Learning across cultures: Opening our minds as well as our doors

Dr. Janette Ryan, Monash University, AustraliaJude Carroll, Oxford Brookes University, UKBoth: Teaching International Students project

(2009-2011)

Ideas there are differences in academic

cultures and in learning approachesidentified by comparison and contrast.

One example: Confucian and Western education

learning from flows of people and ideas across cultural academic traditions?

….. a new approach, ‘transcultural’ Use examples from critical thinking and

academic writing / plagiarism to illustrate transcultural teaching and learning

An aside:

The temptation to reflect upon this presentation as a clear example of one way in which information can be analysed, critiqued and conveyed …..

Did you noticed the structure and tone already? … or was it so common as to be invisible?

Choosing the ‘lens’Difference, contrast, surpriseLanguage and culture?

Language or culture? Dangers of complexity

‘What assumptions am I making that are wrong?’

Academic cultures vary“ Culture” …. systems of human practice

Ways of knowing and being,

ontology, epistemology, methodologies and intellectual practices ideas about writing, analysis, evaluation‘Performativity’ [how you act out these

ideas]We all have one …. or several

Reversing the lens….

…. the same critical eye on our own assumptions and beliefs? Become self-aware?

One prompt is experiencing differences ….

Academic cultures: Same words ….. different meanings, different practices

Not simply differencesImbued with judgments on

qualityUsually seen as binary …. quickly

leads to opposition

‘Western’Critical thinking Independent learningStudent-centred learningAdversarial stanceArgumentative learnersAchievement of the

individualConstructing new

knowledge ‘Deep’ learners seeking

meaning

‘Confucian’Follow the MasterDependence on the

teacherRespect for the teacherHarmonyPassive learnersAchievement of the groupRespect for historical

texts ‘Surface’ or rote learners

Partial and biased

Much of the evidence produced for the way Chinese students behave in classroom settings has been drawn from reports and perceptions by Western instructors, thus filtered through their own values, expectations and standards’ Clark and Grieves, 2006 p. 60

As much variation within as between

Binary and hierarchical‘West is Best’

‘Western European’ [wide actual geography … US, NZ, etc ]Anglophone [or at least in the sources I read]

‘Winners’ described through idealised characteristics. The ideal treated as real.

Flow between academic culture / contexts … what happens on arrival?

….. ‘an international student’ [‘international staff’?]

Attract a large literatureTrigger much discussion

Learning and teaching responses Phase One ( 1990 …. ) ‘fix the

student’

Phase Two: (2001 ...) ‘fix the teacher’

Phase Three: ( ? now ) ‘fix the institution’

1. Students’ must change (1990 +)remediation, ‘gaps’ students as deficits. Students as

expressions of deficit systems.

….common discourse for all students. But for international students, the assumption seems to be that they come with nothing of worth. They can finally start learning….. once they have their gaps filled.

2. Teachers ‘accommodate’ and ‘adapt’ (c. 2001 +)

‘Making allowances’Making learning practices more explicit‘Rules of the game’ . Assisting international

students to become skilful ‘players’ Reviewing classroom practices for inclusion,

trying to remove exclusion

(2009-11) ‘Teaching International Students’ project

TIS activities

Website with teaching Resources Bankhttp://www.heacademy.ac.uk/

internationalisationResearch databaseOutreach activities and partnershipsSeries of events (27 this year)

3. ‘Internationalise’ the institutionBeyond assertion?

‘largely located in the policy domain and generally ignoring the cultural dynamics of teaching and learning’ (Huisman, 2010)

Studies of the impact are ‘small scale, scattered and a-theoretical’

An undertaking of prodigious intellectual and practical endeavour.McTaggart, 2003

….a transformation of prodigious intellectual, practical and emotional endeavourCarroll, 2010

A new way?

‘third space’ or ‘bridge’ metaphors traffic is not all one way ….. not all

towards ‘the winners’. Not all from teacher to student.

Working with students as a source of mutual adaptation

‘Not just legitimisation of Western knowledge’

Requirements for ‘third space’?Genuine dialogue. Recognising and valuing

others academic and cultural practices. ‘Bearers of culture, not bearers of

problems’Generalise with care……Self-awareness. Moving from invisible to

conscious. Based in reality, not the ideal.“Rules of the game”. Making the context explicit‘Owning’ your own point of view

Challenging assumptions and stereotypes ‘Chinese Learner’

Largest groupStereotypes

inaccurate, out of date, unhelpful

‘Gap’ is narrowing

Rapid changes in China

Stereotypes of Chinese/‘CHC’ studentsWestern views of CHC students filtered

through eyes of teachers observing international students, struggling in culturally and linguistically different learning environments

‘Western’ and ‘Asian’ or CHC scholarship and learning described in binary terms: ‘deep/surface’, ‘adversarial/harmonious’, ‘independent/dependent’

Construct Asian or CHC students in ‘deficit’ terms

[ the antithesis of Western academic virtues ]

‘Chinese-ness’

‘…in effect, deviance within Western norms, and generally being interestingly different within mainstream, that is Western, psychology’(Watkins and Biggs, 2001)

Summing up most commentators on the differences

[note: I am not linking the view to W and B]

Essentialising goes both waysHere is Gu, a very influential

Chinese educator, looking across academic cultures:

American teachers seldom place very high demands on students ….. American students do not have a sound foundation in reading, writing and arithmetic’ (Gu, 2001)

the ‘paradox’ of the Chinese Learner

Watkins and Biggs, 2001.‘surface approach’ but ‘deep learning’

“surplus” theory. cooperative, diligent, hard working, ‘invariably have a high regard for education’ (Lee, 1996)

Murphy (2005) ‘the model minority’

Primary importance of social context

It is aspects of the social context, rather than cultural heritage per se that affects student learning ….. we need to consider teaching and learning, not just Chineseness of students or teachers’

Rao and Chan, 2009 in a huge review of CHC learning cultures

Changing contextsRapid and profound physical, social

and cultural transformations in China

Much diversity within China eg. developed coastal vs less-developed inland regions (Hu, 2003), Chinese learners little different from Western counterparts (Shi, 2006)

Education reform in China over past 5-10 years – move to student-centred learning and autonomous learners

Beijing No. 4 Primary School

Life science curriculum in Shanghai middle schools

DNA extraction & observation

The ‘Chinese learner’

Will be very diverse, BUT…Will be an only child (3 ‘onlys’; 6 adults

per child)High parental expectations and

extrinsic controlCompetitive nature of Chinese

education. Largely exam based (changing up to High School)

Hard working (ability vs effort)A lot at stake (consequences of failure)

Chinese students’ expectations

More pastoral care from teachers – relationship with teachers is paramount

Home students should initiate contactMore structure, less prepared for more

independent study (but can think ‘critically’)Silent in class but want to ask questions

after classTalking inhibits understanding→ Will need to clearly establish and model

your expectations (eg you are open to criticism)

Clear differences in prior experiences [from UK students]

Example: writing

amount of writingways in which text is constructedways in which text is organisedways of catering to readers’ needsperceptions of readers’ needsways of incorporating knowledge of

others

Difference is not deficitIt is particularly infuriating to hear problems with rhetorical stylesattributed to imagined inadequacies in the student’s education in theirhome country.

I have often had conversations in which it has beensuggested that Oriental students come from backgrounds in which originality and critical thinking are valued less than acceptance of orthodoxy. Apart from the lack of critical thinking apparent in the use of the category Oriental, such analysis is misleading because it confuses differences in style of expression with a lack of academic rigour.

What it fails to understand is that a prizewinning English academic essay translated word for word into Japanese is likely to be received as clumsy and ill thought out.(Yoshino, 2004, p. 10)

Keep looking ….. Turn the lens“Chinese students can’t criticise”

or

Am I clear about what I mean?How else might it show? Am I expecting it too soon? [‘A half empty

bottle makes the most noise’]Am I expecting it in a certain format?Is the copying and restating a personal

expression of the student’s thought?

Operationalising transcultural teaching

1. Local teachers are self-aware. They avoid essentialising and check their own assumptions.

They make the context clear. They make the boundaries explicit….

[Move from ‘be critical’ to ‘this is how we recognise and define criticality here…. not because it IS criticality but because it is how we do it……]

Transcultural teaching1. Self-aware and meta-aware2. Negotiate and communicate

what is negotiable.

Teach the ‘rules of the game’. Try and understand different ways.

Look for possibilities of new understandings, new knowledge.

Transcultural teaching 1. Self-aware2. Negotiate the negotiable.3. Flexible and variable

demonstrations of learning.

1 in 5 [1 in 4] will return to very different contexts. All will apply learning in a diverse global world.

How I have been trying to do this with plagiarism1. Self-awareness

Moving beyond the fetishising of citation.

Many meanings of a copied text – not just the marker of cheating or the sign of substandard learning. Not acceptable, but not a moral issue…….

Not equating a particular way of ‘showing your own work’ with learning

2. Negotiating and stickingTeach what is non-negotiableUphold values and insist on

improvementuse other people’s ideasuse other people’s workgive credit when your work

draws upon others’ workauthoritycredibility

3. Be open to ways of demonstrating non-negotiable skills and knowledgeAuthentic, transferable, useful If simulating peer-reviewed journal

articles is needed, then teach it.

Don’t confuse a single discourse style with ‘academic writing’

Why might this be worth doing?Definitely tough to operate this

way.

Definitely triggers very strong responses

The burden of not knowingMy culture, my background, everything is

different from them, so I have, not risk, but I have too many things, too many MORE things, that I have to think about than other students. I think I lost so much confidence of mine. I’m thinking I have so many. I’m talented, I want to think like that, but whenever I go to tutorials, I feel like I can’t do anything, so I’m not respected. (Viete and Peeler 2007, 181

‘Good teaching and learning are the common treasures of humanity’

Dr Kang Changyun, Beijing Normal University