Latino/Anglo-American differences in attributions to situations involving touch and silence

This article focuses on attributions made by Latinos and Anglos to intercultural situations involving touch and to silence. Six etic theoretical dimensions of cultural differences (contact, collectivism, power distance, context, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and polychronicity), and one emic theoretical concept (Latinos' overarching interpersonal orientation), were used to predict that Latinos would differ from Anglos in attributions to situations involving touch and silence. Data were gathered in a multiphase, large-scale research program on Latino–Anglo differences in interpretations of behavior. Procedures involved interviews with persons from both cultures, observations of interactions, and the use of structured and unstructured questionnaires to obtain episodes of cross-cultural interactions and attributions to these episodes. Analyses of the attributional choices made by teachers and pupils of both cultures to episodes focusing on touch (haptics) and on silence are presented. The Latino–Anglo and Teacher–Student differences found are discussed in terms of the theoretical dimensions and of the implications of these differences for cross-cultural training.     

Developing Culturally Competent Preservice Teachers

An unfortunate, yet persistent, truth in U.S. public schools is the large achievement gap existing between children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and their White, middle-class counterparts. The potential for cultural dissonance between contemporary teachers and their students necessitates that educators must persistently seek culturally responsive practices. Much has been written regarding strategies for culturally responsive pedagogy; therefore, this article moves beyond a review of culturally responsive pedagogy. Rather than providing teacher candidates with more suggestions for culturally responsive teaching activities, the authors provide teacher educators with specific resources for facilitating the development of cultural competence among preservice teachers.     

First contact: Initial responses to cultural disequilibrium in a short term teaching exchange program

This paper examines early aspects of intercultural learning among pre-service teachers from Japan and the United States during a short-term international exchange program. Using insights from Taylor's (1994) theory of intercultural development, the research uses qualitative methodology to describe experiences of cultural disequilibrium and various responses to disequilibrium by participants in the exchange. Findings suggest a range of related sources of cultural disequilibrium across culture groups. Eight strategic responses to disequilibrium are identified, and implications for early engagements with cultural difference for beginning teachers are discussed. The research seeks to clarify the role that short term immersion experiences can play in the understanding and development of early intercultural competence and to identify connections between such experiences and teacher education.     

Culturally and Linguistically Relevant Readalouds

The teacher readaloud is an instructional tool established in its ability to foster children's language and literacy development. Increasing cultural and linguistic diversity and changing standards place pressure on teachers to provide literacy and language instruction relevant to children's everyday lives and learning. This article presents a framework for conducting culturally and linguistically relevant readalouds within two essential components, talk and text, in terms of developing cultural competence, maintaining high academic expectations, and fostering a critical stance. Particular attention is given to the interactive nature of these readalouds and how they can be used to promote children's active co-construction of textually-based meaning.     

Intersection of Asia,feminism and cultural studies: Yonsei University's experience in South Korea

Abstract

This article addresses the issues of how feminism, cultural studies and inter‐Asia studies can intersect amicably and meaningfully as an institutional program by using Yonsei University as an example. Speaking from the position of someone who is one of the founders and teachers of the Graduate Program in Cultural and Gender Studies at Yonsei University, I endeavor to analyze the possibilities and limitations of combining these fields together. This article suggests that practitioners of inter‐Asian cultural studies carefully formulate and establish a conceptual framework as foundation upon which we can begin to discuss some possible commonalities for future curriculum. I believe that the framework ought to focus more on the ‘post‐nation state paradigm,’ and incorporate the achievements of both critics of global capitalism and the neoliberal order, and creators of new meanings – including migrants and youths – as a possible transnational subjectivities. Inter‐Asia cultural studies also needs to learn some lessons from the history of the belittlement and groundless exclusion of feminism experienced by the Birmingham School and Korean cultural studies practitioners and the gender‐blindness they held.     

Intercultural communication between Chinese college students and foreign teachers through the English corner at an elite language university in Shanghai

This paper uses an ethnographic approach and draws critical pedagogical and sociolinguistic insights from Pierre Bourdieu to explore Chinese college students’ participation in an English Corner program at an elite language university in Shanghai. Accordingly, this paper promotes scholarly conversations about intercultural communication between Chinese college students and foreign teachers from English-speaking countries. By underpinning the concepts of intercultural capital, this paper analyzes these themes: (a) linguistic habitus and capital in the stratified field of elite language education; (b) articulating English proficiency; (c) bridging cultural distance and improving intercultural competence; and (d) personal growth and professional development. This paper critically interprets Chinese college students’ benefits and mutual relationships with foreign faculty from English-Speaking Countries; how they cultivated intercultural capital in the field of elite education beyond linguistic capital, how they strove to maintain their accumulated capital to secure better career prospects, and what the roles of international faculty should be.     

International volunteers’ perceptions of intercultural competence

Although international volunteer sending organizations vary greatly, nearly all claim that volunteering will increase intercultural competence. Various theories of intercultural learning suggest, however, that cultural contact will only improve a volunteer's intercultural competence under certain conditions. The study collects self-reported responses from 291 volunteers who served in one of two service models that differ on multiple characteristics. This study isolates four key characteristics and employs a moderated multiple regression to test how these variations affect volunteers’ perceptions of intercultural competence. Findings suggest that that service duration, cultural immersion, guided reflection, and contact reciprocity are all positively associated with intercultural competence. In addition, guided reflection appears to moderate the relationship between duration and intercultural competence. This study responds to the need for research on the effects of international volunteering across institutional models.     

Games from around the world: Promoting intercultural competence through sport education in secondary school students

Intercultural competence (IC) is a key competence in individuals’ life. Educational programs carried out to date have been motivated by the presence of culturally diverse students. This situation calls for programs to be implemented in low cultural diversity contexts, considering its repercussion on all students.This study aimed to explore the impact of a Sport Education Model (SEM)-based program about games from around the world on seventh-grade students’ intercultural competence and friendship goals. A quasi-experimental control group design (pre-test, post-test, and retention test measures) was carried out. The experimental group (EG) followed a SEM-based program (18 sessions) about games from around the world, whilst the control group (CG) was not exposed to any specific treatment, continuing with its ordinary syllabus. Data were collected from questionnaires, interviews and field notes.EG obtained significant improvements on reward, help, intercultural understanding and friendship-approach goals; whereas CG had significant diminishment on both intercultural sensitivity and understanding, as well as on friendship goals. Qualitative results conveyed: (a) an approach to new cultural realities; (b) how the teaching content led to cultural reflection; (c) how students created new relationships; (d) greater collaborative relationships; (e) how the model helped to mitigate negative behaviours; and (f) how the intervention provided students with greater opportunities for participation. Games from around the world are shown to be a suitable content for developing IC, suggesting the need for expanding evidence about possible effects of new teaching contents when conjugated with SEM.     

Cultural stress in the age of mass xenophobia: Perspectives from Latin/o adolescents

During the last four years, xenophobic rhetoric directed toward Latino immigrants in U.S. media outlets and political forums has greatly increased. Using a general inductive approach, this qualitative study examined the forms of cultural stress, with a focus on discrimination and xenophobia, experienced by Latino adolescents in urban U.S. settings in 2018 and 2019. Six focus groups were conducted in Miami and Los Angeles (three groups per city) with first- and second-generation tenth-grade Latino students (n = 34). The following four themes emerged from the data: perceived discrimination from other Latino subgroups (in-group discrimination), perceived discrimination from non-Latino groups (out-group discrimination), internalization of stressors and discrimination experienced by participants' parents, and the current U.S. political rhetoric surrounding immigration. Understanding cultural stress among Latino adolescents provides valuable insight for future interventions to offset negative health outcomes associated with cultural stress.     

Enhancing Cultural Humility Through Critical Service-Learning in Teacher Preparation

To provide opportunities for preservice teachers to move beyond the limitations of their life experiences, the teacher preparation program at the University of Vermont has worked to advance service-learning experiences that push preservice teachers to examine their own identities and biases by providing them with opportunities to interact with others whose life experiences are different than their own. The goal of these experiences is to assist the preservice teachers in recognizing how their emerging practice, which is entrenched within their own positionality, impacts individuals that they work with as well as the broader community. This interpretive study examined outcomes of the experience through the lens of cultural humility. This study affirms the need to be explicit about practice, particularly as it relates to critical pedagogy to advance social justice. It also offers a glimpse into how teacher preparation programs may construct learning experiences to support the development of cultural humility.     

Raising Multicultural Children in Japan: A Mixed Methods Examination of Parent-Child-Society Dynamics

This paper examined the experiences of parents raising multicultural children in Japan by obtaining quantitative and qualitative data via an online questionnaire from 158 parents raising multicultural children in Japan. Our findings suggested that society, children, and parents influenced each other in an inextricable manner. While we found variables that differentiated the respondents’ experiences (e.g. children’s appearances, names, and personalities; and parents’ place of origin, language competence, gender, and attitudes), we also found common threads in their experiences (e.g. being “othered,” pressures to conform, language barriers, cultural differences, and benefits). Many wished for a more open and accepting society.     

Multicultural literature: An essay

Effective teacher education should guide preservice and practicing teachers in comprehending and facilitating educational concepts and pedagogical practices that examine and promote equity for all learners. Teachers and young learners benefit from sundry opportunities to recognize their self identities and to celebrate both individual and shared cultural characteristics while increasing their understanding and appreciation of others and society. Teachers' cultural characteristics frequently do not match the cultural characteristics reflective of their young learners, and teachers may not be cognizant that their young learners do not see and operate in the world as they do. Critical pedagogy frequently fails to occur when dissonance lies between teachers' backgrounds, beliefs, and behaviors and those characterizing their young learners. Therefore, a major responsibility of pre-K-12 school administrators and teacher educators focuses on developing cultural self-awareness in teachers concomitantly empowering them to develop cultural self-awareness in their young learners. This article addresses how to initiate and further enhance the development of cultural self-awareness in educators by viewing a short yet provocative video titled, "The Lunch Date." A synthesis of university class discussion techniques drawing on the experiences of two professors provides guiding questions and useful suggestions appropriate for pre-K-12 teachers, administrators, staff developers, and teacher educators.     

Principles and Practices of Sociocultural Assessment: Foundations for Effective Strategies for Linguistically Diverse Classrooms

Increasing numbers of English as a Second Language (ESL) learners throughout the United States have created an urgent need for strategies that teachers can use to meet the needs of all students in their classrooms. Research has shown that effectively meeting the needs of second language learners requires appropriate goals for learning, standards-based curriculum, sociocultural pedagogy, and assessment that is coherent with these practices. This article provides assessment principles and practices that are coherent with the sociocultural perspective and emphasizes four assessment accommodations that are appropriate for ESL learners in mainstream classrooms.     

Biculturalism as a double-edged sword: The perspectives of Mexican American emerging adults

Cultural and ethnic identity research largely highlights the adaptiveness of biculturalism among Latino youth in the United States. Less is known about how Latino youth themselves define and experience biculturalism, the cultural identity content that they deem relevant, and how heritage and host identities intersect. Using an inductive approach, this study examines the salience, valence, and meaning of biculturalism among Latino youth living in a multicultural U.S. city. Twenty-six Mexican American emerging adults (M_age = 22.35 years) participated in semi-structured interviews and constructed cultural identity maps focusing on their experiences of biculturalism. Qualitative analysis reveals that participants overwhelmingly deem biculturalism to be positive and explores the duality (i.e.: opposition or contrast) that lies beneath that positivity. Participants emphasized individual-level advantages of biculturalism, namely, that their Mexican heritage provides identity rootedness and enables expanded career and educational opportunities. The bicultural challenges that participants discussed were overwhelmingly relational: familial cultural gaps due to dissonant values and critical gazes from others due to inadequate cultural performances. By revealing that and why biculturalism is mostly positive in the eyes of participants, and exploring the duality that lies beneath that positivity, this study draws attention to the complexity of biculturalism that can be obscured by exclusive reliance on quantitative self-report measures.     

Acculturation and consumption: Textures of cultural adaptation

This study examines patterns of cultural adaptation of an ethnic minority as manifested in consumption of traditional ethnic and mainstream culture foods. A survey, containing multiple measures of several ethnic identification and acculturation dimensions, along with consumption frequencies of both traditional and mainstream culture foods, was administered to a sample of ethnic Lebanese residing in a predominately French-speaking urban area. The results confirm that ethnic identity and acculturation are distinct processes, providing strong support for dual process models of cultural adaptation. A series of structural equation models linking the twin cultural influences to the consumption of traditional home and mainstream host food categories found little support for the linearity assumption between cultural adaptation and consumption behavior. Rather, the relationship between ethnic identity, acculturation, and consumption behaviors appears to be far more complex, and specific to the food category under consideration. Mapping these patterns of cultural adaptation, we articulate a new typology, relating the extent and particular combinations that home and host cultural influences impact consumption behavior.     

Ethnic identity maintenance within the Latino-American church: a structuration perspective

The Latino ethnic/immigrant church plays a significant role in maintaining the ethnic identity of its congregants. Through the perspective of structuration theory, this qualitative analysis investigates how the activities of the church impact its members and how an individual might contribute to the cultural structure of the Latino church (i.e., duality of structure). Interviews of 25 pastors from Spanish-speaking congregations in both urban and rural settings in Oregon resulted in several themes including the initial planting of the church, the denominational structure, the emergence of a new multi-ethnic cultural identity, generational differences, and the influence of Spanish.     

Under-Prepared Students: Essentials beyond Academics

Teacher education programs continue to struggle with preparing highly qualified teachers ready to meet the academic, cultural, exceptionality and linguistic challenges, which are increasingly the reality of American's classrooms. Despite increased academic rigor in such programs, many emerging teachers are still ill prepared to each effectively students from cultural and racial backgrounds different from their own. The article asserts that this is due in part to a lack of an appropriate disposition on the part of future teachers. Further, the authors provide three strategies they use routinely with their undergraduate teacher education students that hold promise for effecting positive changes in disposition.     

Migrant Philippine teachers in Indonesia: the nexus between precarious skilled work,illegal mobility and the cosmopolitan

This article examines the nexus between the illegal migration of Filipino teachers as a form of precarious skilled employment in conjunction with the mobility of choice and hope found in the adoption of cosmopolitan outlooks. Catering to the aspirations of Indonesia’s rising middle class, privately managed “international” schools actively recruit trained teachers from the Philippines. Many of these teachers are migrants negotiating journeys of financial independence. These migrant teachers often find themselves arriving in Indonesia being required to work in the absence of work visas that were initially promised by their employers. Migrant Philippine teachers working in Indonesia compensate for these “shocks” encountered during their employment by cultivating a sense of cosmopolitan sociability as they aspire to utilize their professional and cultural experiences in Indonesia for better employment opportunities beyond Indonesia.