1 1 xiaowei zhou & richard fay school of education, university of manchester, uk april 25 th...
TRANSCRIPT
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Xiaowei Zhou & Richard Fay
School of Education, University of School of Education, University of Manchester, UKManchester, UK
April 25April 25thth 2011, Peking University, China 2011, Peking University, China
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Plan for the Salon
Introduction(s)
Case Study 1: Richard and the development of his approach(es) to Intercultural Communication (research)
Case Study 2: Xiaowei and the development of her approach(es) to Intercultural Communication research
Concluding remarks
Questions, comments, discussion
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Richard -personal & professional narrativeManchester … through Anglo-Irish eyesCulture-shock …. at OxfordPoland … and British Life and InstitutionsMEd TESOL (1990) @ Manchester … meeting HollidayLanguage Teacher Education @ Manchester
Developing intercultural courses (@ Manchester & beyond)
Greece and the Balkans … projects informing my small-culture , narrative and reflexive PhD (1998-2004)
Supervisions of intercultural (large and small culture),
narrative, reflexive doctorates (incl. Xiaowei, 2005-2010)3
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Richard’s struggle with cultures large and small[My] desire to understand generic Greekness has been
personally rewarding, my professional self needed to understand Greek Higher Education, the Greek practice of distance learning, and Greek project teams.
Further, although I have found some specific aspects of Greekness … to be useful in understanding the contextual backdrop against which the project action takes place, understandings of Greekness seemed much less helpful when I focused on understanding the project itself.
Instead, my search for understanding focused on the cultures of the ‘English’ programme and the project. In this move from a focus on Greekness per se to a focus on the emergent cultures of the project, my thinking has been influenced by the work of Adrian Holliday (e.g. 1994 and 1999) ….
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Adrian Holliday‘Appropriate methodology & social context’ (1994)
‘small cultures’ (1999)
‘Doing and writing qualitative research’ (2004/2007)
‘Intercultural communication: An advanced resource book …’ (2004/2010)
‘The value of reconstruction in revealing hidden or counter cultures’ (2004)
‘The struggle to teach English as an international language’ (2005)
‘Intercultural communication and ideology’ (2010)
and he also Externally Examined my PhD. links to Brian Street (below) and Marshall Singer (Xiaowei)
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Holliday’s Key Ideas (for Richard and ….)Key idea 1: Appropriate methodology (tissue
rejection)
+ BANA / TESEP cultures of ELT (not geographical terms)+ TESOL practitioner (and student?) as ethnographer(s) of classroom
Key idea 2: Host culture complexKey idea 3: Small culture approach
… to combat otherisation and act as an antidote to an often uncritical default large culture approach (not actually an issue of size)
Key idea 4: Culturism & native-speakerism (modelled on e.g. racism, sexism, age-ism)
Key idea 5: Reflexivity, transparency, voice (in research writing)
Key idea 6: Power of reconstructed narratives (in intercultural awareness-raising) 6
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Large and small (neat binaries?)
Large Small
•Culturist, collectionist, •essentialist/ reductivist approach & culture seen as relatively fixed•focus on societal culture •national-level construct•Stereotyping / otherising & prescriptive•top-down & product-focused•culture-as-a-noun (Brian Street)
•associated with quantitative / positivist research paradigms•studied diachronically
•operationalist & interactionist•Culture seen as emergent and relatively amorphous•focus on anthropological culture •small group construct•Interpretive & descriptive
•bottom-up & process-focused•culture-as-a-verb (Brian Street)
•associated with qualitative / ethnographic research •studied synchronically
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Richard’s conversion to narrative…. I began noticing the presence of narratives throughout the project, in the stories colleagues were telling each other to explain why and how things were as they were. For example, new members were socialised into the team through the explanatory narratives of the original members …
…. their accounts seemed to capture their understandings of what was happening but also their emotional responses to it and their developing practices. …. In sum, I realised the extent of the narrative world of the project in comparison to my earlier concern for the experienced world of the project.
I began to believe that I could access and construct understandings of the project through the stories told by some of the participants in it.
thinking then informed by Jerome Bruner, Michael Connelly et al (Narrative
Inquiry)
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Richard’s PhD (2004)
Stories of Emergent Cultures of Distance Learning and Collaboration: Understanding
the CELSE-Hellenic Open University Project
Fay, R. and Hill, M. (2003) Educating language teachers through
distance learning: The need for culturally-appropriate DL methodology
Open Learning, 18 (1), 9-27.
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Intercultural courses @ Manchester
Masters-level (MA TESOL …. + new MA in IC) Language Education as Intercultural Practice Developing Researcher Competence Computer-Mediated Intercultural Competence Intercultural Education in Practice
BA-level Computer-Mediated Intercultural Communication Becoming Global Going Global: IC for International Experience Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters ??
Doctoral Narrative Inquiry Narrative-reflexivity
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Hiromi FurusawaAn integrated approach to understanding Japanese
students’ classroom communication: A case study (Masters Dissertation, 2005)
… As a Japanese citizen myself, I have been interested in this
issue [of Japanese students being seen as ‘passive’ in the Western
classroom] both as a student at US and UK Higher Education as a
teacher [ .. ] of English as a Foreign Language in Japan.
It has been my hope to find a way to help my fellow Japanese to
overcome the difficulties, if any, which they experience in the
English-medium classroom. My journey to find a way lasted
throughout my MEd studies … and it turned out to be far more
complicated than I expected it to be.
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Hiromi continued
In this dissertation I will discuss how I, a Japanese teacher of
English as well as a postgraduate student [in] UK Higher
Education, have deepened my understandings of Japanese
students’ classroom communication behaviours.
…. Instead of presenting only the outcome of the journey, I
have chosen to write about the process I went though to
develop my knowledge on the issue because ‘knowledge is not
something objective and independent of the teacher to be
learned and transmitted, but, rather, is the sum total of the
teacher’s experiences’ (Clandinnin et al 1997).
I believe discussion of my experiences both as a teacher and
researcher is necessary in effectively presenting my
knowledge to others.
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Societal(large, relatively stable culture)
[I] [II]
Objective(above the
water)
Subjective(below the water)
[III] [IV]
Personal & Interpersonal (small, emergent culture)
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Doctoral -- Mapping Narrativity and Reflexivity
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The IC approach @ Manchester
IC courses … …. all informed by a small-culture, reflective and reflexive, and often narrative approach to the intercultural.
Richard’s research & supervision areas include … conceptualising approaches to the cultural and intercultural narrative inquiry reflexivity and the narrativity-reflexivity of research texts developing researcher competence doing research multilingually
2005 Xiaowei Zhou begins PhD ---- Case Study 2
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Xiaowei - personal & academic narrative (I)
Relocation from South China to North China: culture shock first experienced
Romantic relationship with a “northerner”: culture shock between “north” and “sourth” reinforced
Romantic trips to the UK: culture shock between national boundaries experienced
BA module, MA assignment and dissertation: initial intercultural communication thinking and research
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Zhou, X. (2003). Cultural identification and the second language grammaticality in speech: Three cases of Chinese college graduates in the UK. Unpublished Paper for the postgraduate module “Empirical Research Methods in Languages Studies”, Peking University, Beijing.
Zhou, X. (2005). Expectation versus reality: Cultural difficulties of Chinese students in the United Kingdom. Unpublished MA dissertation, Peking University, Beijing.
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Xiaowei - personal & academic narrative (II)
Long-term academic sojourn:Marked experience of cultural generalisations
and otherisationsBecoming increasingly in line with the small-
culture theory: Adrian Holliday, Marshall Singer (next page)
Shift of attention from “Chineseness” to emergent cultural phenomena at the group level (non-size-oriented)
因地制宜？因材施教？
因人而异 ?
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The notion of culturally-unique and culturally-complex individuals…(Marshall Singer, 1998)
Group I: the Chinese Society of University XGroup II: individuals from PR ChinaGroup III: men in their 30sGroup IV: Masters students in School of Computer ScienceGroup V: waiters in an Italian restaurantGroup VI: experienced accountantsGroup VII: sons…
Xiaoming as a member of the Chinese Society
Xiaowei as a member of the Chinese Society
Group I: the Chinese Society of University XGroup II: individuals from PR ChinaGroup III: women in their 20sGroup IV: doctoral research students in the School of Education Group V: sales advisors in a clothing retail company Group VI: daughtersGroup VII: wivesGroup VIII: a teaching team for a particular intercultural course …
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The broad focus of my PhD research
(Academic) acculturation, involving ---second (academic) culture acquisition /
learningchanges in the affective, cognitive and
behavioural dimensionsthe sojourner’s positioning between the home
(academic) culture and host (academic) culture
e.g. development of intercultural sensitivity (Bennett 1993 & 1998):
denial -> defence -> minimization -> acceptance -> adaptation ->
integration
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Some relevant existing studies (I) …
Using the large-/small-culture framework as a filter, I found that these studies tend to …
make cross-cultural comparisons in relation to national contexts
otherise “Chinese students’” characteristics and attribute them to the Confucian Heritage
overgeneralise sojourners’ mood fluctuations, acculturation strategies etc.
Also, there are not many studies addressing acculturation as a dynamic process longitudinally.
'Passive recipients of knowledge', 'lacking in critical thinking', 'given to
rote learning without developing real understandings', and 'quiet/reticent learners'.
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Some relevant existing studies (II) …
My stance: These studies did provide some interesting
and potentially useful generalisations. However, they tend to describe part of the picture, as I believe that acculturation is a phenomenon involving many more complexities. This is where I find the Small-Culture approach a useful enrichment to my understandings of acculturation.
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Research focus sharpened…
Reformulation of terms:
from “Chinese students” to “some students from mainland China” from “culture” to “cultural context” (e.g. ACC1 and ACC2)
Research focus: I wanted to learn about the phenomena of academic acculturation by
exploring the understandings of some students from mainland China with regard to their academic experiences on an Economics-related Master’s course in a UK HE institution over a one-year period. I wanted to explore their understandings as reflected in their reported moods over time related to their academic lives in the UK and their personal experience stories of their “initial academic experiences” as developing at particular moments in time and influenced by the accumulation of further experiences.
Not just about terminology, but, more importantly, about
belief! Now I understand why a PhD is called a Doctor of
Philosophy!
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Research design and some data (I)
One-year longitudinalSix casesweekly generation of data related to the
participants’ mood status regarding their academic lives
four narrative interviews with each participant regarding their initial academic experiences
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Research design and some data (II)
Mood data numerical and verbal
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0 5 10 15 20 25 30
21 2007-02-09心情还不错，一切顺利这周学习还比较尽然有序，选课也已经定下来，上课进入正规。
22 2007-02-16
比较糟！前几天心里乱七八糟的，这几天还算好些了！我最担心的事情发生了：前天得知了上学期考试成绩，虽然绝对数字也过得去，但是和别人一比就差了好多，由此联想到一连串关于论文选题的事情，所以心情很不好！由此看来，考试还是很大程度上影响了我的心情，我真的做不到其他人所谓的“ 50分万岁”
23 2007-02-23最近心情还不是很好好像还老是在考试的阴影中，尤其是一想到 23号就要交 FINANCE的论文的选题，就觉得难受。
24 2007-03-02
比起前两周，稍微好了很多心情平复了很多，反思过后是新一轮挑战的开始。其实我还是很喜欢学习的，所以能在学习中寻找乐趣，一度的失落不代表未来，只要找准方向继续努力一定会有收获。另外，我 1月中旬的时候报名了 6月的 CFA考试，先从 LEVEL ONE考起，这是我一年多以来的梦想，只是一直在关注并没有付诸行动。这个星期真正开始着手准备，觉得离自己的梦想一步步近了。所以心情就好了许多压力即是动力，目标是助推器
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Research design and some data (III)
Narrativesfour tellings of the “same” experienceparticipants deciding on the beginnings and
ends
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Key findings (I)
the participants’ interactions with their host academic-culture complex seemed to mainly take place in the sites of the modules they attended
their host academic cultural complex can be understood as the following host academic-culture complex (ACC2):
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Key findings (II)
Some responses to the U-Curve:
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Key findings (III) - quizWho experienced more intense mood fluctuations? Newcomers or
the “old hand”? Why?The “old hand”. She chose more difficult modules to study, while
the newcomers chose to “play safe”.
What was their most commonly experienced negative mood? Why?
“急 /ji [anxiety]”, related to assessment (e.g. preparation, notification of results).
In which of the following aspects did the participants report most / least
intense mood fluctuations? Why? (1.overall mood; 2. lecture-comprehension experience; 3. assessment; 4. relationship withacademic staff; 5. relationship with peer students; 6. using
academicrelated resources)3 (most intense), key to successful graduation4 and 5 (least intense), preferred self-teaching, living separately,
perceived difficulty in forming intimate relationship with the culturally-complex peer students
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Key findings (IV)
Cultural learning:more oral participation in the classroom; varieties of English; presentation and seminar skills (different
emphases in EAP and subject courses)…
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The six cases’ uniqueness
Fiona ： 好强的适应者 [A fighter for Adaptation]George: 跟进度着急的学生 [A student struggling
with teaching pace]Laura: 懵懂的探索者 [A muddle-headed explorer]Emma: 平静的自学者 [A peacful self-taught
learner]Jenny: 不投入感情的实用主义者 [A detached
instrumentalist]Sarah: 失望的“老油条” [the disappointed “old
hand”]How do the above relate to “Chinese students’ acculturation into the UK education system” and “Confucianism”? Represent? Reflect part of? Or…
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Concluding remarks 9(Xiaowei and Richard)
It is not a matter of SIZE!
Large-culture approach:
Prescriptive
Top-down
Essentialist
Culturist (culture determines human thinking and behaviour)
Ruling out explanations other than explanations based on (supra)national cultures
small-culture approach:
Interpretive
Bottom-up
Non-essentialist
Operationalist (culture emerges through human interaction)
Open to all possible explanations, including explanations based on (supra)national cultures
Intercultural communication, narrativity, reflexivity …
