Search results for "cultural competence"

Dealing with Intercultural Communicative Competence in the Foreign Language Classroom

2007

Promoting multilingual communicative competence through multimodal academic learning situations

2016

This paper presents information on the factors affecting the development of multilingual and multicultural communicative competence in interactive multimodal learning environments in an academic context. The interdisciplinary course in multilingual interaction offered at the University of Jyväskylä aims to enhance students’ competence in multilingual and multicultural academic communication by promoting the use of their entire linguistic repertoire in various learning situations. Throughout the course, we observed the students’ engagement in multilingual and multicultural activities. These observations suggest that simultaneous use of multiple languages in synchronous and asynchronous learn…

The Textbook Didn’t Mention That: An Intercultural Experiential Exercise in Business Communication

2019

Although many global MBA programs teach intercultural communication, what happens when the method for teaching that concept becomes mostly experiential? To answer that question, the authors took two very similar classes, both composed of working adults, a Business Communications course in Germany and a Managerial Communications course in the United States, and joined the students into a project that spread over several weeks and had a purposely vague deliverable. While the students believed that the policies and presentations were the most important aspect of the project, the actual aim of this exercise was for them to learn about intercultural communication by doing it. Based on weekly de…

Bourdieu and Social Movements: Considering Identity Movements in terms of Field, Capital and Habitus

2013

This article examines the explanatory capacity of Pierre Bourdieu's work in relation to social movements and, in particular, identity movements. It aims to provide a theoretical framework drawing on Bourdieu's central concepts of field, capital and habitus. These concepts are viewed as providing a theoretical toolkit that can be applied to convincingly explain aspects of social movements that social movement theories, such as political process theory, resource mobilization theory and framing, acknowledge, but are not able to explain within a single theoretical framework. Identity movements are approached here in a way that relates them to the position agents/movements occupy in social space…

'Why Should I Study English If I'm Never Going To Leave This Town?' Developing Alternative Orientations To Culture in the EFL Classroom Through CAR

2015

This article describes the progress and findings of a collaborative action research project on the cultural dimension in primary levels of EFL education in Valencia (Spain). Its aim was to explore whether the EFL subject tended to ignore the students¿ native cultural background, and if so, whether this omission brought negative pedagogical consequences. It involved ten student-teachers who were carrying out their practicum placements at schools in the region, ten EFL school teachers, and a university researcher. Collective meetings were held to critically analyze the school experiences, and design experimental interventions to give a different orientation to culture in the EFL class. By the…

Paradoxes of Mentoring: An Ethnographic Study of a Mentoring Programme for Highly-educated Women with Migrant Backgrounds

2019

This article explores paradoxes that emerge in the mentoring of highly-educated, female, foreign-born job-seekers in Finland. Theoretically, the study is linked to the growing body of research scrutinising the integration or discrimination of migrants in working life. It analyses cultural practices and ideas that are visible and affect the mentoring interaction. On a more practical level, the paper determines how the mentors and mentees experience the mentoring, and how intercultural mentoring could be improved in order to promote mentees’ employment. The article is based on ethnography and 11 semi-structured interviews. Two major paradoxes and their links to cultural meanings were identifi…

Teachers as frontline agents of integration: Finnish physical education students’ reflections on intercultural encounters

2018

Background and purpose: This article focuses on how future Physical Education and Dance teachers may be better prepared to work in increasingly diverse education environments. It also discusses how tertiary institutions might address issues of social inclusion and cultural pluralism within their programmes, courses and assignments. The authors critically reflect on an experiential learning intervention in Jyväskylä, Finland, in which trainee PE teachers facilitated kinaesthetic language-learning workshops for asylum seekers. The applied use of physical education and dance in this context was aimed at providing a distinct opportunity to consider a PE teacher’s professional competence and rol…

Developing cultural awareness in Early Childhood Education through children’s songs

2021

El alumnado de Educación Infantil tiene muy presentes canciones que pueden convertirse en importantes herramientas educativas. Desde la asignatura de “Procesos Musicales en Educación Infantil”, la unidad temática destinada a la formación vocal estaba formando al futuro profesorado en el uso del repertorio vocal tradicional y, al mismo tiempo, en el conocimiento del patrimonio cultural territorial. Se quería demostrar cómo la competencia en “Conciencia y Expresiones Culturales” podía ser trabajada desde esta etapa temprana, comprendiéndola como momento crucial para el asentamiento del respeto de la alteridad cultural. Para ello, se organizaron grupos de trabajo que realizaron búsquedas de ca…

Social studies in early childhood education and care: A scoping review focusing on diversity

2020

Currently, little research exists on social studies within the context of Norwegian early childhood education and care, and how early childhood teachers work to familiarise children with social studies contexts . This article is a scoping literature review offering a preliminary research agenda. Its aim is to explore the ways in which the early childhood teacher can work to ensure young learners’ social studies education with a specific focus on cultural diversity and subsequent educational challenges. The research question guiding the article asks: How does previous educational research show that early childhood teachers can use social studies to address diversity with and amongst children…

Nationalisation, Localisation and Globalisation in Finnish Higher Education

2004

This article analyses and discusses the interplay between the social processes of nationalisation, localisation and globalisation in a single European nation state. The view of nationalisation put forward draws on a national case study based on historical and sociological research findings. The second part of the article presents a case study of the nature of globalisation and localisation in an average Finnish university. The article shows that nationalisation of Finnish higher education has created a cultural understanding of higher education institutions important for competition with other nations. As for localisation, on the one hand higher education institutions support their local co…