I have an interest in intercultural communication through my studies and work experience in teaching. Intercultural communication is a topic in our pedagogical studies, called Global and Multicultural Activities where the learning objectives are:
“The student teacher understands the role of the cultural background in the human behaviour. The student teacher is able to support the student’s adjustment process in a new environment. The student teacher is also able to guide and enhance the learning of a multicultural group. The student teacher knows the various sectors of the school’s international activities and is able to enhance his/her own globalization processes as well those of the students”. (VOC2, iVet course).I found the course very interesting and I learned a lot about the meaning of intercultural communication from different cultural perspectives. For example, Professor Galina Elizarova’s video lectures were very interesting, as I saw that there were some comparisons between Serbian and Russian culture. Especially in the attitude to arguments, these can be also described as lenient or holistic. ‘Russian language has the more holistic approach to arguments were the rules of traditional logic may not apply and the arguments are drawn from many different areas and fields’. ( Elizarova, video lecture, date of retrieval 28.05.2014). This I believe is also the case with Serbian language as well.
I learned a lot from Benet's developmental model. We looked at the model of intercultural sensitivity that has six stages: denial, defence, minimization, acceptance, adaptation and integration. I think that I am in the acceptance stage and moving towards adaptation and integration. Sometimes the work culture can be very different in smaller and bigger organizations. Smaller teams may discuss more personal issues which some cultures might find uncomfortable. These are the areas that I find challenging.
I would actually like to show a video with Benet's developmental model to my students. I believe that they would benefit from seeing the importance of adaptation and integration of cultural differences. They are studying in an International IB school and must see the importance of these values and build on their personal experiences of different cultures.
All education should look at the global educational needs and emphasize skills in educating about racial tolerance, empathy and human rights. The knowledge of these areas is important and it can be taught in the context of individual subjects.
I guess the subject of arts and photography is perhaps more natural way to introduce the concept of intercultural competences as it has a long history of looking at cultural differences, telling the story of a certain culture and how it has evolved through history. So this is a way also for me to definitely put to use the things I have learned on the course.
Politics has pervaded our life and it is also present in education. One can’t deny that and teachers will inevitably have their own political views. Educating students to objectively read the media articles can then lead to better understanding of culture and cultural differences. There has been a shift with constructivism in education to create more active approach by students in education and a more socially and culturally aware “pedagogy of freedom”, which was promoted by Freire. So through “dialogue, caring, community, courage, ethics, and responsibility toward society” we can be questioning the status quo. (Howard, 2013, date of retrieval 17.03.2014)
References:
Elizarova, G. Video lecture. University of Jyväskylä. Date of retrieval 28.05.2014
http://moniviestin.jyu.fi/ohjelmat/hum/viesti/en/ics/7
Howard, L. A. 2013. Connecting the World to the Word, Living Newspapers and Intercultural Communication Pedagogy. Communication Pedagogy Journal of Intercultural Communication, ISSN 1404-1634, issue. Date of retrieval 17.03.2014
http://immi.se/intercultural
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