What is Intercultural Awareness/Learning?

• The ability to recognise and understand your own cultural context and develop a critical awareness of the multi-dimensional, nuanced nature of culture, and cultural difference.

Why Should I Teach About Intercultural Awareness?

• The ability to recognise and understand your own cultural context is seen as an essential prerequisite for understanding and interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds. Intercultural societies show deep comprehension and respect for differences. Members of an intercultural society learn and grow from one another. Interactions within the society lead to the mutual exchange of ideas and norms to build deeper relationships.

Where Can I Find More About Intercultural Awareness/Learning?

• Jones, P., Miles, D., & Gopalkrishnan, N. (2019). Intercultural Learning: Critical preparation for international student travel. https://doi.org/10.5130/978-0-9945039-9-2 CC-BY-SA 4.0
• Alexandru Caldararu, Clements, J., Gayle, R., Hamer, C., & Maria MacMinn Varvos. (2021, December 21). What is Culture and Intercultural Competence? Openeducationalberta.ca; NorQuest College. https://openeducationalberta.ca/settlement/chapter/introduction-4/ CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0

How Can I Teach About Cultural Difference?

The concept of culture is highly nuanced, multi-dimensional, and dynamic in nature. Part of the difficulty in arriving at a comprehensive definition stems from the fact that when talking about culture we are usually referring to a rather limited ‘visible’ dimension (such as language, works of art, dress, etc.), and not necessarily considering the rather large ‘invisible’ area of concepts and ideas (such as values, attitudes, and worldviews).

Use the Iceberg Metaphor

An iceberg is often used as a metaphor for culture; on the surface we are able to see the more obvious aspects of culture, however, there are many aspects that lie deeper and require time and critical thinking to comprehend. This image is from the first source listed on the previous page.

…See you next week for a new tip!

 

Attribution Statement: This resource was adapted from

• Jones, P., Miles, D., & Gopalkrishnan, N. (2019). Intercultural Learning: Critical preparation for international student travel. https://doi.org/10.5130/978-0-9945039-9-2 CC-BY-SA 4.0
• Alexandru Caldararu, Clements, J., Gayle, R., Hamer, C., & Maria MacMinn Varvos. (2021, December 21). What is Culture and Intercultural Competence? Openeducationalberta.ca; NorQuest College. https://openeducationalberta.ca/settlement/chapter/introduction-4/ CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0