The Engagement of Contact

Intercultural Understanding and Identity Building

Background

‘I don’t think we really know what we are looking for. How can I understand your culture? Really? I mean, no one is going to say it shouldn’t happen, but that’s not the same thing.’ - a teacher of English Literature

What is in a name? • Conceptually related areas

– International mindedness (Hill) – Cosmopolitanism (Gunesch, Weenink)

– Global citizenship (Marshall)

Hill (2006, 2007) -

intercultural understanding • KNOWLEDGE

– One’s own culture– Other cultures– World issues– Social justice– Equity

• SKILLS – Critical reflection– Problem solving– Inquiry

Hill (2006, 2007)

• ATTITUDES – Empathy– Respect– Open-mindedness– Commitment to:

•Peace•Social Justice•Equity

Heyward (2002) - intercultural literacy

• Understandings– How culture(s) feel and operate from the insider’s standpoint

• Competencies– Mindfulness– Empathy– Tolerance– Perspective-taking

Heyward (2002) - intercultural literacy

• Attitudes– Differentiated– Dynamic– Realistic – Respect for integrity of culture(s)

• Language proficiencies• Identities

– Bicultural, Transcultural– Conscious shift ‘between multiple cultural identities’

Hammer & Bennett (2001, 2003) - Intercultural Development

Inventory • Adaptation stage

– Engagement with own and other cultures with a critical and appreciative approach

– Patterns of cultural difference recognized and may influence decision-making

• Integration stage– Multiple perspectives into one’s own identity

Process

• Gradual development of attitudes (Hammer & Bennett)

• An additive process (Heyward)• Active

• To what extent is the development of intercultural understanding an act of identity (re)construction?

Questions of identity (Pearce, 2001)

• Convergent– Transcultural identity

• Divergent– Multiple identities

– Conscious shift ‘between multiple cultural identities’

– ‘Multiple perspectives into one’s own identity’

Cultural liberty (Van Oord & Corn)

• An individual’s freedom to embrace or defy his/her own tradition

View of culture

• Appadurai - individually driven notion of culture ‘an arena for conscious choice, justification and representation’

• ‘I don’t think we really know what we are looking for. How can I understand your culture? Really? I mean, no one is going to say it shouldn’t happen, but that’s not the same thing.’

• How can I understand my culture?

Questions• Does an emphasis on identity formation change the way we define intercultural understanding?

• What role does the institution (school) have in structuring any of the processes mentioned here?

• Do we agree that intercultural understanding wil necessarily lead to identity changes, or is it more accurate to talk about behavioural adaptations?

• Is all education identity re-construction?

View of culture• Inherits from anthropology a view that ‘experience is interpreted by each individual in terms of his/[her] own enculturation’ Herskovits (1948)

• Geertz (1973) pattern of meaning ‘historically transmitted pattern of meanings […] by means of which men communicate, perpetuate and develop their knowledge about attitudes towards life.’