Spring EAIE Academy, Birmingham, April 2013

Facilitating Cultural Learning in

Education Abroad

R. Michael Paige, PhD, Professor of International and Intercultural Education,

University of Minnesota, USA

Dr. Ingrid Gehrke, M.A., Head of International Relations, FH JOANEUM University

of Applied Sciences, Austria

Program Overview

• How mobility programs can have the largest impact on

participants‘ intercultural development, one of the primary

objectives of the mobility experience.

• Key intercultural concepts and theories, relevant research

on student learning abroad, and practical applications in

program design through the entire mobility cycle: pre-

departure, in-country, and reentry/return home.

• Participant needs analysis

• Key intercultural concepts and theories

• Learning styles and cultural dimensions

• General issues of programme design

• Research on culture learning abroad

• Programming ideas for pre-departure, in-country, and re-

entry

Program Content

• Presentation

• Discussion

• Group work (create your own “product”)

• Individual work

• Participation in experiential learning activities

• Common rules: Ask, value, share, listen…

Program Methodology

• Learning styles

• Cultural dimensions

• Culture learning

• Cultural mentoring: challenge and support

Cultural Learning Theories

Kolb’s Learning Styles

• Concrete experience (feeling)

learning by intuition and interaction with others

• Reflective observation (watching)

learning by perception and observation

• Abstract conceptualization (thinking)

learning by thinking

• Active experimentation (doing)

learning by doing

“Teaching around the Wheel”

Reflective observation

Abstract Conceptualization

Active Experimentation

Concrete experience

Program Design

Analysis of a Group of Learners

• What do you know about your participants’ learning

styles

• How can you adapt your training to different learning

styles?

• How can you help learners expand their learning

styles?

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions

• High versus low power distance

• Individualism versus collectivism

• High versus low uncertainty avoidance

Program Design

Analysis of a Group of Learners

• What do our participants know about these cultural

dimensions?

• What do our participants know about their own culture?

• What can we do to support cultural self awareness and

other culture awareness?

Dimensions of Intercultural Learning (Paige, 2006)

1) Learning about the Self as a Cultural Being

2) Learning about the Elements of Culture

3) Culture-Specific Learning

4) Culture-General Learning

5) Learning About Learning

These dimensions provide a template for an intercultural

curriculum

Cultural Mentoring (Paige & Goode, 2009)

Cultural mentoring means providing:

1) Ongoing support for learning

2) Concepts and ideas to anchor learning

3) Strategies for learning

4) Opportunitites to put learning into practice

5) Opportunities to reflect on experience

6) Opportunities to connect what was learned to the future

(employment, education, life)

Cultural Mentoring: Research Findings

Nature of the Intervention Average IDI Gain

No intervention

Georgetown Consortium Study (60 progs.) +1.32

With a limited on-line intervention

University of Minnesota +4.47

With an instructor-facilitated on-line intervention

Bellarmine University and Willamette University +8.19

With an on-site course and instructor

Council in International Education and Exchange +9.00

With an PDOT, on-site course, and intensive

cultural mentoring

American University Center of Provence +12.47

With pre-departure and re-entry courses and an

Internationalized academic program (2-3 years)

University of the Pacific +17.46

Program Design

Analysis of a Group of Learners

• What can we do to support our participants’

intercultural learning skills?

• In what ways can we provide cultural mentoring for our

students? In person? Online?

Master Intercultural Topics for Mobility

Programs

• Culture

• Cultural adjustment

• Perception

• Nonverbal communication

• Communication styles

• Values

• Gender issues

• Intercultural adaptation

Culture Learning: Pre-Departure

• Connect to pre-departure in terms of content

• Have re-entry in mind

• Self-reflective or interactive?

• All your students need to have access to your

technology

• What and how much should we do „online“?

Culture Learning: In Country

• Blogs, diaries, journals

• Structured reports (on line or on paper)

• Example: Global Identity course (University of Minnesota)

• Example: SKILL2E (EU and internship)

• Example: LMU online project

Culture Learning: Re-entry

• Treat the students as a resource for the institution

• Create opportunities to value the experience

- buddies for incoming students

- study abroad fair

-“culture experts“

• Data management and distribution? Who knows they

were abroad and who should know

Key Intercultural Development

Concepts

R. Michael Paige, Ph.D.

University of Minnesota

Intercultural Intensity Factors (Paige, 1993)

1) Differences in cultural values, beliefs, practices

2) Ethnocentrism

3) Language issues

4) Cultural immersion

5) Cultural isolation

6) Prior intercultural experience

7) Expectations

8) Visibility/invisibility

9) Status

10)Power and control

The Developmental Model of Intercultural

Sensitivity (Bennett, 1993)

1) Ethnocentric worldview orientations

- Denial of Difference

- Defense against Difference

- Minimization of Difference

2) Ethnorelative worldview orientations

- Acceptance of Difference

- Cognitive and Behavioral Adaptation to Difference

- Integration of Difference

• Bennett, M. J. (1993). Towards ethnorelativism: A developmental model of intercultural sensitivity. In R. M. Paige (Ed.) Education for the intercultural experience (pp. 21-71). Yarmouth, Maine: Intercultural Press.

• Bennett, M. J. (2004). From ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism. In J. S. Wurzel (Ed.), Toward multiculturalism: A reader in multicultural education (pp. 62-78). Newton, MA: Intercultural Resource Corporation.

• Paige, R.M., Jacobs-Cassuto, M., Yershova, Y. A. & DeJaeghere, J. (2003). Assessing intercultural sensitivity: A psychometric analysis of the Hammer and Bennett Intercultural Development Inventory. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 27, 467-486.

References

• Vande Berg, M., & Paige, R. M. (2009). Applying theory and

research: The evolution of intercultural competence in U.S. study

abroad. In D. K. Deardorff (Ed.), The SAGE handbook of

intercultural competence, (pp. 404-418). Thousand Oaks, CA:

SAGE Publishing.

• Paige, R. M., & Goode. M. L. (2009). Cultural mentoring:

International education professionals and the development of

intercultural competence. In D. K. Deardorff (Ed.), The SAGE

handbook of intercultural competence, (pp. 333-349). Thousand

Oaks, CA: SAGE Publishing.

References

The EAIE Academy is a one-week training

programme for international higher education

professionals.

www.eaie.org/training | #EAIEAcademy | @TheEAIE