"The discourse of multiculturalism is not the voice of ethnic and racial minorities speaking for themselves. It is, rather, the voice of white middle-class education professionals speaking about 'problem' groups," one academic alleges, but through more open-ended discussion and generating student feedback that allows them to infuse their personal cultural and intercultural experiences into the classroom, a more positive conception of intercultural communication can occur (Olneck, 1990, p. 163). A university setting can be uniquely beneficial to establishing intercultural dialogue simply because it is designed to have structured listening experiences that are then reinforced by outside social activity. Universities cannot assume that such exchanges will take place naturally, nor can they enforce a policy that everyone must get along in a community where individuals must learn to speak new cultural languages. "There is often yet another more tacit barrier to collaborative understanding. It arises even in a climate of dialogue like the 'community conversation'... Listening is a highly constructive, interpretive activity under the best of conditions" (Flower, 2003, p.39). Appreciating the difference and situated-ness of others in a particular,...
(1993, June-July). The canon debate, knowledge construction, and multicultural education. Educational Researcher. 22. 5: 4-14.
A major goal of learning is facilitation of basic literacy and language skills of difference students, the importance of which stems from a persistent school failure in the United States of students with Hispanic, African-American and American Indian background (Gay, 1994). Multicultural education can ease the tensions by teaching skills in a cross-cultural communication style that emphasizes interpersonal relations, perspective taking, contextual analysis and understanding differing points-of-view and frames
Intercultural Relations Studies as "analysis of intergroup behaviour within contexts of cultural diversity." To explore this issue, they studied Spanish students in an English course at a Spanish university. They found that positive contacts between two cultures was not enough to create positive views of the culture unfamiliar to the participant. Data was gathered by using a questionnaire that measured ethnic attitudes and intercultural assumptions. It covered contacts with foreign
The important aspect to consider is the way that people perceive and accept these differing power distributions. The barrier and problem that Sally experiences in this particular case is that she comes from a society that favors a low power distance model of behavior as the accepted norm; whereas in the society in which she is now staying the cultural norms and accepted context is one of high power distance. In
Some cultures are overtly emotional, while there are others which believe in keeping emotions concealed, or only reveal them to a "rational" degree. Naturally such differences often lead to problems. Following are two examples from international diplomacy, cited by the University of Colorado's Conflict Research Consortium, which illustrate that lack of awareness of a certain culture and its values can result in longstanding misunderstandings, whereas accommodating cultural differences and
Such a system has the obvious advantage that the worker is very loyal to his company and develops a certain practice working in the same place, but, on the other hand, we may question ourselves on the motivating issue: is this still functional? The example of the Japanese society nowadays may show that it is not. Indeed, we find in Japanese companies that the motivating factors are actually restrictive factors
RESEARCH QUESTIONS Research questions asked in this present study include the following stated questions: (1) What role does Internet technology (Web 2.0) play in the international student's development and maintenance of a sense of belonging in a new home country? (2) What role does length of residence play in the international student's development and maintenance of a 'sense of belonging' in a new home country? (3) Are there any differences in the adaptation of
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