Engaging Diversity in Undergraduate Classrooms E-Book

Amy Lee

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Serie: J-B ASHE-ERIC Report Series (AEHE)
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 224

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

College classrooms are hopeful spaces where segregation can beinterrupted and intercultural learning can occur. This issuesupports the claim that engaging diversity in classrooms has asignificant impact on the development of students'intercultural competence. It states why intercultural skillsmatter, what they look like in practice, and how they can bedeveloped by instructors regardless of the courses they teach. Thisissue: * Establishes a contemporary understanding of diversity as a coreinstitutional priority and resource * Proposes a framework of engaging diversity for interculturalcompetence development * Presents key theories of intercultural competency developmenthelpful to faculty that supports discipline-based and interculturallearning outcomes * Presents research regarding the core skills, attitudes, andbehaviors that are requisite to effective and ethical interculturalinteractions * Shows how faculty can engage diversity for interculturaloutcomes in their classrooms. This is volume 38, number 2 of the ASHE Higher EducationReport, a bi-monthly journal published by Jossey-Bass.

Leseprobe

Contents

Executive Summary

Foreword

Acknowledgments

The Need for Intercultural Competency Development in Classrooms

The Call for Intercultural Skills

Engaging Diversity for Intercultural Outcomes

The Promise and Challenge of Diverse Classrooms

Goals of the Monograph

Lessons of the Past

Tensions and Misconceptions

The Challenge of and Need for Integration

Student Voices: Reflections on Engaging Diversity in Different Disciplines

Next Steps

Understanding Intercultural Competence and its Development

Importance of Foundational Knowledge

Core Premises of Intercultural Competence

Building Blocks of Intercultural Competence

The Process of Intercultural Development

Outcomes of Intercultural Competence Development

Conclusion

Developing a Pedagogy That Supports Intercultural Competence

Institutional Context

Beyond Content and Content-Based Pedagogy

The Challenge of Intercultural Pedagogy

An Integrated Framework for Intercultural Learning

Intercultural Pedagogical Principles

Developing Intercultural Pedagogy—A Continuous Process That Happens Over Time

Classrooms as Privileged Spaces

Conclusion

Engaging Diversity Through Course Design and Preparation

Incorporating Intercultural Pedagogical Principles into Course Design

Conclusion

Practicing a Pedagogy That Engages Diversity

Applying Intercultural Pedagogical Principles to Classroom Facilitation

Conclusion

Summary: Conclusions and Recommendations

References

Name Index

Subject Index

About the Authors

Engaging Diversity in Undergraduate Classrooms: A Pedagogy for Developing Intercultural Competence

Amy Lee, Robert Poch, Marta Shaw, and Rhiannon D. Williams

ASHE Higher Education Report: Volume 38, Number 2

Kelly Ward, Lisa E. Wolf-Wendel, Series Editors

Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction or translation of any part of this work beyond that permitted by Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without permission of the copyright owner is unlawful. Requests for permission or further information should be addressed to the Permissions Department, c/o John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River St., Hoboken, NJ 07030; [phone], fax [phone], www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

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ISSN 1551-6970 electronic ISSN 1554-6306 ISBN 978-1-1184-5725-2

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Advisory Board

The ASHE Higher Education Report Series is sponsored by the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), which provides an editorial advisory board of ASHE members.

Ben Baez

Florida International University

Edna Chun

Broward College

Diane Dunlap

University of Oregon

Dot Finnegan

The College of William & Mary

Marybeth Gasman

University of Pennsylvania

Shouping Hu

Florida State University

Adrianna Kezar

University of Southern California

Kevin Kinser

SUNY – Albany

William Locke

The Open University

Barbara Tobolowsky

University of Texas at Arlington

Susan B. Twombly

University of Kansas

Marybeth Walpole

Rowan University

Executive Summary

This monograph integrates multiple streams of literature that support the claim that the manner in which diversity is engaged in classrooms has a significant impact on the development of students’ intercultural competence. The goal of the monograph is to synthesize literature on why intercultural skills matter, what they look like in practice, and how they can be developed by instructors regardless of the courses they teach.

The first chapter presents the social context that underscores the need for colleges and universities to prioritize intercultural outcomes. It establishes a contemporary understanding of diversity as a core institutional priority and resource, and proposes a framework of engaging diversity for intercultural competence development as one promising theoretical model. Diversity is seen as an essential thread that must be intentionally woven into the fabric of the institution at all levels, and defined broadly to include personal and social as well as visible and invisible forms of human difference. The authors argue that college classrooms are hopeful spaces where patterns of segregation can be interrupted and intercultural learning can occur as students experience cognitive disequilibrium and experiment with novel ideas. It is also noted that intercultural development is not a natural or inevitable process, and does not result merely from the presence of diverse social identity groups or course content. For the potential of diverse classrooms to be realized, instructors need a pedagogical framework for effectively engaging diversity to support intercultural outcomes. They need to know what intercultural competence looks like and what conditions foster inclusive engagement of diversity in higher education courses. Preparing graduates for the cognitive and intercultural complexity of the twenty-first century requires higher education practitioners to have an understanding of both process, what facilitates students’ intercultural learning and development, and the outcomes of intercultural learning.

The second chapter provides an overview of key theories of intercultural competency development helpful to faculty who seek to design and implement classes that support both discipline-based and intercultural learning outcomes. This chapter presents research regarding the core skills, attitudes, and behaviors that are identified as requisite to effective and ethical intercultural interactions. Individuals with high levels of intercultural competence are inclined to respect others, seeing them as social equals. They display an attitude of openness, which presumes the acceptance of multiple ways of interpreting the world and withholding premature judgment. They are curious toward difference and tolerate the uncertainty and ambiguity inevitable in interactions with unpredictable others. The attitudes of respect, openness, and curiosity are foundational to the development of two kinds of knowledge essential for effective communication across cultural or social differences. One of those is cultural self-awareness, or an understanding of one’s own culture and how it hard-wires basic assumptions, beliefs, and instinctive behaviors. The other kind of knowledge is sociolinguistic awareness, or the ability to give language meanings intended by the person we communicate with. Intercultural knowledge and attitudes work hand in hand with the behavioral skills and enable productive intercultural interactions. Those skills include listening and observing before evaluating, analyzing, interpreting, and relating to others. As a result of developing competence at each of three levels—affective, cognitive, and behavioral—individuals gain the ability to relativize their self in relation to others, and communicate with people different from them in ways that are both effective and appropriate. Interculturally competent individuals create new categories instead of relying on stereotypes and find ways to manage their own anxiety and uncertainty—skills that can be developed in most if not all college classrooms.

The third chapter provides the theory of how faculty can begin to think about engaging diversity for intercultural outcomes in their classrooms. Before one can implement specific instructional practices that support intercultural communication, one needs a pedagogical approach that reflects what is known on the nature of learning, particularly in regard to diversity. The authors propose a pedagogical model for faculty who seek to maximize the potential for a course to support students’ development. They base it on Kolb’s (1984) classic learning model, which imagines learning as a cycle of concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. U.S. college classrooms rely heavily on cognitive content and do not provide students with sufficient opportunity to reflect and practice new knowledge. For college instruction to develop intercultural competency, it must follow three principles: maximizing purposeful interactions, valuing the assets brought by students to the classroom, and balancing dissonance with support. It is also noted that developing intercultural pedagogy takes time and requires the naming of the invisible forces of prejudice in the classroom.

The fourth and fifth chapters draw on the pedagogical framework developed in the third chapter, and apply the three pedagogical principles in the context of the classroom. In the fourth chapter, the authors identify evidence-based practices of instructional design that include building in classroom time for reflection and perspective-taking, structuring purposeful collaboration in diverse groups, incorporating opportunities to apply experiential knowledge, explicitly identifying desired intercultural skills as course outcomes, and establishing a supportive environment. These practices support students’ ability to engage across disciplines in ways that are inclusive of multiple cultures and lived experiences and to value diversity in reaching common goals. The authors demonstrate how collaborative learning can be intentionally designed and implemented to facilitate interactions between classmates and with content whose experiences, identities, and points of view were different from each other. In the fifth chapter, the discussion shifts to the stage of implementation and focuses on the skills involved in facilitating interactions in a course that seeks to support students’ intercultural competence. The authors highlight five pedagogical practices that support intercultural outcomes: acknowledging anxiety and offering support when dissonance threatens to undermine learning, disrupting social relations that involve segregation and bias, modeling the balance of suspending judgment and legitimate constructive critique, and facilitating conditions to support inclusive dialogue.

The authors conclude with a reflection on the historic meaning of “university” as a totality of a group unified for common benefit, and note the need for further research on engaging diversity for intercultural communication outcomes in all disciplines and fields. The authors note that faculty commitment to effective classroom practices must be matched with an institutional commitment for engaging diversity. Just as a classroom must align the environment, pedagogy, and instructional practice to engage diversity, institutions should also align institutional rhetoric with resource allocation, hiring practices, and curriculum in ways that move from espousing to enacting the value of diversity.

Foreword

Conversations about diversity abound on college campuses, ranging from encouraging members of the campus community to “get along” to engaging in dialogues about difference associated with power and privilege. For students to live in an increasingly multicultural world, developing intercultural competence is crucial to meaningful participation in society. Yet a recent study by Rude, Wolniak, and Pascarella reported in Inside Higher Education (April 10, 2012) provides alarming data. The study suggests that contrary to popular beliefs about the liberalizing effects of college as a time for students to learn about difference and getting along with others, for most students, being in college does not contribute to racial understanding, and for those students who do change, they actually become less committed to intergroup understanding. Such data suggest that faculty and administrators cannot rely on passive transmission of knowledge about diversity to create greater understanding of students. Classrooms can be one such place where faculty can move beyond a passive approach to developing intercultural understanding toward an approach that is deliberate and active—a stance that is likely to have more impact on students.

Engaging Diversity in Undergraduate Classrooms: A Pedagogy for Developing Intercultural Competence provides readers with very useful, timely, and empirically grounded information and ideas for how to actively engage in developing intercultural competence in students. Monograph authors Amy Lee, Robert Poch, Marta Shaw, and Rhiannon D. Williams take a very unique approach. They focus their attention on classrooms as pedagogical spaces to engage students in the development of intercultural awareness and competence. Too often, unfortunately, faculty are not aware of the importance of student intercultural awareness and competence, nor are they aware of how to facilitate and support this process in a meaningful and helpful manner. The purpose of this monograph is to provide faculty with tools they can use as they work with students in their classrooms. The monograph is very useful in that it provides readers with a rationale for developing intercultural competence in addition to the associated processes and outcomes. Relying on an integrated combination of existing research and practices, the monograph helps readers to understand the importance of furthering students’ development of intercultural competence, a theoretical basis for doing so, how to create classroom spaces that foster students’ intercultural competence, and how to develop campus spaces that support such work.

Recognizing that the creation of classrooms which develop students’ intercultural awareness is not independent of institutional context, the authors also address the campus as a whole and its role in creating environments that foster student development with regard to diversity. It is important for institutions to not just call for commitments to diversity, as they often do, but to also back up the rhetoric by enacting agendas aligned with intercultural awareness and competence through changes in classroom practices for faculty and students. Lee, Poch, Shaw, and Williams do a remarkable job of not only pointing out the need for students to become interculturally aware, but more importantly they provide empirically grounded reasons for faculty to support students’ intercultural development, as well as clear examples of how faculty can intentionally support this process. They approach the topic with different disciplines in mind, recognizing that it is important to develop intercultural competence for students in all areas ranging from the sciences to engineering as well as professional fields, social sciences, and the humanities. The authors are cognizant of discipline and different contexts in their discussion.

Engaging Diversity in Undergraduate Classrooms: A Pedagogy for Developing Intercultural Competence sits alongside other ASHE monographs that have grappled with similar topics. For example, Chun and Evans’s Bridging the Diversity Divide: Globalization and Reciprocal Empowerment in Higher Education and Zúñiga, Nagna, Chesler, and Cytron-Walker’s Intergroup Dialogue in Higher Education: Meaningful Learning About Social Justice collectively look at different aspects of creating and enacting diversity and conversations about diversity among faculty, administrators, and students. The monographs are not just “how to” manuals; they also grapple with the issues associated with and surrounding the importance of diversity.

Engaging Diversity in Undergraduate Classrooms is timely in that it provides an action plan to support the rhetoric associated with diversity that is commonplace on so many campuses. I gathered some great ideas from reading this monograph. As an administrator, the monograph provides me with tools to encourage faculty to recommit to diversity in their classrooms, why it’s important, and to provide examples of what it looks like. As a faculty member, the monograph provides me with great ideas on things I can do as I plan my classes for the semester and different ideas for how to approach topics on a given day. I recommend this monograph to faculty wanting to change their classrooms, administrators wanting ideas on how to carry out diversity agendas, and researchers interested in related topics.

The monograph does a laudable job of addressing the micro- and macro- inequities that exist on campus and the role that developing intercultural competence plays in creating classroom and campus spaces that are deliberate in their approach. The monograph has the requisite combination of theory and practice to engage readers in deliberation about the importance of intercultural competence as well as the practical skills necessary to carry out such goals.

Kelly Ward

Series Editor

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Kris Cory and Pat James for providing energizing, challenging feedback with lightning speed when we most needed it. We appreciate the research assistance and insights Kelly Winters provided during the early stages of this work, and the research assistance Chaltu Hassan contributed in the final stages.

Thanks to our students for being partners in engaged classrooms where diversity enriches our learning and lives. We are also lucky to have innovative, inquisitive colleagues who are exemplars of inclusive excellence in their teaching, research, and engagement.

Amy Lee is grateful to John Magers for his indefatigable support in many forms, and to A. J. Griffin and Timothy Lee for inspiration and timely laughs. Amy also thanks Annette Digre, Jennifer Franko, and Barry Stehlik, who helped make it possible for her to give adequate time to this project and offered unfailing encouragement.

Marta Shaw wishes to thank Kristina Tawse and Chad Rutter for their feedback and helpful suggestions on synthesizing the literature in ways that are helpful for instructors across the disciplines.

Robert Poch thanks Cindy Poch for reading and commenting on multiple chapter drafts and for patiently cohabitating with hundreds of books and articles on teaching in the narrow hall between kitchen and living room.

Rhiannon Williams thanks her coauthors for engaging in much debate, sharing of perspectives, and the exciting, yet sometimes draining process of writing on such an important topic.

The Need for Intercultural Competency Development in Classrooms

Knowing that students and society could ultimately benefit from new approaches to cross-cultural learning, but failing to take the necessary steps to intentionally create enabling conditions [in and] outside the classroom is downright irresponsible.

[Harper and Antonio, 2008, p. 12]

Effectively engaging diversity is one of the highest priorities for higher education today, and we are not doing an adequate job. Current demographic, social, and economic contexts underscore the need for colleges and universities to comprehensively utilize diversity in ways that foster excellence and inclusion on behalf of students’ intellectual and social development. In light of the pressing need to effectively support educational outcomes for an increasingly heterogeneous population, and to prepare graduates for the cognitive and intercultural complexity of the twenty-first century, higher education practitioners and scholars need a deeper understanding of how to effectively engage diversity.

The impetus for this monograph comes from our own experience, both in the classroom and in our research. In the past ten years, we have observed our institution’s student population become increasingly diverse in terms of racial and ethnic demographics. Historically, generalized categories of racial and ethnic identity have become more diffuse and complex. We are also more mindful of the often less visible forms of difference that are present in any learning environment, such as socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, religion, disability, and many others. Among our students, there is a growing chasm when it comes to socioeconomic status, with an increase in representation of students from both ends of the income spectrum and thus the likelihood of significant disparity and diversity in both educational and lived experiences. For many students, whether they are from urban contexts or remote, rural areas, college is the first time they experience daily and direct encounters with individuals they define as “different.” This isn’t surprising given the segregation in U.S. neighborhoods and schools with regard to income, race, and culture (Saenz, 2010). Our students bring multiple dimensions of human difference and diverse social identities, and they also share some common aspirations: to graduate from college; to have choices about their career; to cultivate what they need to succeed; to provide for their parents and families; and to contribute positively to their neighborhoods and world. Many of them also express a commitment to addressing injustices and inequities in education and economic realities.

The students who attend our colleges and universities increasingly reflect the broad array of national and global diversity. They come to campus with different cultural backgrounds, languages, lived histories, geopolitical orientations, faiths, and educational experiences. When the four of us imagine our students after college, we know many of them will find themselves working together, living in proximity, impacted by common issues in the community, and sharing public spaces such as schools and parks. Yet when we look out at our classrooms, we often notice that students tend to segregate themselves physically, interacting with students who share visible identity characteristics. What students do not typically bring with them to college is a level of intercultural competence required to effectively interact across difference. Intercultural competence is broadly defined as the “ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in intercultural situations, to shift frames of reference appropriately and adapt behavior to cultural context” (Deardorff, 2006, p. 249). Considerable research has documented that students enter college with a lack of cultural awareness and understanding of what it takes to effectively engage diversity (Pascarella and Terenzini, 2005).

The Call for Intercultural Skills

In recent decades, intercultural competence has been increasingly recognized as a priority in educational outcomes of higher education. A significant amount of evidence highlights the benefits of diversity to student learning and development when that diversity is represented and actively valued and engaged. Studies identified cognitive, affective, and social outcomes associated with engaging diversity, in particular, increased cognitive sophistication and complexity (Antonio, 2004; Gurin, Dey, Hurtado, and Gurin 2002; Yershova, DeJeaghere, and Mestenhauser, 2000), critical thinking skills (Hu and Kuh, 2003; Milem, 2003), academic skill development (Denson and Chang, 2009), reducing prejudice, and increasing racial and cultural appreciation (Allport, 1954; Bowman, 2010b; Pettigrew and Tropp, 2006) and the development of leadership skills (Antonio, 2000). Repeated, deliberate engagement with diversity also contributes to the growth of higher-order cognitive skills, such as cooperative intergroup behavior, and openness to considering alternative views (Gottfredson and others, 2008; Hurtado, 2001; Saenz, Ngai, and Hurtado, 2007).

Policymakers and researchers have called for undergraduate education to systematically support the development of these skills and knowledge in order to enable graduates to successfully navigate a complex, diverse, and increasingly interconnected world (Association of American Colleges and Universities [AAC&U], 2007; Arkoudis and others, 2010; Deardorff, 2009a). A report published in 2007 by the AAC&U, “College Learning for a New Global Century,” identifies intercultural learning as “one of the new basics in a contemporary liberal education,” one that is “essential for work, civil society, and social life” (p. 15). Similarly, disciplinary associations across higher education in fields as diverse as engineering, business, medicine, agriculture, and education have noted the increasing need for attention to supporting the development of interculturally competent graduates (Grandin and Hedderich, 2009; Kumagai and Lypson, 2009; Moran, Youngdahl, and Moran, 2009; Sargent, Sedlak, and Martsolf, 2005).

Many employers have also called for higher education to better support graduates’ development of the capacities to work productively and positively within professional environments of diverse cultures, views, and opinions (AAC&U, 2002, 2010; Dey and others, 2010). An employer-based rationale for diversity initiatives is important for faculty to note despite the frequent and warranted critiques that it focuses on the needs of already privileged populations who “need” diversity skill credentials, and thus does not support equity-related goals. It is important to question how various logics may produce programming that perpetuates differential benefits for student populations and ignore existing cultural capital that some students have developed. Yet in order to compel institutions to invest more resources and place strategic priority on the capacity to engage diversity effectively, a range of calls for change is necessary. This monograph proposes that a mindful approach is needed that foregrounds the objective of serving and benefiting all students.

The diverse voices calling for intercultural skills contrast sharply with evidence suggesting that, to date, students are still not being adequately prepared to participate and thrive in diverse workplaces and personal contexts. Findings of a recent national study based on the Personal and Social Responsibility Inventory (PSRI) led the authors to conclude that “while higher education places high value on engaging diverse perspectives, [institutions] need to do much more to ensure that . . . students actually develop these capacities across several years in college” (Dey and others, 2010, p. ix). Employers have likewise found intercultural skills to be in short supply among college graduates, highlighting their specific deficiencies in the areas of applying skills effectively in new contexts and adaptability to different cultural perspectives (Milem, 2003). There is also evidence of uneven results that tend to fall along disciplinary boundaries. Upon graduation, students majoring in business, science, nursing, and engineering report the least growth in relation to cultural competence (Pascarella and Terenzini, 2005). While organizations continue to look to higher education to provide individuals with the needed competence, the perception among employers remains that higher education is not adequately responding (Smith, 2010).

Engaging Diversity for Intercultural Outcomes

From Allport’s (1954) classic contact theory to more recent studies on the relationship between intergroup contact and diversity-related learning and development outcomes (Denson and Chang, 2009; Gurin, Dey, Hurtado, and Gurin, 2002; Hu and Kuh, 2003), it is clear that both the frequency and quality of interactions with diversity are significant factors in realizing the benefits of learning in a diverse environment. In a meta-analysis of research on diversity experiences and cognitive development, Bowman (2010a) found that a diverse student body yielded educational benefits only to the extent that students had meaningful interactions with one another.

Across various fields of research, similar conclusions have emerged regarding the benefits associated with a diverse student population and multicultural course content. These benefits do not accrue passively or automatically (Alger and others, 2000; Denson and Chang, 2009; Gesche and Makeham, 2008; Marin, 2000; Otten, 2003). Rather, diversity must be actively engaged (Williams, Berger, and McClendon, 2005; Wong, 2006). These findings are important in that they suggest the importance of intentionally designed and actively facilitated intercultural interactions. Neither the institutional culture nor its participants and representatives (faculty, staff, administrators, students) are automatically willing or inherently competent to engage diversity effectively. It is also important to note that several studies have concluded that it is important to provide sustained and coordinated efforts across and throughout the undergraduate experience in order to maximize the benefits of diversity on student development and learning (Gottfredson and others, 2008; Gurin, Dey, Hurtado, and Gurin, 2002).

From engineers to educators, we all have an equal stake in and opportunity to support students’ preparation for positive and effective participation in an increasingly interconnected, global society. While there is research to support the importance of the presence of structural diversity, it is inadequate to assume that its presence alone will result in an institutional culture that supports a robust exchange of ideas and perspectives (Alger and others, 2000). Simply enclosing a diverse group of people within the same four walls for four hours each week does not support students’ development of diversity-related skills. It is not even sufficient to have diverse students discussing shared content and working on collaborative projects. While potentially valuable, these strategies do not in and of themselves compel substantive intergroup interaction or deepen students’ competence and confidence in communicating in diverse contexts. What is needed is a “comprehensive model of transformational change that puts diversity at the center of the educational mission” (Krutky, 2008, p. 3)—a theoretically informed practice for designing and facilitating our classrooms in ways that engage diversity as an integral part of intellectual rigor and academic and professional excellence.

Foundational Assumptions

In this monograph, we integrate multiple streams of literature that support the claim that how diversity is engaged in classrooms has a profound impact on the development of students’ intercultural competence. The concept of engaging diversity arises out of the theoretical framework of inclusive excellence