Culture(s) and the Learner

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Culture(s) and the Learner

• How cultures differ, their impacts on our selves
  and on cross-cultural relationships, and how
  these relate to our learners and to ourselves.
• Relates most specifically to learning outcome
  associated with working with and providing
  support for a diverse student body in the context
  of widening participation, internationalism

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Experiential Task 1

• Stand mingle follow out the instructions with
  everybody in the room.

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Touchy Subjects

• Haptics
• Proxemics
• Chronemics
• Kinesics
• Oculisics

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Time - Monocronic

• Clock time
• Appointment time
• Segmented time
• Task-oriented time
• Achievement tempos
• Future-focused approach
• Tangible outcome orientation

USA, Germany, Switzerland
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Time- Polycronic

• Situational time
• Flextime
• Simultaneous activities
• Relationship-oriented perspective
• Experiental tempos
• Past/present-focused approach
• Historical orientation

Arab, African, Latin American, Asian,
Mediterranean
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Kinesics

• Greetings exercise
• Assumptions about universality
• Emotional (maybe subconscious) reactions

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Khruschev, Kennedy and a Cold Cold War
?
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Cultural Difference

• Your signals

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Culture - each to his own

• Tourists stare at Moroccans in the Grand Soco,
  wondering, perhaps, what odd Johnnies they are,
  never suspecting that the scrutiny is reciprocal.
  With our sun-scorched foreheads, our
  bikini-in-the-street shamelessness, what can they
  think ?
• Michael Watkins, Times

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For example the beard as cultural symbol
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Culture

• What do you understand by the term "culture" ?

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Icebergs

• Many, if not most, people think of culture as
  what is often called high culture - art,
  literature, music, and the like. This culture is
  set in the framework of history and of social,
  political, and economic structures........

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Icebergs

• ........Actually, the most important part of
  culture for the sojourner is that which is
  internal and hidden..., but which governs the
  behavior they encounter. This dimension of
  culture can be seen as an iceberg with the tip
  sticking above the water level of conscious
  awareness.
• 1 Weaver G.R. 1993 Understanding and Coping
  with Cross-Cultural Adjustment Stress in Paige
  R.M. 1993 (p157)

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Icebergs

• ........ By far the most significant part,
  however, is unconscious or below the water level
  of awareness and includes values and thought
  patterns. 1
• 1 Weaver G.R. 1993 Understanding and Coping
  with Cross-Cultural Adjustment Stress in Paige
  R.M. 1993 (p157)

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Layers of Culture

• The Concrete This is the most visible and
  tangible level of culture, and includes the most
  surface-level dimensions such as clothes, music,
  food, games, etc. These aspects of culture are
  often those which provide the focus for
  multicultural "festivals" or "celebrations.
• Hidalgo, N. 1993. Multicultural teacher
  introspection. In Perry, T. and Fraser, J. (Eds.)
  Freedom's Plow Teaching in the Multicultural
  Classroom. New York Routledge. Hidalgo's levels
  include

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Layers of Culture

• The Behavioral This level of culture clarifies
  how we define our social roles, the language we
  speak, and our approaches to nonverbal
  communication.
• Hidalgo, N. 1993. Multicultural teacher
  introspection. In Perry, T. and Fraser, J. (Eds.)
  Freedom's Plow Teaching in the Multicultural
  Classroom. New York Routledge. Hidalgo's levels
  include

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Layers of Culture

• The behavioral level reflects our values. Aspects
  to be listed in this category include language,
  gender roles, family structure, political
  affiliation, and other items that situation us
  organizationally in society.
• Hidalgo, N. 1993. Multicultural teacher
  introspection. In Perry, T. and Fraser, J. (Eds.)
  Freedom's Plow Teaching in the Multicultural
  Classroom. New York Routledge. Hidalgo's levels
  include

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Layers of Culture

• The Symbolic This level of culture includes our
  values and beliefs. It can be abstract, but it is
  most often the key to how individuals define
  themselves. It includes values systems, customs,
  spirituality, religion, worldview, beliefs,
  mores, etc.
• Hidalgo, N. 1993. Multicultural teacher
  introspection. In Perry, T. and Fraser, J. (Eds.)
  Freedom's Plow Teaching in the Multicultural
  Classroom. New York Routledge. Hidalgo's levels
  include

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Culture You

• What does it mean to you to be ......ish/...ic/...
  ese (your own nationality)?
• Do you consider you have a cultural identity
  which is not based on your nationality? If so,
  what does it mean to you to be...ish/...ic/...ese?
  

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What about Me?

• What identities do you associate with your-
  self?
• Add some of the most important to create a
  personal culture star.
• Youll be sharing some of this with others in the
  group so leave out anything you do not feel
  comfortable sharing

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How cultures differ
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Hofstede

• Collectivist
• High Power-Distance
• Masculine
• High Uncertainty-Avoidance
• Long term orientation

• Individualist
• Low Power-Distance
• Feminine
• Low Uncertainty-Avoidance
• Short term orientation

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Hofstede 1

• Individualism pertains to societies in which the
  ties between individuals are loose everyone is
  expected to look after himself or herself and his
  or her immediate family. Collectivism at its
  opposite pertains to societies in which people
  from birth onwards are integrated into strong,
  cohesive ingroups, which throughout peoples
  lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for
  unquestioning loyalty.

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Hofstede 2

• Power distance...can be defined as the extent to
  which the less powerful members of institutions
  and organizations within a country expect and
  accept that power is distributed unequally.

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Hofstede 3

• Masculinity pertains to societies in which social
  gender roles are clearly distinct (i.e.e, men are
  supposed to be assertive, tough, and focused on
  material success whereas women are supposed to be
  more modest, tender, and concerned with the
  quality of life)

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Hofstede 4

• femininity pertains to societies in which social
  gender roles overlap (i.e., both men and women
  are supposed to be modest, tender, and concerned
  with the quality of life).

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Hofstede 5

• .....both men and women hold tougher values in
  masculine countries and more tender values in
  feminine ones. In masculine countries both boys
  and girls learn to be ambitious and competitive,
  although the ambition of the girls may be
  directed towards the achievements of their
  brothers and later of their husbands and sons.

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Hofstede 6

• Uncertainty avoidance can...be defined as the
  extent to which the members of a culture feel
  threatened by uncertain or unknown situations.
  This feeling is, among other things, expressed
  through nervous stress and in a need for
  predictability a need for written and unwritten
  rules.

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Hofstede 7

• Uncertainty avoidance The strong uncertainty
  avoidance sentiment can be summarized by the
  credo of xenophobia What is different is
  dangerous. The weak uncertainty avoidance
  sentiment on the contrary is What is different
  is curious

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Hofstede 8

• Time Orientation
• How much we invest for the future, seek to
  preserve, and are patient waiting for results
• Long Term
• characterised by persistence, ordering
  relationships by status and observing this order,
  thrift, and having a sense of shame
• thought to support a strong work ethic where
  long-term rewards are expected as a result of
  today's hard work

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Hofstede 9

• Short term
• characterised by personal steadiness and
  stability, protecting your "face, values
  oriented towards the past and present, like
  respect for tradition and fulfilling social
  obligations
• change can occur more rapidly as long-term
  traditions and commitments do not become
  impediments to change.

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• Source http//www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_uni
  ted_kingdom.shtml

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Implications

• Consider the implications Hofstedes cultural
  dimensions may have on student attitudes/
  behaviours and on our responsibilities in
  supporting their learning.
• NB pdf Hofstede and the Tutor on WebCT

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Student Differences
How do they differ? What do they need? Who should
provide it?
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• Forms of Diversity
• Gender

• Aspects of Diversity
• Values

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Disability, Disadvantage, Diversity

• What do we mean by having a disability?

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Responses to difference

• Misattribution
• Stereotypes prejudices
• Segregation/ Integration

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Misattribution
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Misattribution

• A deeply held value
• Translates into a specific attitude
• Which is manifested in a particular behaviour
• Which is (mis)interpreted as an indication of the
  underlying value

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Which nationalities do they mean?

• They are very hypocritical.
• They treat their wives very badly.
• They are cruel to their children.
• They are not hygienic.
• They do not have proper meals.
• They are cold and hard.

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• Reflect upon any observations/ views you have
  about how people from different cultures view the
  world.

• Reflect upon any observations/ views you have
  about how people from different cultures behave.

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Touchy Subjects II

• Stereotypes
• Prejudices
• Discrimination

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Stereotypes Prejudices

• Stereotypes
• beliefs about a group of people.
• Prejudices
• attitudes towards a group of people (based on a
  stereotype).
• Discrimination
• - behaviours towards a group of people (based
  upon a stereotype/prejudice).

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Prejudice in UK HE

• I have experienced a Berlin Wall of prejudices
  from UK students something that everyone knows
  about but no-one dares to talk about because it
  is sort of a taboo

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Prejudice in UK HE

• which in its turn results in tacit compliance
  and a minimum of (social) interaction between UK
  and international students.
• Danish female undergraduate with South Korean
  origins reported in UKCOSA Survey Report
  Broadening our Horizons2004

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Why?

• In the USA, blacks consistently under-perform on
  IQ tests compared to whites.
• Female students overall do less well on maths
  tests than males.
• 87 of white players in the US National
  Basketball Association are Europeans.

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Social Identity Threat

• Aspects of our social identity
• Contingencies (i.e. issues arising)
• Specific or life changing
• if negative
• Identity Threat

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Stereotype Threat

• Negative stereotyping of your group
• Contingencies (resulting from subconscious
  conformity to the stereotype)
• Stereotype Threat

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Steele Research as to why

• In the USA, why do blacks consistently
  under-perform on IQ tests compared to whites?
• Why do female students overall do less well on
  maths tests than males?
• 87 of white players in the US National
  Basketball Association are Europeans.

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Reading
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Source University of Canterbury, NZ
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Culture Shock

• Culture shock is seen as a temporary stress
  reaction where salient psychological and physical
  rewards are generally uncertain, and hence
  difficult to control or predict.
• Furnham A, The experience of being an overseas
  student, in McNamara Harris (Eds) 1997

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Aspects of Culture Shock

• Strain due to the effort required to make
  necessary psychological adaptions.
• A sense of loss and feelings of deprivation in
  respect of friends, status, profession, and
  possessions.
• Being rejected by and/or rejecting members of a
  new culture.

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Aspects of Culture Shock

• Confusion in role, role expectations, values,
  feeling and self-identity.
• Surprise, anxiety, even disgust and indignation
  after becoming aware of cultural differences.
• Feelings of impotence due to not being able to
  cope with the new environment.
• Summary taken from Adrian Furnham,
• The experience of being an overseas student,
• in McNamara Harris (Eds) 1997
• Overseas Students in Higher Education
• Issues in teaching and learning, Routledge,
• pp14-15