Category: Culturally responsive teaching
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Reducing ambiguity
In the last post I made a case for not only the teacher but also the students to increase their tolerance for ambiguity. I suggested the following approach: ask about and clarify when behaviours are unexpected. even better is to anticipate misunderstandings and to make as much clear from the beginning as possible. there is…
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The agony of ambiguity
One of the major intercultural competences is a tolerance for ambiguity. This means being open to different interpretations of what you observe and experience. Without awareness, we are likely to feel embarrassed or uncomfortable when people behave in unexpected ways. We are also more likely to attribute negative motivations such as They are doing this…
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Impartial justice or relationship repair?
In his book ‘The World Until Yesterday’ Jared Diamond examines conflict resolution in societies at different scales and makes the point that at small scale, conflict resolution is about relationship repair whereas in state-level societies, conflict resolution is more about formal and impartial structures of justice between strangers. He sources his examples of small scale…
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Visible thinking to reduce conflict
Seeing this wonderful video made me wonder if visible thinking routines could help to reduce conflict in the diverse adult education classroom? Visible thinking is being used to professionalise the learning process, not only for the teachers but for the students too. I am impressed to see such young students thinking at such a meta…
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Do we have a problem?
Conflict in the diverse adult classroom Discussion of conflict resolution often starts with describing the conflict. But are you confident that you can even identify when there is conflict in your classroom?
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Why be a global educator?
In March I talked to Julie Lindsay for the Absolutely Intercultural podcast about her latest book, The Global Educator (affiliate link). Along the way, Julie remarked on the fact that it was very difficult to get involved with European education projects if you are not in the EU and this made me think. I am very…
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Culture 101 for adult educators
Getting the most out of a diverse adult classroom,the Culture basics for adult educators course, will last three weeks. Enroll here for $75 What’s on offer? As society becomes more diverse, the job of the adult education teacher includes a need to be aware of the different cultures in the room. Awareness of your own culture and…
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Framing as a CRT strategy
Although we want to be inclusive by using Culturally Responsive Teaching approaches, we still need to make the framework in which we are operating clear to all. We want to avoid unnecessary missteps that lead to embarrassment or worse.
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LOs & levels of savoir
As I put the finishing touches to an introductory course on culturally responsive teaching I face once again the challenge of how to evaluate progress. When I first worked on this topic over 10 years ago, our working group came up with intercultural attainment levels. Attainment levels of Intercultural Competence These were useful for assessing your…
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Immersive language courses: an expensive indulgence?
Denmark is lucky to have a unique learning environment for adults in its folk high schools. This is very difficult to describe to foreigners. Essentially they are boarding schools for adults, where students mostly go of their own volition out of an interest for the subject as well as the desire to learn and live…