Civic Education and Intercultural issues in Switzerland : Psychosocial dimensions of an education to "otherness"

In contemporary democratic societies that deal with cultural and linguistic diversity, education faces new challenges such as how to promote a shared knowledge and competence framework about “citizenship,” how to prepare the young generation to enter a complex world, and how to help immigrant students to integrate into the school system. Some of the European recommendations focus on the importance of promoting “intercultural education”. However, so far little is known about concrete practices and their outcomes. This paper aims at documenting and providing elements of reflections about the difficulties and contradictions faced by both teachers and students involved in pedagogical intercultural activities in Switzerland. From the results of a qualitative research based on a sociocultural perspective, identity and institutional issues of addressing “otherness” in school are discussed. It stresses the importance of a frame in order to allow elaboration and transformation of personal and emotional experiences into thinking and reflexive processes

Can we Learn through Disagreements ? A Sociocultural Perspective on Argumentative Interactions in a Pedagogical Setting in Higher Education

It has been well established by educational research that social interactions play a role in learning and development. In this paper, we draw on recent advances in a sociocultural perspective in psychology that have showed the dialogical dimension of learning, and allowed to consider social interactions as a matrix for its development rather than a variable merely “influencing” psychological processes

Culture, emotions and narratives in education for cultural diversity: A sociocultural approach

Developing a reflexive stance on personal emotions and experiences relating to otherness is one of the main goals of innovative pedagogical activities designed to combat racism. This novel socio-constructivist approach to cultural diversity in education seems an interesting alternative to essentialist approaches, as it involves the learner and uses reflexivity to foster change. However, little is yet known about the psychosocial effects of introducing emotions and personal experiences into the learning environment. In this paper, adopting a sociocultural theoretical framework, we describe two pedagogical settings in which students’ emotions and personal experiences were addressed in a multicultural context. The results of our first study showed that, in some teacher-student interactions, students’ verbalized emotions were articulated in a more generic discourse. Working with emotions can therefore lead to what we call a secondarization process, whereby personal experiences are related to collective and conceptualized knowledge. However, these pedagogical practices may also generate unexpected outcomes that hinder learning. The second study explored the structuring effect of (self-)narratives, viewed as psychological instruments. These findings are discussed with a view to informing the debate on the role of emotional aspects in education, and sociocultural research in psychology examining the complex interplay between individual and cultural dimensions in learning

Self-narration and agency as interactive achievements: A sociocultural and interactionist analysis of migrant women's stories in a language learning setting

Migration is commonly seen as disrupting individuals’ sense of continuity and agency. In current research on adult identity development, (self-)narratives are regarded as a means of making sense of self. We combined an interactional methodology with a sociocultural and dialogical perspective to examine collective identity processes at work during self-narration by immigrant women in a learning language setting. Data were gathered throughout an intervention designed to encourage participants to put their personal experiences of migration into words. Verbal interactions were analysed to identify 1) narrative discursive units, 2) agentic relationships in and on the narratives, and 3) processes of narrative co-construction. Results showed that self-narratives arose from dynamic interactions in which participants displayed discursive skills in negotiating status and instructions, supported the cognitive and affective work of narrating in a foreign language, and constructed agency that challenged the poor immigrant woman image. We discuss the contributions of our study in terms of methodology and interventions

Using graphical tools in a phased activity for enhancing dialogical skills: An example with Digalo

ICT tools have been developed to facilitate web-based learning through and learning about argumentation. In this paper we will present an example of a learning activity mediated by Digalo-software for knowledge sharing through visually supported discussion-developed in a university setting. Our aim is to examine, in particular, socio-cognitive construction of knowledge and argumentation by students debating a controversial question in history. We propose a descriptive approach of understanding and meaning-making processes based on two levels of analysis: (1) a topic meaning-making process oriented level and (2) an argumentation oriented level. We focus our studies on how the participants-small groups of students-develop understanding of the topic, their arguments and their interactions through the use of different functionalities of this software. Our results show that interactive and argumentative processes are themselves objects of learning and develop through collective activity. Development of the understanding of the topic through argumentation is discussed and linked to the design of the activity and the affordances of the Digalo softwar

Critical incidents in intercultural education lessons

Cet article repose sur les résultats d’une recherche portant sur les pratiques réelles d’enseignement de l’éducation interculturelle. À partir des considérations mises en évidence dans la littérature autour des risques de "culturalisation" de ces pratiques, cette contribution vise à comprendre la façon dont les difficultés se développent dans les interactions en classe. Sur la base de séquences pédagogiques, nous repérons des incidents critiques qui permettent d’identifier les tensions entre, d’une part, les intentions pédagogiques des enseignant·e·s qui cherchent à construire des connaissances et déconstruire des phénomènes comme la discrimination sociale ou les stéréotypes, et, d’autre part, le processus interactif de construction de sens qui a parfois pour résultat leur réification. (DIPF/Orig.)This article is based on the results of research on real teaching practices in intercultural education. Building on the considerations highlighted in the literature about the risks of “culturalization” of these practices, this contribution aims to understand how difficulties develop in classroom interactions. On the basis of pedagogical sequences collected in class during intercultural lessons, we identify critical incidents that allow us to identify the tensions between, on the one hand, the pedagogical intentions of the teachers, who seek to build knowledge and to deconstruct phenomena such as social discrimination or stereotypes, and, on the other hand, the interactive process of constructing meaning which sometimes results in their reification. (DIPF/Orig.