Learning about Chinese-speaking cultures at a distance

This chapter focuses on the challenges posed by curriculum choices and pedagogical frameworks to the study of Languages of the Wider World in the UK. These languages reflect complex linguistic and cultural realities that do not fit into the traditional constraints of language education, which raises questions about the extent to which we can address the global and local dimensions of the target languages and cultures. I examine in particular the case of Chinese – a language family with multiple varieties and spoken by many communities in Asia and other parts of the globe – in the context of distance education. Issues surrounding language learning at a distance are discussed, as well as the role that teachers and technology play in supporting the development of language learners’ cultural awareness. While teachers can, in a face-to-face situation, exploit, expand and discuss cultural information, this possibility is very limited in distance learning. We will see how, at present, technology has taken on a major role in both formal and informal education, facilitating contact between learners and between learners and teachers (however distant they might be). For example, the Open University’s beginners’ Chinese course discussed here makes use of online forums to enable cultural interaction; initial examinations of these forums reveal the students to be diverse and mobile, and they also give us a sense of their cultural stances, and of the shapes of the beliefs, values and attitudes supported by their individual cultural backgrounds

Cultural villages as contexts for mediating culture and mathematics education in the South African curriculum

Some mathematics educational reform policies indicate that mathematics education should be connected to learners‟ cultures. However, teaching in schools rarely brings the interconnection between mathematics and culture in pedagogically informed ways. Connections are often done superficially; the curriculum in schools lacks content and specific strategies that enable the making of the connections explicit in the context of teaching. The qualitative study from which this paper emerges worked with three mathematics teachers in an attempt to teach mathematics in ways that connect key concepts with culture. Through mathematizing culturally-based activities performed at a cultural village2, two Grade 9 mathematics topics in the South African curriculum were indigenised. A teaching unit on the indigenised topics was designed and implemented in five Grade 9 classes at the same school. The paper demonstrates that the experience of designing, implementing, and reflecting on the intervention study had some positive contribution to the participating teachers‟ pedagogical repertoire. Teachers saw the possibility of using cultural villages as instructional resources for connecting mathematics education to learners‟ cultures in the South African curriculum. I argue that cultural villages can be used as contexts for mediating culture and mathematics education

RAISING INTERCULTURAL AWARENESS AT PRIMARY LEVEL THROUGH STORYTELLING WITHIN A CLIL APPROACH

Trabalho de Projecto apresentado para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ensino de InglêsIn an attempt to respond to recent communicative needs in foreign language education, this project work investigates how storytelling through a CLIL approach can contribute to raising intercultural awareness at primary level. This project work explores the use of storytelling, which includes traditional stories and tales from a diversity of cultures, as a springboard for activities that promote intercultural awareness through the teaching of content derived from the stories in English as a second language. The concept of interculturality is explored in the context of primary education. Research data shows that storytelling is an effective tool to raise young learners’ interest and curiosity for other countries and cultures as well as to facilitate reflection about their own values, practices and beliefs. A further research question looks at the impact that this combination of storytelling through a CLIL approach has on raising intercultural awareness in young learners. Data collected for this project shows that students became interested in discovering about other countries and respective cultures. Students extended their learning of cultures to the mainstream lessons and at home with parents. The process covers the stages of discovery, critical thinking, self-reflection, acceptance and appreciation of a diversity of cultures through the context of English language learning. Storytelling allowed students to encounter the foreign cultures with a spirit of research by arousing their curiosity to explore the unknown. By becoming aware of other cultures depicted in the stories students also developed understanding of their own culture and how it is seen from outside. Therefore, it could be said that storytelling creates a strong basis which underpins intercultural success

"Narratives of Social Cohesion”: Bridging the Link between School Culture, Linguistic Identity and the English Language

This paper argues that processes of self-creation are significantly influenced by experiences of schooling, of which language forms a critical aspect. The school is a central site in which identities are contested, negotiated and affirmed, but it is also imbibed with a particular identity that, in the South African context, often remains expressly raced and classed. Existing research has pointed to the salience of language for questions of identity in education, and moreover the relationship between school cultures and the inculcation of particular norms and values. However, in the South African context research should also be focusing on the relationship between the major medium of instruction in schools, English, the values and behaviour encouraged at the school level, and how these influence learners’ linguistic and social identities. This paper engages with research conducted in three Cape Town schools and develops the idea of “narratives of social cohesion” to articulate the ways in which different school cultures influence learner-identity formation. It posits that the assumed neutrality of the primary medium of instruction, and its historic association with whiteness, represents a continued undervaluation of black learners’ linguistic and social experiences

Negotiating identities: experiences of rural migrant learners in an urban school in Johannesburg

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, School of Education, 2016Due to the contextual difference between rural schools and urban school, many rural learners have migrated to urban schools. The rural population movement in the urban contexts has resulted in an increased number of rural learners in urban schools and also contributed in the diversity of cultures, ethnicities and races in urban schools making it difficult for teachers to respond to every learner’s needs. This study hypothesises that rural learners are likely to face challenges in terms of inclusion and negotiating their identities in the new urban schools. This study describes the challenges faced by rural migrant learners in new urban school, and how these migrant learners construct their identities in the new urban context. The study focusses on one primary school in Johannesburg that has a large influx of rural learners over the years. Using the key concepts of social identity, social inclusion and social exclusion, this describes the lived experiences of migrated learners and how they negotiate their identities in a new urban context. Findings show that migrated learners face inclusive challenges both academically and socially and challenges in adapting to the new urban school environment. The factors that caused academic challenges were: language barrier, difficult subjects, and teachers’ intervention. Social challenges were, adapting to a new environment, interacting with other learners and learning a new culture of the school

The compassion gap in UK universities

Context: This critical reflection is set in the context of increasing marketisation in UK higher education, where students are seen as consumers, rather than learners with power. The paper explores the dark side of academic work and the compassion gap in universities, in order to make recommendations for practice development in higher education and the human services. Aims: The paper aims to show how reflexive dialogue can be used to enable the development of compassionate academic practice. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: Toxic environments and organisational cultures in higher education have compounded the crisis in compassionate care in the NHS. Implications for practice are: • Narrative approaches and critical appreciative inquiry are useful methods with which to reveal, and rectify, failures of compassion; • Courageous conversations are required to challenge dysfunctional organisational systems and processes; • Leadership development programmes should include the application of skills of compassion in organisational settings

Learning cultures on the move: where are we heading?

The paper analyzes the globally recognized cultural move towards a more learner-centred education and discusses the implications for the adoption of mobile technologies and design for learning. Current expectations vis-à-vis learner attributes, skills and competences are explored. The pervasiveness of mobile technologies is precipitating these developments, whilst also generating a distinct mobile culture where learners take mobility and context-awareness as starting points and become more visible as innovators, creators and producers. Language learning, one of the most popular application areas of mobile learning, provides fertile ground for the growth of this phenomenon. The paper reviews several innovative language learning applications and concludes by indicating the directions in which we are heading

Introduction: a Frame for the Discussion of Learning Cultures

In this chapter the authors identify a gap in research on culture in online learning and offer a frame for the discussion of the best-known frameworks available for cultural analysis outside the online world. They go on to describe the developments driving the need to problematize 'learning cultures' for the online world, such as the growth of multiculturality, the expansion of transnational e-learning and new media communication practices

Indonesian EFL teachers’ beliefs about incorporating cultural aspects in their multilingual and multicultural EFL classrooms

The inseparability between language and culture makes the provision of target language cultures (TLC) compulsory in a foreign language (FL) education. However, due to the global use of English dominated by non-native speakers (NNS) and the need to protect local cultures, conformity to English native speaker (NS) cultures in Indonesian English as a foreign language (EFL) context may be viewed as inappropriate. Influenced by their beliefs, determining whose cultures to present in multilingual and multicultural Indonesian EFL classrooms thus could become a source of tension among Indonesian EFL practitioners. To avoid potential conflicts, a study revealing the practitioners’ beliefs about delivering cultural aspects in the country’s EFL context was deemed necessary. This descriptive study utilised an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to portray sixty-eight Indonesian EFL teachers’ thoughts about incorporating cultural aspects in their multilingual and multicultural EFL classrooms. The findings reported the participants’ view of culture as an essential element in FL education. TLC was perceived as a source of language learning motivation, and the provision of TLC enhanced learners’ skills, knowledge, and understanding to interact successfully in an FL. In other words, conformity to NS cultures was observed in FL education in general. However, in English classes, the participants prioritised the inclusion of Indonesian cultures to protect the country’s multilingualism and multiculturalism. Additionally, international cultures were desirable to prepare learners for broader cross-national communications. Besides enriching literature on the related field, the findings could be used to develop a model for culture-based instruction, particularly in Indonesian EFL

Conclusion: Directions for Research in Online Learning Cultures

In this chapter, the authors review issues currently under-represented in research on the cultural dimensions of e-learning, such as the institutional cultural hegemony over pedagogy that is enjoyed by Westernized constructions of learning and teaching, identity-work carried out by participants in linguistic and cultural online communication, and issues of power and embodiment in network-based language learning. The Open Educational Resources initiative is identified as a site for future research on learning cultures