-mail. Thank you so much for agreeing to serve
  as members of my TP committee. Id like to get
  us together to talk about my progress and
  assessment of my tenure appointment. Would you
  be so kind to email me the times you are
  available this semester? I hope this wont cause
  you too much problem,
• Sincerely,

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American Way of Writing

• I need to set up a meeting for my TP
  committee. Please send me the days and times when
  you absolutely CAN NOT meet

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Research on clock time not event time

• Regarding research, I have to follow Clock time.
  I have noticed if I do Event time I would miss
  all my deadlines
• Meetings Clock Time
• Classes and Presentations Clock Time
• Mentoring students Event-time
• Outside my work EVENT-TIME

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Research and Publishing

• English not native tongue
• reviewers always request many editorial changes
• Good writers recommend to read paper aloud
• Difficult to hear your own voice speaking in a
  second language
• Finding ones voice in a new language and culture
  is an enriching experience

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Service

• Strong interest in community service,
  particularly reaching out to agencies that
  provide services for Latinos
• Latino Youth role model for girls
• I think USU should more actively provide
  opportunities for Latino kids to get a college
  education
• Im willing to help

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Logo for Latino Campaign
Latino
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How do I keep a Cultural Balance?

• Take the best of both worlds. Embrace both
  cultures. Move easily within each
• Punctuality, organization, straight forward
  language of the American Culture
• Warmness, caring, present-oriented and family
  values of the Latin Culture
• Mix of event time with clock time
• Intercultural world allows to bring in different
  perspective and be a cultural ambassador
• Only through an exploration of others culture,
  one can understand ones own

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Questions?