Category: Teaching Culture
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BREXIT – no quick fixes
It is undeniable that a large part of the Leave vote in the referendum over the UK’s membership of the EU was about the perceived effects of immigration. It did no good to argue that it is globalisation and the current government’s austerity policies that lead to the under-funding of public services and stagnating wages…
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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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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…
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Is language enough for inclusion?
Before they were migrants, they were people. At the conference (link in Danish) in Odense on May 12th, Global conflicts – local challenges, New citizens, training and workplace integration, there was an economic overview. You would expect the children of migrants to do better than their parents. They should learn Danish as their first language and therefore be…
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Diversity as an asset
Global conflicts – local challenges New citizens, training and workplace integration Although Denmark has not received as many asylum seekers as Germany and Sweden, it still has a sizeable number who go on to become recognised refugees and who must then be helped to make a life for themselves in their new country. The conference…
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Can you learn the language on the job?
One of the current debates in Denmark is about the most effective way to learn the language since this is key to functioning well. There is an argument that the best place to learn a language is in the workplace and this has been used to justify political moves to get refugees into the workplace…
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Taking sides
Invited as a guest to Franklin Yartey’s intercultural class in Dubuque, we agreed on the topic of the refugee crisis as manifest in Denmark.
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Why fish don’t feel water
[For water, read culture.] We all have a culture and this affects our expectations about how life happens, what is right and wrong and what constitutes normal behaviour (“how we do things around here”). The point is that there is no one correct world view but that we all, without exception, see the world through…