¿Puede un modelo educativo intercultural combatir la discriminación y la xenofobia? = Can an intercultural education model combat discrimination and xenophobia?

In this article we present a qualitative study conducted with six indigenous and six mestizos from Intercultural University of Chiapas. The aim of the study is to exemplify the mutual perception between different ethno-linguistic groups, as well as the possible change occurred after the admission to the University. That is, opinions about the other group after and before entering the University. We conclude that a higher education intercultural model can promote mutual understanding and relationship between indigenous and mestizos and thus combat prejudices and stereotypes

Understanding Foreign Masters : the examples of Rabindranath Tagore and Fyodor Dostoyevskiy

The Indian author Rabindranath Tagore was received like royalty during his visits to the West after winning the Nobel Prize in 1913. Dreams of foreign cultures offered a retreat from a complicated age. In a time when the West appeared to be living under threat of disintegration and when industrialism seemed like a cul-de-sac, he appeared to offer the promise of a return to a lost paradise, a spiritual abode that is superior to the restless Western culture. However, Tagore’s popularity faded rapidly, most notably in England, the main target of his criticism. Soon after Tagore had won the Nobel Prize, the English became indignant at Tagore’s anti-colonial attitude.Tagore visited Sweden in 1921 and 1926 and was given a warm reception. His visits to Sweden can be seen as an episode in a longer chain of events. It brought to life old conceptions of India as the abode of spirituality on earth. Nevertheless, interest in him was a relatively short-lived phenomenon in Sweden. Only a few of his admirers in Sweden appreciated the complexity of Tagore’s achievements. His “anathema of mammonism”, as a Swedish newspaper called it, was not properly received. After a steady stream of translations his popularity flagged towards the end of the 1920s and then almost disappeared entirely. Tagores visits in Sweden gave an indication that India was on the way to liberate itself from its colonial legacy, which consequently contributed to the waning of his popularity in the West. In the long run, his criticism of the drawbacks in the western world became too obvious to maintain permanent interest. The Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevskiy’s Crime and Punishment (1866) has enticed numerous interpretations such as the purely biographical approach. In the nervous main character of the novel, the young student Raskolnikov, one easily recognizes Dostoyevskiy himself. The novel can also be seen as a masterpiece of realistic fiction. It gives a broad picture of Saint Petersburg, a metropolis in decay. Crime and Punishment can also be seen as one of the first examples of a modern psychological novel, since it is focused on the inner drama of its main character, the young student Raskolnikov. His actions seem to be governed by mere coincidences, dreams and the spur of the moment. it seems fruitful to study the novel from a psychoanalytical approach. In his book Raskolnikov: the way of the divided towards unity in Crime and Punishment (1982), a Swedish scholar, Owe Wikström, has followed this line of interpretation all the way to Freud’s disciple C G Jung. In addition to this, the novel functions as an exciting crime story. To a large extent it is Viktor Sjklovskij and other Russian formalists from the 1920s and onwards who have taught the western audience to understand the specific nature of the crime story. The novel could be seen as a story about religious conversion. Like Lasarus in the Bible (whose story attracts a lot of attention in the novel) Raskolnikov is awakened from the dead, and together with Sonja he starts a completely new life. The theme of conversion has a special meaning for Dostoyevskiy. For him the conversion meant an acknowledgement of the specific nature of Russia itself. Crime and punishment mirrors the conflict between traditional Russian values and western influences that has been obvious in Russia throughout the history of the country. The novel reflects a dialogue that still continues in Russian society. The Russian literary historian Mikhail Bakhtin, who is probably the most famous interpreter of the works of Dostoyevskiy, has become famous precisely by emphasizing the importance of dialogues in novels like Crime and Punishment. According to Bakhtin, this novel is characterized by its multitude of voices. Various ideas are confronted with each other, and each one of them is personified by one of the characters in the novel. The author has resigned from his position as the superior monitor of the text, and he leaves it to the reader to decide what interpretation is the correct one..The aim of the present study is thus to analyze the complex reactions in the west to Tagore’s visits in Sweden and to Fyodor Dostoyevskiys novel Crime and Punishment.. This leads to more general conclusions on communication between cultures.

Students’ Perspectives on Extensive Literature : Using Literature to Enhance Communicative Competence and Cultural Understanding in the EFL-Classroom

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the use of literature within the Swedish Upper Secondary EFL-classroom from the students’ perspective. How do the students in the study relate to literature and its use to enhance and enable their communicative competence and cultural understanding? Also, how do their answers compare with their teacher’s and the adult perspectives and findings from previous international research? The empirical data obtained from the study has been analysed from the perspectives of sociocultural and motivational theory, and the findings show that the participating students believe literature to be a good didactic tool to apply in the EFL-classroom, both in order to enhance their communicative competence and their cultural understanding. The students prefer to have a sociocultural approach to their literature-learning, with group-discussions of various sizes. The key for the students in this respect is interesting, relevant and engaging subject-matter, as well as a positive and motivational teacher. The responses given by the students correlate with those given by their teacher as well as previous international research. The students regard literature as a way of gaining new perspectives, as well as experiencing language in use. Where they diverge somewhat from the international research is in regard to literature’s use for enhancing their competence to speak in class, and that some students seem to think that communication and cultural understanding are separable. Future studies within this field might include the conducting of a larger and more in-depth survey regarding the students’ ideas about literature, culture and communication. Why do so many of the student respondents neither agree nor disagree with the statement concerning communication and cultural understanding being inseparable? This can be an important issue to investigate in today’s global climate of cross-cultural and intercultural experiences, especially in view of the political climate of diverse attitudes towards refugees, immigrants and emigration

Cultural understanding: rethinking music teacher education in a multicultural Australia

This paper provides a multicultural perspective to music education in Australia and makes recommendations for the creation of more suitable intercultural training programs in Australian universities. It explores issues of multiculturalism in higher education institutions and argues that music education is a useful platform to address and rethink cultural diversity, where difference can be celebrated. Within Australian multicultural society, the rights and traditions of all people are recognized, respected and included. In this process, higher education institutions are challenged to prepare student teachers to meet the needs of society. This involves cultural understanding and the creation of multicultural curricula. From reflecting on current music education programs offered at Deakin University, Melbourne, it is argued that there is need to rethink current approaches to music education pedagogy. Although there are attempts to have an all inclusive approach in teacher training, the music curriculum is still trapped in the potpourri effect of trying to create culturally responsive teachers for every permutation of the multicultural classroom. When Australian society, ideally approaches true styles of multicultural music, teachers and students will celebrate the rich diversity of this nation.

Strategies to embed intercultural competence as a soft skill in university curriculum

Intercultural competence (IC) has become significantly important as we interact and function in the global workplace and multicultural societies. To be effective in operating within a diverse multicultural society, understanding, negotiating and managing the differences is crucial. Additionally, the rich diversity should be celebrated in order to have a safe, sustainable and harmony global community. Specifically, internationalization in higher education has led to a significant increase in the importance of IC for students and staff. For international students, “learning shock” and different expectations of teaching styles require them to develop IC in order to be able to interact and facilitate their learning in different cultures. For local students, the increasing numbers of international students and new immigrant students result in the necessity to develop IC. For educators, IC enables them to be responsive to the diverse multicultural student body in order to deliver quality teaching and learning.
In this paper, based on the literature review, we attempt to suggest ways to embed intercultural competence as the soft skill in the university curriculum. Two complementary strategies will be discussed. The first approach focuses on embedding IC in the university curriculum. Considering IC is an abstract skill and difficult to measure, an outcome-based approach will be proposed to map students’ development of IC. The second is through international experience program that provides cross-cultural experience for students. This strategy describes how teaching practicum in other culture appears to be compatible with the principles to develop intercultural competence.

Intercultural relations in a global world

The exploration of cross-cultural contact in a global and transnational world is essential for understanding how we can learn to live with difference in ways that go beyond tolerance. This book explores such contact in Euro-American/Australian societies as well as non-western multiethnic societies such as China, Malaysia, Indonesia and countries within Easter Europe. The contributors in this book expose the power relations underpinning such encounters as well as explore the possibilities for meaningful dialogue.

Internationalising the curriculum : building intercultural understandings through music

This article reports of the power (influence) of music to develop intercultural understandings to better internationalise the curriculum. It argues that through internationalisation, we learn more about other people’s cultures hence, by providing an international/intercultural dimension into the teaching unit of ‘Discovering Music A’, tertiary students at Deakin University have opportunities to experience, investigate and participate in a different music and culture. Using the metaphor of the ‘talking drum’, this article reports through anecdotal notes, observations, journaling and student evaluation, how a different music, like that of Africa, communicates and promotes intercultural dialogue in a social and learning environment. The 2011 cohort included both international and local students from the Faculty of Arts and Education, Health and Business and Law, opening up a broad range of international dialogue in which all students in the cohort had a voice for expressing themselves about another culture and its music. I contend that the inclusion of a new and different music in the Bachelor of Education (Primary) curriculum and as an elective unit across all faculties provides a pathway for intercultural dialogue and understanding. As tertiary educators by internationalising the curriculum and through the process of reflection, observation and student feedback, we are able to make meaning around our practice and adapt our practice. I argue that units like Discovering Music A are an effective and useful dais to address cultural diversity and build intercultural relations and understandings in our tertiary courses.

Nursing educator perspectives of overseas qualified nurses' intercultural clinical communication: barriers, enablers and engagement strategies

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To understand the intercultural communication experiences and associated communication training needs of overseas qualified nurses in the Australian healthcare system from the unique perspectives of nurse educators teaching in accredited bridging programmes. BACKGROUND: Overseas qualified nurses are an integral part of the nursing workforce in migration destination countries. Communication training needs are more complex when there are cultural, ethnic and language differences between nurses, other health professionals and patients. DESIGN: A qualitative, exploratory research design using semi-structured interviews. METHODS: All (nine) organisations involved in conducting the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency approved preregistration bridging programmes for overseas qualified nurses within the state of Victoria, Australia, were involved in the study. Participants were 12 nurse educators employed in these organisations. Thematic analysis was undertaken. RESULTS: Three macro themes emerged about the overseas qualified nurses' intercultural communication: (1) pre-existing barriers and enablers to intercultural communication, for example, nurses' reluctance to engage in communicative strategies that build rapport with patients, (2) transitional behaviours and impact on communication, including maintenance of perceived cultural hierarchies between health professionals and (3) development of communicative competence, including expanding one's repertoire of conversational gambits. CONCLUSIONS: The findings point to the domains and causes of communication challenges facing overseas qualified nurses in new healthcare settings as well as strategies that the nurse educators and nurses can adopt. Communication cannot be merely regarded as a skill that can be taught in a didactic programme. Comprehensive understanding is needed about the sociocultural dimensions of these nurses' orientation, which can impact on how they communicate in their new healthcare settings. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The findings can act as triggers for discussion with overseas qualified nurses and other health professionals to raise awareness about the aspects of intercultural communication and to debate alternative viewpoints and explanations. They can also inform changes in the structure and content of the bridging programmes.

Relações públicas e a mediação do diálogo intercultural na comunicação organizacional

The large flow of businesses going abroad generates an ever more diverse internal multicultural organizational scenario. Different national cultures inside an organization can directly influence the management of people. Human values, languages, customs, work modes/routines and different habits can create conflicts among parties. This study deals with the role of Public Relations as a tool/strategy to deal with conflicting intercultural communication inside business organizations. The analysis is grounded on theoretical principles concerning the roles of communication professionals as the individuals responsible for the relationship between an institution and the internal public. The study introduces intercultural communication as a growing area to be explored by the Public Relations professional and highlights the possibility of emerging innovative solutions for organizational problems. It also brings reports by professionals that have intercultural experience concerning Brazil and Germany in an attempt to illustrate conflicts that might have been prevented by actions taken by a specialist in Communication in order to promote mutual understanding

Some considerations on the potential contributions of intercultural social work...

Social work at global levels, and across international and intercultural divides, is probably more important now than ever before in our history. It may be that the very form our ideas about intercultural work take need to be re-examined in the light of recent global changes and uncertainties. In this short position paper I wish to offer some considerations about how we might approach the field of intercultural social work in order to gain new insights about how we practise at both local and global levels. For me, much of the promise of an intercultural social work (and for the purposes of this paper I see aspects of international social work in much the same light) lies in its focus on the way we categorise ourselves, our ideas and experiences in relation to others. The very notion of intercultural or international social work is based on assumptions about boundaries, differences, ways of differentiating and defining sets of experiences. Whether these are deemed "cultural" or "national" is of less importance. Once we are forced to examine these assumptions, about how and why we categorise ourselves in relation to other people in particular ways, the way is opened up for us to be much more critical about the bases of our own, often very deep-seated, thinking. This understanding, about how and why notions of "difference" operate in the way they do, can potentially open our understanding to all the other ways, besides cultural or national labelling, in which we categorise and create differences between ourselves and others. Intercultural social work, taken as a potential site for understanding the creation of difference then, has the potential to help us critically examine the bases of much of our practice in any setting, since most practice involves some kind of categorisation of phenomena.

The Critical Friends Group: An Innovative Way to Build Intercultural Competence Among Student and Faculty Groups

Introduction Few physicians involved in medical education are likely to have had formal training in teaching. One pedagogical method that can enhance relationships, thus improve teaching and learning is the Critical Friends Group (CFG). The CFG is a collegial support team that offers improved understanding of others. Unconditional high regard for team members frames the interactions in the CFG. These teams could be used to reduce bias and enhance intercultural competence among student CFGs and faculty CFGs. [See PDF for complete abstract]

Atenuação pragmática e problemas de intercompreensão: um estudo intercultural entre paulistanos e cordobeses

Discutimos nesta pesquisa o uso dos elementos de Cortesia, em especifico, a atenuação, entendida como categoria pragmática que afeta as relações interpessoais enquanto atividade linguística (redução do dito e do dizer) e social (aproximação ou não distanciamento do outro). Enfatizando estes aspectos, o trabalho tem como objetivo comparar o emprego de procedimentos linguísticos de atenuação na produção de atos diretivos e respostas não preferidas (atos de fala não corteses), por estudantes universitários das cidades de São Paulo (Brasil) e Córdoba (Argentina). Ainda, explicar as diferenças tendo como base os conceitos de sociedades de aproximação e distanciamento (HAVERKATE, 2004 e BRIZ, 2007) e analisar as diferenças nas interpretações que realizaram os estudantes da cidade argentina dos enunciados formulados pelos paulistanos. Nesta investigação, formulou-se e aplicou-se questionário de coleta de dados denominado testes sociais no qual apareceram situações de interação no ambiente de trabalho e da faculdade. No processo analítico deste fenômeno, usamos o método comparativo salientando as relações quantitativas e qualitativas dos enunciados estabelecidos pelos paulistanos e cordobeses, analisando dois tópicos, a comparação dos procedimentos de atenuação empregados; e a interpretação dos enunciados (dos estudantes paulistanos) feita pelos alunos de Córdoba. Como resultado, verificamos o uso acentuado de procedimentos de atenuação por parte dos paulistanos, causando interpretações díspares por parte dos cordobeses.

Intercultural Communication Between Forensic and Clinical Psychologists

While working in clinical and forensic psychology settings, a communication difficulty between the two professions became apparent. Forensic psychologists often appeared cold and callous from the clinical psychologist’s perspective, while clinical psychologists often appeared naïve or too client centered from the forensic psychologist’s perspective. I wondered if viewing each subfield of psychology as a culture could facilitate better communication through intercultural communication. Guided by Intercultural Communication in Contexts (Martin & Nakayama, 2010) in approaching intercultural communication between the two professions, I explored factors contributing to each profession’s cultural identities. Once this was established, I attempted to explore the different ways each culture could communicate more effectively. By recognizing and utilizing the strengths from each profession and understanding the possible pitfalls of one’s own, we may become competent in intercultural communication

Understanding sociocognitive space of written discourse: Implications for teaching business writing to Chinese students

Confronted with various issues in teaching business writing to Chinese students in New Zealand, this paper sees the need for bridging the gap between genre-based research and teaching in an intercultural context. Specifically, it develops an intercultural reflective model in the light of Bhatia's sociocognitive genre study as well as cross-cultural persuasion. As an important part of the model, New Zealand and Chinese experts' intracultural and intercultural reflections on business writing are solicited and compared and the theoretical implications for teaching and learning business writing are discussed. It has been found, through a case study of analysing English and Chinese business faxes, this model can offer an in-depth understanding about discursive competence across cultures, and provide a link between genre-based theory, teaching practice and professional expertise.

West German bank advertising and the East German public:a study in intercultural advertising communication

In the wake of German unification, initial advertising by many West German companies in the new federal states (the former German Democratic Republic - GDR) proved largely ineffective and many advertisers were forced to change their approach to this new market. The advertising task proved even more complicated for banks, because banking existed only at the most basic level in the former GDR. Furthermore, under the old regime, "capitalist" banks represented the very antithesis of the GDR's founding ideology. This analysis of advertising by West German banks - in particular Dresdner Bank - in the new federal states brings together elements of discourse and communication theory, particularly Relevance Theory [Sperber and Wilson 1986], with the overall objective of designing a model of intercultural advertising communication. A series of simple association tasks based on texts from pre-Wende advertisements was completed by a sample of advertisees (as they are called in the study) in Leipzig. The research shows the lack of relevance between the advertiser's understanding of concepts such as "credit", "bank" etc. and the associations which these concepts have for the sample of advertisees. Further analysis reveals that this lack of relevance occurs because advertisers and advertisees assign differing contexts to these concepts when they communicate through advertising. The study concludes that these different contexts, governed by the contrasting ideological, economic and linguistic environments of the advertisers and advertisees, interfere with the effective communication of the advertising message.