RELAX – an approach to CRT

Al-Issa’s paper from 2005 provides a useful framework for examining cultural differences, especially those which could lead to conflict. Although the paper is clearly aimed at East versus West issues as evidenced by its title, “When the west teaches the east: analyzing intercultural conflict in the classroom”, the guidance in this article is potentially useful in a wider contexts.

In a situation where the learners and teacher are from different cultures, the problem is that the assumptions, beliefs and ideas that the teacher uses to interpret the learners’ words, actions and patterns of thinking can be wrong. And this will lead to critical incidents which result in strong negative feelings on either side. Generally, conflict interferes with learning, so a teacher would want to defuse, reduce or remove it.

Referring to the Hofstede dimensions, the ones that give rise to the biggest problems are the individualism-collectivism and the high context- low context dimensions. Individualism versus collectivism has implications for the type of tasks that you set as a teacher and how they will be tackled by your students, while the high and low context difference will have the most significance for feedback, how and when it is given.

So it is helpful to use a framework to analyse situations as they happen or even better, before they escalate. Al-Issa’s framework is as follows:

R – Raising awareness

E – Examine the incidence. This is about collecting data to discern trends

L – Look at the incident. This is about examining the specific incident and what might have happened and why.

A – After the analysis, how to avoid a similar incident in the future

X – EXcitement of the aha moment,

The framework implies a deliberate strategy to identify and recognise intercultural incidents in everyday practice, in order to make the classroom a more welcoming place for all the learners and in the end, a more effective learning environment for all.

Reference: Al-Issa, A. (2005). When the west teaches the east: Analyzing intercultural conflict in the classroom. Intercultural Communication Studies, 14(4), 149-168.