Gender and intercultural competence: analysis of intercultural competence among upper secondary school students in Denmark and Norway

Abstract

The pluralisation of European societies has produced national and cultural diversification, increasing the need for communication and understanding to support recognition, equality, justice, self-determination and identification with others. This paper responds to the social and political challenges accompanying immigration by focusing on gender differences in intercultural competence among a selection of Danish and Norwegian secondary school students. Data came from questionnaires given to 895 students from four schools—two Danish and two Norwegian. One major finding was gender differences in intercultural competence, which is discussed using inclusive citizenship theory, gender socialization theory and feminist standpoint theory. For the control variables, cultural capital theory and intergroup contact theory were used to analyse students’ experiences of school diversity and their intercultural competence. School diversity contributed moderately to greater intercultural competence while moderate differences arose between national samples. Finally, teaching implications are discussed.     

Teacher Perceptions of Learning Motivation and Classroom Behavior: The Role of Student Characteristics

The present study investigates whether teacher perceptions of students’ cognitive skills, their learning motivation, and their classroom behavior differ according to students’ socioeconomic status, immigrant background, and gender. Data from N = 4746 German fourth graders and data from their parents and teachers were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Controlling for student achievement as measured in a standardized achievement test and student motivation as measured by student and parent reports, we found that teachers overestimated the cognitive skills of high-SES students and girls in comparison to those of low-SES students and boys. Similarly, teachers perceived high-SES students, students who are not from an immigrant background, and girls as having a higher learning motivation and as having more cognitive skills. Finally, we found that teachers’ perceptions of students’ learning motivation and classroom behavior mediated the relationship between student characteristics and cognitive skills as perceived by the teacher.     

Reducing suspension for minor infraction and improving school climate perceptions among black adolescents via cultural socialization: A multi-informant longitudinal study

Racially disparate school disciplinary practices create inequitable circumstances for minority and immigrant youth around the world. In the U.S., Black youth are more likely than their White peers to be suspended for minor, non-violent infractions. This study explores (a) whether school cultural socialization practices reported by Black students (N = 544; M_age (SD) = 12.45 (1.57); 49% boys) and teachers (N = 38; 84% female) were linked to a reduced likelihood of receiving suspensions for minor infractions and (b) the extent to which Black students' perceptions of school climate mediated this relation. Results indicated that school cultural socialization was linked to a decreased likelihood of being suspended for a minor infraction and improved school climate perceptions for Black students. Black students’ perception of school climate mediated the link between school cultural socialization and suspensions for minor infractions. These results highlight school cultural socialization as a promising approach for increasing cultural responsivity and equity within schools, reducing racial bias, and expunging unjust disciplinary responses.     

Immigrant students in Denmark: why are they disadvantaged in civic learning?

Abstract

Although native family students often learn more than immigrant family students in school (e.g. civics), scholars have not systematically demonstrated the mechanisms through which native family students outperform immigrant family students. The Opportunity-Propensity framework guides this study. We examine the link between students’ immigrant status and civic knowledge, with antecedent factors (socioeconomic status [SES] and language spoken at home), opportunity factors (civic learning at school, civic participation at school, and political discussion), and propensity factors (perceived open classroom climate and student-teacher relationship). Two-level path analysis of the responses to the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2016 by 6254 eighth graders in Denmark showed that the civic knowledge of native family students exceeded that of immigrant family students, mediated by their own and schoolmates’ higher family SES. Meanwhile, immigrant family students had more political discussions, which are linked to better civic knowledge.     

Helping students value cultural diversity through research‐based teaching

Although international students studying in New Zealand desire and expect contact with their domestic peers, the level of cross‐national interactions remains generally low. This paper describes an initiative to promote more and better intercultural understanding within a target group of students having similar needs and interests in a higher education setting. A research‐based teaching approach progressively increased student engagement with higher order cognitive skills and both topic and process were aligned in such a way that training opportunities in intercultural competence were explored while also providing a process that offered further training in intercultural competence. Enduring appreciation of cultural diversity issues was achieved via deep styles of teaching and learning that raised awareness, changed attitudes and behaviour and ultimately impacted classroom culture. Initiative design, evaluation and results are described and limitations noted. The findings should be of interest to teachers of multicultural students and to academics studying cultural diversity issues.     

Intercultural understanding through a ‘similar but different’ international teaching practicum

The ethnic and cultural diversity of many schools calls for teachers with well-developed intercultural understanding. Teacher education programmes have traditionally offered international fieldwork in bilingual settings to challenge ethnocentric attitudes to teaching. However, an international practicum in a ‘similar but different’ education system with English as the dominant language offers a different pathway, providing opportunities to deepen intercultural understanding and global education. This study investigates the impact of a three-week international teaching practicum in the American Midwest on two groups of Brisbane-based pre-service teachers in 2014 (n = 9) and 2015 (n = 4). Their reflective journals and reports indicate that international professional experience disrupts stereotypes and fosters global education and intercultural understanding. The paper presents key programme measures to promote intercultural understanding and concludes that the benefits of international teaching in a ‘similar but different’ education system are a nuanced understanding of cultural diversity and increased readiness for the classroom.     

Nothing to do with me! Teachers’ perceptions on cultural diversity in Spanish secondary schools

One of the key effects of globalisation is the extraordinary increase in migratory movements. Spain, a country traditionally accustomed to emigration, has seen a considerable rise in the influx of immigrant population, with notable demographic, social and cultural transformations. Particularly, since the early 90s, schools have been experiencing increasing ethnic diversity in their student enrolments. Especially, over the last 10 years, their presence has multiplied 10-fold, reaching 9.53% of the total student body. Thus, along with linguistic difference, class, gender or ability, the most characteristic feature of Spanish schools in recent years is their multicultural nature. For these reasons, it seems reasonable to focus on how Spanish schools, and particularly teachers, perceive and manage cultural diversity. This article reports on a multiple case design study concerning the teachers’ views on cultural diversity and the impact on daily practice in their classrooms. Participants included 16 teachers, with experience ranging from 2 to 20 years of teaching, from four Spanish secondary schools. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with the teachers from each school were chosen as the research method. Additionally, the principal and four immigrant student families from each school were also interviewed. Further information was obtained through a focus-group interview with the four school counsellors. Over a six-month period, all the interviews and complementary field work were carried out by a researcher in each school. While recognising the efforts to accommodate ethnic groups and immigrant populations, the results indicated that teachers perceive cultural diversity as a particular problem whose management is marginalised and excluded from the set of school activities and teaching practices. Teachers agree that the issue is one of adaptation, a problem to be solved by the students themselves with the support of school counsellors and other educational specialists. This way, neither school policies nor teaching practices assume the commitments arising from cultural diversity, so we cannot say that teachers incorporate it in their work, putting culturally relevant teaching into practice in their classrooms. While one of the benchmarks achieved in recent years is the presence of educational specialists in schools to address cultural diversity, the next step is to create the conditions to articulate a joint and collaborative effort between the teaching body and these professionals, bringing cultural diversity management closer to the classroom. Another pending challenge would be determining how we can best prepare teachers for organising and managing their culturally diverse classrooms. Teachers in these schools are doing their job without a professional knowledge base concerning multicultural education. Therefore, pre-service and in-service teacher education programmes should consider questions related to multicultural education and classroom management, which are absent or rarely taken into account in teacher training to date.     

Local university students and intercultural interactions: conceptualising culture,seeing diversity and experiencing interactions

This paper examines the intercultural interaction experiences of local, first-year students (n?=?25) in their first few weeks at university. The focus on local students complements existing intercultural interaction literature, which has tended to concentrate on the experience of the ‘cultural other’ student. Employing qualitative analysis, the study revealed relationships between how students conceptualise culture, see diversity and experience their initial intercultural interactions on campus. A link between students' cultural backgrounds and the depth of their intercultural interaction experiences emerged.     

Intercultural Competence: Physical Education Teacher Education Recommendations

ABSTRACT 

The increasing diversity of the K-12 student population presents challenges and opportunities for growth in the physical education profession. To address the cultural gap in today’s classroom, many people highlight the need to improve the intercultural competence of teachers. The focus of this article is to summarize the shifting demographics of American society, its impact on K-12 education, and how one California physical education teacher education (PETE) program is preparing pre-service teachers for the multicultural classroom. The article also outlines recommendations for PETE programs to address intercultural competence.     

Student ratings of teaching quality in primary school: Dimensions and prediction of student outcomes

The contribution examines theoretical foundations, factorial structure, and predictive power of student ratings of teaching quality. Three basic dimensions of teaching quality have previously been described: classroom management, cognitive activation, and supportive climate. However, student ratings, especially those provided by primary school students, have been criticised for being biased by factors such as teacher popularity. The present study examines ratings of teaching quality and science learning among third graders. Results of multilevel confirmatory factor analyses (N = 1556 students, 89 classes) indicate that the three-dimensional model of teaching quality can be replicated in ratings of third graders. In a longitudinal study (N = 1070 students, 54 classes), we found ratings of classroom management to predict student achievement, and ratings of cognitive activation and supportive climate to predict students' development of subject-related interest after teacher popularity is controlled for. The analyses show that student ratings can be useful measures of teaching quality in primary school.     

The development of the classroom social climate during the first months of the school year

In this study the mean stability of classroom social climates during the first months of the school year and the deviation of individual classrooms (N = 48) and students (N = 1208) from this general trend were investigated by taping students’ interpersonal perceptions of their teachers. Multilevel growth modeling was used to identify the average development of the classroom social climate and between classroom and student differences in terms of this development. While significant differences between classrooms and students were found, these differences were rather stable over time. Most classrooms showed a slightly u-shaped trajectory. In only very few classrooms the quality of the social climate had increased at the end of the research period as compared to the very first lesson. Differences in the development between classrooms were associated to the emotional distance between teacher and students during the first lesson of the school year.     

Intercultural empathy among Norwegian students: an inclusive citizenship perspective

In recent decades, Norwegian schools have experienced increased cultural diversification among students. Growing heterogeneity in origin and culture may enhance the risk of student marginalisation, segregation and exclusion. In response to these challenges, this paper examines students’ intercultural empathy and, particularly, how schools can develop their intergroup empathy to support social inclusion. Theoretically, we applied an inclusive citizenship perspective. The study draws primarily on quantitative data gathered from paper questionnaires collected from 1006 students in two upper secondary schools and three lower secondary schools. We explored the antecedents of intercultural empathy among the students using regression analyses. First, we found that there are substantial differences between the scores of boys and girls on intercultural empathy. Second, we found that information on culture and diversity was a predictor of certain aspects of intercultural empathy. Third, a variety of school variables were applied to explore possible ways to support student intercultural empathy, which showed moderate associations with intercultural empathy. Fourth, variables measuring students’ perceptions of human rights implementation in school were also moderately associated with aspects of intercultural empathy. The results and their implications for teaching are discussed.     

浅析跨文化交际中的文化自觉

文化自觉是人们在多元文化背景下对人类文化多样性的一种理性认识及自主选择。随着全球化的发展,我们进入了跨文化交际的新时代;在跨文化交际中,我们理应坚持文化自觉;在对文化的自觉比较与反思中,我们应坚持走好自己的创新与发展之路。     

Ideological composition of the classroom: testing the effects of polarization on perceptions of open classroom climate among students in five countries

Abstract

This quantitative study tests the relationship between ideological classroom composition and perceptions of open classroom climate. Using data from the 2016 International Education Association’s International Civic and Citizenship Study, the study uses latent class analysis and multilevel regression modelling across five countries. First, latent class analysis identified students as low or high socioeconomic status. To assess ideological polarization, the gap between support for gender equality and ethnic rights was calculated between groups. Finally, a multilevel regression model measured the relationship between ideological polarization and students’ perception of open classroom climate. Across three countries, results found negative associations between increased polarization and perception of an open classroom climate. Additional testing identified that polarization modified the relationship between student socioeconomic status and perceptions of open classroom climate in Croatia.     

Capitalizing on Participation: Latina/o Adolescents and the Classroom Economy

Interactions with capital??how it is identified, accumulated and exchanged??occur within fields of action, and every field has its own set of rules, or habitus, shaping the ways in which these interactions unfold. Classrooms, the fields in which students interact in schools, shape and privilege certain ways of thinking and acting, thereby building (or neglecting) opportunities for students. Yet little research has focused on student perceptions of classroom interaction, and particularly whether or how classroom participation might be a form of capital for them. Deploying data collected through classroom observations and interviews with Latina/o students at a large urban high school, this study focuses on examining the ways in which distinct groups of Latina/o students (in a set of schools within a school) understand and experience classroom participation. Findings reveal that while a shared understanding of classroom habitus may be more common than previously thought, we cannot just tell students to participate, or merely depend upon a general belief in the value of participating. Instead, we must simultaneously and explicitly bolster student participation and the cultivation of student networks so that a shared habitus turns the promises of participation into meaningful and equitable praxis.     

Mapping cultural diversity through children's voices: From confusion to clear understandings

This research examines children's conceptualisations of cultural diversity. In particular, this project examines the following two research questions: how do children define and understand the concept of cultural diversity; and what do they perceive as the implications of cultural diversity on their daily lives? To this end, interviews were carried out with 40 (immigrant and native) students, aged 11 to 12, at five primary schools in Cyprus, which presented high concentrations of immigrants. On the basis of our analysis of the data, the participant children appeared to perceive cultural diversity in terms of two contrasting perspectives. On the one hand, they viewed cultural diversity in terms of the cultural‐deficiency perspective. Such perceptions stemmed from the model of monoculturalism implying the need to assimilate the culturally ‘different’ in order to counteract the negative consequences of cultural diversity. On the other hand, the same children also perceived cultural diversity in terms of cultural celebration. To this end, some children drew upon the model of multiculturalism to define cultural diversity as a culture‐enriching and culture‐celebrating process, pointing to folkloristic activities including traditional music, dance and food. Nonetheless, few of the participant children—both Cypriot and immigrant—defined cultural diversity in terms of the model of interculturalism, pointing to the intercultural exchange that stems from ‘real’ friendship development between natives and immigrants, equality of rights and inclusion. As the participant children appeared to confuse the meanings and languages of cultural diversity, this paper concludes with suggestions on teacher practices to ‘crystallise’ children's views.     

Intercultural education in Detroit, 1943–1954

In the World War II era, many United States educators recognised that the claims of racial superiority underlying German anti-Semitism and Japanese imperialism challenged the fundamental democratic idea of human equality that is the bedrock of US political ideals. At the same time, these educators realised the importance of national social cohesion for political unity and strength. Their response to this challenge was to develop school programmes that emphasised the principles of equality of opportunity and inalienable human rights, that promoted respect for diverse races and cultures, that warned against the dangers of race-based totalitarianism and that taught all students to fulfil their responsibilities as US citizens. These programmes, generally referred to as ‘intercultural education’, enjoyed their greatest success from the late 1930s to the early 1950s.

In practice, most intercultural education programmes, as implemented in schools, did not live up to the ideals established by intercultural education’s founders. Instead, most programmes focused on the cultural contributions of diverse groups and on values such as tolerance and appreciation for differences. Yet one large and influential public school district, the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) district, did fulfil many of the expectations for the programmes. DPS administrators and teachers pushed intercultural education in more daring directions, directly tackling deeper structural issues such as power, privilege, discrimination, equality and race to help students from different racial and cultural backgrounds respect one another and to help groups that were traditionally discriminated against achieve their full rights as citizens. Intercultural education in Detroit simultaneously taught students to value racial and cultural diversity and to cherish and follow civic values – not an easy task. Although intercultural education was a short-lived movement, ending in the 1950s in Detroit and around the country, we demonstrate that many initiatives of intercultural education formed the basis for accomplishments several decades later, during what is known as the multicultural education movement. Intercultural education also had a legacy through Norman Drachler, a leader of the intercultural programmes in the 1940s: years later, as General Superintendent of the DPS in the late 1960s, Drachler would lead the effort to dramatically change US history textbooks to be inclusive of diverse people and groups.     

Formative Evaluation of Eccomi Pronto [‘Here I Am Ready’]: a School Counselor-Led,Research-Based,Preventative Curriculum For Italian Primary Schools

Eccomi Pronto is a school counselor-led, story-based curriculum that is designed to promote simultaneously the development of early elementary school students’ self-direction, active engagement in school, and pre-literacy skill development. This article reports the results of the first evaluation of a large-scale implementation of Eccomi Pronto in Italian elementary schools. The evaluation employed a mixed methods approach involving qualitative analyses of interviews and observations supported by quantitative analyses of student self-reports and teacher ratings (with a single group pre-test post-test design). Observations and interviews with parents and teachers suggested that Eccomi Pronto was associated with a number of improvements in students’ academic behavior, including engagement, involvement, reading interest, reading comprehension, work conscientiousness, inquisitiveness, and social support of classmates. Quantitative findings confirmed these qualitative findings, indicating that implementation of the curriculum was associated with improvements in classroom climate and student engagement. Limitations of the evaluation are discussed along with suggestions for necessary follow-up assessments.     

Cultural perspectives on Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian students' school motivation and engagement

The purpose of the paper was to investigate (a) similarities and differences in cultural perspectives, self-concept, and school motivation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian students; and (b) the relative influences of self-concept, motivation, and cultural perspectives on academic engagement. Data were collected from Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students in Years 3 to 6 from 52 primary schools in metropolitan Sydney (N = 1745). Students completed a questionnaire asking about three cultural perspective factors (Aboriginal perspective, cultural diversity, and cultural identity), school self-concept, two motivation factors (a mastery approach goal and a performance approach goal), and a behavioral outcome (academic engagement). Results indicated that Aboriginal students were higher in all three cultural perspectives, but did not differ much from non-Aboriginal students in school self-concept, motivation, and academic engagement. For both groups cultural diversity, cultural identity, school self-concept, and a mastery approach goal orientation were positive predictors of academic engagement. A performance approach goal orientation was not a significant predictor of engagement but higher SES and being female were positive predictors. The findings suggest that teachers should understand the importance of promoting a positive sense of culture in the classroom to better engage students.