Promoting Cultural Diversity in Higher Education

Author(s):

Elena Petrova(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2011

Network:

20. Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments

Format:

Paper

Session Information

20 SES 10, Cultural Diversity and Higher Education

Paper Session

Time:

2011-09-15

15:00-16:30

Room:

KL 32/123,G, 115

Chair:

John Willumsen

Contribution

A couple of decades ago the term “cultural diversity” was regarded as a politically correct word for “race/ethnicity”. Nowadays, it has broadened its meaning. It is not limited only to race or ethnicity, it includes other factors like language, religion, nationality, etc.

Migration and interracial marriages contribute to the increasing complexity of the shape of society in any country. Undoubtedly, the demographic changes will necessitate some shifts in how we educate younger generations. Besides, we are becoming more aware of other cultures as technology brings the global community into our homes.

There are three groups of programs that educators may incorporate into the learning process: 1) content-oriented; 2) student-oriented and 3) socially-oriented programs. The last one combines the efforts of the previous two that is why it is of greater interest for researchers. These programs should promote all kinds of contact among the races/nations. One way to do that is to arrange joint international projects.

The focus of the paper is on the project “Global Modules” promoted by Champlain College, Vermont, the USA. It is an online forum that is arranged for two groups of students (Americans and students from another country).

The advantage of this project is that a student is brought into contact with members of other cultures. It raises students’ awareness of other cultures, they get new or additional knowledge about them, learn to respect them and work cooperatively with them and they do it at their own pace as it is an extra-curriculum activity. Besides, the topic, offered in the forum, is study-related and by moving the discussion online we provide conditions for students to discuss it at length, without spending much time on it in the classroom.

The objective of the research is to study the students’ communication strategies as they may help to determine their personal and educational priorities. These strategies may also reflect the students’ learning styles which is essential for professors to know in order to adjust their teaching style accordingly.

Method

The methods used are quantitative and qualitative: content analysis, the study of the structure of posts, the analysis of a student’s behavior in the classroom and in the online forum, and questionnaires or interviews. Content analysis and the study of the structure of posts are applied to come up with a number of communication strategies developed by the students. The analysis of a student’s behavior in and out of the classroom suggests the most comfortable way for this student to interact with the environment. Thus, the results will influence the choice between a questionnaire and an interview for further research. The last two are crucial for verifying the findings as well as for checking whether the goals set by the professor before the project were achieved and for feedback from the students on advantages and disadvantages of the conducted discussion.

Expected Outcomes

As a result, we have found the following communication strategies: bonding (establishing a tie with one person only, posts are rarely related to the topic), networking (establishing as many contacts as possible, posts can contain both answers to the questions of the discussion and personal information), a formal approach (providing short answers to all the questions offered for discussion), a selective approach (answering one or two questions, the posts are usually not very informative and contain a lot of personal anecdotes) and challenging (offering a controversial opinion or asking a provocative question). All the students appreciated the opportunity to interact with culturally different people but, in the first run (February, 2010), few of them regarded this forum as an extension of the course: mostly they viewed it as something done for fun rather than for educational purposes. Fortunately, the next time (March-April, 2010) this attitude changed due to the loss of novelty and extensive talks about web-enhanced learning, the project being a part of it. The multicultural curriculum is designed not only to teach children about other groups, but also to attach positive feelings to multicultural experiences so that students will feel friendly and respectful toward culturally different people.

References

1. Burnett, G. (1994) Varieties of multicultural education: an introduction. ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education New York NY. 2. Dimidjian, V.J. (1989). "Holiday, Holy Days, and Wholly Dazed." YOUNG CHILDREN, 44, 6, 70-75. 3. Gomez, Ray A. (1991) Teaching with a multicultural perspective. ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education Urbana IL. 4. Kuk, L., Banning, J. (2010) Student organizations and institutional diversity efforts: a typology. College Student Journal: June, 2010; 44, 2: ProQuest Education Journals, pg. 354-360. 5. Milligan, D. Cultural diversity in Higher education. http://shell.cas.usf.edu/math/mug/diversity.htm 6. Nieto, S. (1992). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education. New York: Longman. (ED 361 440) 7. Schlesinger, A., Jr. (1991). Report of the social studies syllabus review committee: A dissenting opinion. In New York State Social Studies Review and Development Committee, One nation, many peoples: A declaration of cultural interdependence. New York: Author. 8. Sobol, T. (1990). Understanding diversity. Educational Leadership, 48(3), 27-30. 9. Trail, K. (2000) A changing nation: the impact of linguistic and cultural diversity on education. SEDL Letter Volume XII, Number 2, December 2000, Diversity in Our Schools: New Opportunities for Teaching and Learning 10. UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity. (2001) http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001271/127160m.pdf

Author Information

Elena Petrova (presenting / submitting)

State University "Higher School of Economics"

World Economics and International Affairs

Kaluga

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