Developing cultural competency in higher education: an agenda for practice

As a result of changing national values and unrest, demographic and population shifts, and ever-changing admissions practices and policies, implementing a diversity and cultural-competency agenda within university settings has become a priority across the UK, Europe, and US. Furthermore, public institutions across the UK, EU, and US are now more racially and ethnically diverse than ever [Snyder, T. D., C. Debray, and S. A. Dillow. 2016. ‘Digest of Education Statistics 2016.’ NCES 2016-006. National Centre for Education Statistics; Sursock, Andree. 2015. Trends 2015: Learning and Teaching in European Universities. European University Association. Accessed October 28 2017. www.eua.be/Libraries/publicationshomepage-list/EUA_Trends_2015_web.]. Yet, cultural competency efforts on campuses remain largely under theorized [Bezrukova, K., K. A. Jehn, and C. S. Spell. 2012. “Reviewing Diversity Training: Where We Have Been and Where We Should Go.” Academy of Management Learning and Education 11 (2): 207–227] and diffuse [Sue, S., D. C. Fujino, L. T. Hu, D. T. Takeuchi, and N. W. Zane. 1991. ‘Community Mental Health Services for Ethnic Minority Groups: A Test of the Cultural Responsiveness Hypothesis.’ Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 59 (4): 533–540]. This article seeks to outline an agenda for this work, highlighting outcomes of cultural competency learning and underscoring the role of campus leadership in the development of supportive characteristics. These characteristics include attention to shared knowledge, professional learning at all levels of the organization, inclusive instructional methods, integration with other campus initiatives, and inclusivity of diversity foci. Posited are six supportive conditions for successful implementation.     

Outdoor education in rural primary schools in New Zealand: a narrative inquiry

ABSTRACT

This research examines teaching outdoor education in two rural primary schools in Aotearoa New Zealand. The aim was to give ‘voice’ to how outdoor education is taught, programmed and understood. Underpinning the research was the question: what factors enable/constrain teachers’ ability to implement outdoor education? The findings suggest: confusion about outdoor education terminology and the educative purpose of school ‘camps’; schools ‘do what they have always done’, particularly when decisions about outdoor education contexts are dominated by senior management; financial restrictions; and teachers feeling ill-prepared in terms of safety management because of their limited pre-service and post-service teacher education. This research highlights that what to teach, how to teach and where to teach outdoor education needs more consideration and attention for teachers to be better informed about safe outdoor practices and quality pedagogy in, for and about the outdoors.     

教育叙事研究的研究

近几年叙事研究在我国教育研究领域兴起 ,引起了学者们的关注。学者们主要从教育叙事研究兴起的背景、叙事及叙事研究的内涵、叙事研究的理论基础、叙事研究的特点、叙事研究的分类、叙事研究的过程、叙事研究的反思等方面进行了研究。     

Criticality in international higher education research: a critical discourse analysis of higher education journals

The current study utilizes the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179–211 Ajzen 1991) to examine an instructor confirmation-interaction model in the instructional communication context to discover a means by which instructors might cultivate positive student attitudes and increase beliefs that interactions with instructors would be beneficial in the future. Specifically, the model examines how teacher confirmation (Ellis 2000) influences students’ behavioral intention to communicate with instructors. Surveys were distributed to 343 college students (41.7% male and 58.1% female) in a basic communication course. Results were primarily consistent with the proposed model; teacher confirmation was significantly related to attitudes toward communicating with an instructor, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Subjective norms and perceived behavioral control were also positively related to students’ behavioral intention to communicate with the instructor. However, results reveal attitudes toward communicating do not predict students’ behavioral intention to communicate with instructors. It is recommended that future models examine a more contemporary, hi-tech representation of attitude toward student-instructor interactions as it may produce a significant association with students’ behavioral intent to communicate with them. The study concludes with theoretical and practical implications to examine student classroom communication via the confirmation-interaction model and the theory of planned behavior.     

Curriculum as open-ended inquiry in higher education

Abstract

Throughout the world, education curriculum are determined and guided by knowledge perceived as being critical for the advancement of humanity. Often such progress is indicated and determined by curriculum shaped by the ways of knowing of the dominant cultural group or languages that have achieved hegemonic status in such communities, in the process marginalizing any ‘indigenous’ ways of knowing as embedded in the language of other cultures. Sometimes such curriculum have little or no connection with contemporary reality. In this article I therefore argue that inclusive curricular knowledge types are critical in education in order to enable all people, individually and collectively, to progress without being inhibited by the hegemony of so-called ‘scientific’ knowledge. I also argue that knowledge as embedded in a language is power, and should therefore be connected to reality. Using critical social theory, I propose an alternative, inclusive treatment of knowledge types in education curriculum – open-ended inquiry – in order to level the learning field for all learners, and, in so doing, to adequately prepare tomorrow's world citizenry.     

On the evaluation of teaching and learning in higher education: a multicultural inquiry

The aim of the study was to develop a model of positive word‐of‐mouth (WoM) intentions in a higher education context. WoM was found to be directly influenced by satisfaction levels and indirectly by antecedents of satisfaction, namely positive and negative emotions and perceptions of performance. The model provided a good fit to the data and explained 58% of the variance in WoM intentions. When the model was tested on samples of domestic and international students, significant differences were noted in that the model explained only 21% of the variance in WoM for international compared to 68% for domestic. Moreover, emotions for the international sample did not significantly influence satisfaction or WoM intentions.     

Identity and pedagogy in higher education: international comparisons

Teachers’ responses to language classroom incidents depend on many factors, including the extent of their teaching experience. The question of how much influence teaching experience carries is important given that pre-service teachers have had limited opportunities to respond to day-to-day incidents that arise in classrooms. This paper reports on a two-stage research study in Singapore that first explored 22 pre-service teachers’ understandings of language classroom incidents and their possible responses. Subsequently, a survey was conducted to compare pre-service and in-service teachers’ perceptions about anticipating and responding to classroom incidents. The findings from a total of 77 respondents indicate that perceptions of the experienced and inexperienced teachers are similar in many ways, yet some notable differences emerged as well as a few interesting individual responses. This work has implications for initial teacher education programmes in terms of considering the value of providing pre-service teachers with opportunities to discuss and reflect on potential language classroom incidents.     

Quality assurance at a distance: international accreditation in Taiwan higher education

In response to the global competitiveness in higher education, the government, in recent years, has encouraged Taiwan colleges and universities to seek international accreditation, which raises several questions, such as jurisdiction over national accreditation, a single set of standards for local and global quality assurance, demand for the mutual recognition of review outcomes, etc. With the looming pressures for change that international accreditation will likely pose on a Taiwan national framework of quality assurance, multiple impacts on institutions and national accrediting agencies in Taiwan are now beginning to be increasingly felt. Hence, this paper examines current academic international accreditation programs and institutions, recognizes Taiwan’s accrediting organizations, and analyzes the challenges that institutions and national accrediting agencies are facing.     

The International Baccalaureate: international education and cultural preservation

The International Baccalaureate (IB) is an internationally accepted pre-university qualification which, since its origins in the 1960s, has increased in popularity to the point where it is now offered in more than 70 countries worldwide. As a university entrance qualification accepted internationally, it aims not only to provide an appropriate academic curriculum, but also to support geographic and cultural mobility and to promote international understanding. It claims to do so by both inculcating international attitudes in its students and by encouraging the maintenance and development of their cultural identities. This study examines the extent to which the IB actually appears to achieve these aims, by exploring the views of an opportunity sample of ex-IB students, IB teachers and staff at the University of Bath who have direct experience of the IB programme. The findings indicate that the IB can clearly facilitate mobility and can contribute to the development of international understanding, whilst at the same time supporting the preservation of individual cultures and national identities, provided contextual factors are appropriately arranged.     

Teachers' environmental education as creating cracks and ruptures in school education: a narrative inquiry and an analysis of teacher rhetoric

This article discusses a narrative inquiry as a methodology for understanding and examining teachers' interpretations of their environment‐related teaching experiences. Focusing on the value of teacher stories for interrogating the discursive practices of schools as institutional contexts, four main rhetorical themes are identified to illustrate how teachers' engagements in practice and thinking with environmental education display ongoing identity work. Five Korean secondary science teachers' stories illustrate the dynamic processes and interplay between multiple discourses, such as the ‘proper’, ‘good’, ‘science’ teacher, and the cultural norms, resources and subject positions available to them, as they take up and explain their own and others' meanings and subject positions in science education and environmental education. The paper discusses the value of narrative inquiry to conceptualising teacher agency in ways that offer alternatives to conventional research perspectives in this field, and in taking account of the possible meanings of environmental education, the possibility of creating cracks and ruptures in the ‘sense‐making’ discourses and ‘sense that is made’ of experiences of environmental education and school education more widely.     

发展我国高校的"国际特征"

在分析21世纪高等教育国际化趋势的基础上，论述了增强高等学校“国际特征”的主要内容，并提出了发展我国高校“国际特征”，推进国际化的战略选择。     

和谐文化建设与中国高等教育

建设社会主义和谐文化对我国高等教育改革与发展特别是对建设中国特色的高等教育具有深远的战略性意义,也指明了我国高等教育改革与发展的方向。认真学习、积极探索如何建设社会主义和谐文化是教育界、教育研究界的一个非常重要的任务。首先,我们要提高高等教育文化自觉,重视文化建设,加强文化建设。第二,社会主义核心价值体系是和谐文化建设的根本。第三,建设社会主义和谐文化要处理好多种文化的关系。第四,我们的高等教育,我们的大学要适应社会主义和谐文化的建设,视和谐文化建设为己任。     

和谐文化建设与中国高等教育

建设和谐文化对我国高等教育改革和发展,特别是对建设中国特色的高等教育具有深远的战略性意义。建设和谐文化,要提高高等教育的文化自觉,重视与加强文化建设;建设和谐文化,要研究、宣传社会主义核心价值体系;建设和谐文化,要尊重差异、包容多样,处理好多种文化的关系;高等教育要适应和谐文化的建设,视和谐文化建设为己任。     

Taiwanese higher education in a cultural perspective: a preliminary study of two premier universities

ABSTRACT

Imposing the policy lessons from higher-performing countries may involve the complex interplays of socio-cultural and institutional contexts. This article attempts to observe Taiwan’s progress in higher education from an explicit cultural perspective. It locates Taiwan among the rising group of higher education systems in East Asia. The study interrogates a wide-held understanding of higher education development and critically reflects on the “high performances” at systemic and institutional levels. It re-examines a capacity of the Western-influenced system in preserving indigenous cultural traditions while pursuing the quest for world-class status. Adopting a case study research, data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with executives and academics at two premier universities in Taiwan. The findings have shown that, due to fundamental differences, integrating traditional values with imported Western-structured institutions remains an arduous task for Taiwanese higher education. This study critiques conventional presumptions concerning the primacy of an Anglo-Saxon model in Taiwan and offers insights into the society’s efforts to bring back its own cultural values.