"Going global": The complexities of fostering intercultural understanding in a rural school using videoconferencing technology

Lee, M. M. (2004). "Going global": The complexities of fostering intercultural understanding in a rural school using videoconferencing technology. Unpublished dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington.

Chapter 1. Introduction

• Emphasis on internationalization of curricula
  
  • social change
  • general goals (Tye, 2002): a. broadening students' horizons; b. building critical thinking skills; better preparing young people for productive lives in a nation that belongs to an increasingly interdependent world community
    
• Problems
  
  • Access & opportunities (Kim, 2001)
    
  • Individualization v. universalization (Kim, 2001)
    
  • cultural consciousness (Banks, 1997)
• Midwestern State, Henderson School & International Studies for Henderson State Schools (ISHS)
• Framing the study (p. 5)
  
  • Intercultural Education (Cushner, 1998)
    
  • International studies (Merryfield, 2001)
  • Videoconferencing technology (Cuban, 1986; Reznich, 1997; Roberts et al., 1990; Yoakam, 1995; Tiedemann, 2002 - 4 benefits of videoconferencing: a. It is direct communication with experts to enhance understanding of a subject matter; b. it heightens interest which improves motivation and retention; c. it overcomes time and distance constraints; d. it improves the spontaneity of guests)
  • ISHS
  • Interaction as instructional strategy (Lee & Paulus, 2001; Moore, 1993; Vygotsky, 1978 - ZPD; Bonk, Oyer & Medury, 1995 - social constructivist; Garrison, 1993, p. 16 - interaction; Gilert & Moore, 1998 - interaction)
    
• Significance of the study
  
  • No research to substantiate the impact of ISHS
  • Rurual school's isolation
  • The findings provide insight into the understanding of complexities associated with cross-cultural encounters; suggest possible implications of this type of program for educators who want to develop learning environments where the students can be empowered with a sense of intercultural competence as members of a multicultural society
• Research questions
  
  • How does a middle school social studies teacher in a racially homogenous middle school integrate an international sutdies program into his World Geography curriculum?
  • How do the middle school students understand and interpret their encounters with people from other countries through interactive videoconferencing technology?

Chapter 2. The Design of the Study (p. 18) ( qualitative research - Lincoln & Cuba, 1985; Merriam, 1998; Wolcott, 1992)

• Definition of Ethnography (Creswell, 1998; Tedlock, 2000; Chambers, 2000)
• My stance as a critical theorist (Critical theory - Poskewitz, 1999a, p.2) - look at the program as either
  
  • an intervention, the effectiveness of which is assessed by measuring the change in students' perception about other cultures (attitudinal change), or
  • an opportunity to introduce the students to other cultures in order to see their reaction to such an opportunity (naturalistic ethnographic approach)
• Methodological implications
  
  • ethnographic method is helpful in providing detailed info about participants & their surroundings
  • Individualized interaction techniques (building rapport)
• The research design
  
  • Outline of the study
    
    • Phase 1: Search for possible locations using Henderson State demographic statistics and select 5 possible sites
    • Phase 2: Meet w/ Mr. G and obtain his agreement for the implementation of ISHS into his curriculum
    • Phase 3: Make observations and acclimate to the setting (continued until Phase 7)
      
    • Phase 4: Begin ISHS. Conduct sutdent/teacher interviews. Begin observation and engage in preliminary analysis
    • Phase 5: ISHS presenters' interviews (for causal feedback). Ongoing observation.
    • Phase 6: Transcription of data and search for emerging themes. Ongoing observation.
    • Phase 7: Data analysis. Ongoing observation. (themes from interviews were compared to the observation - basis for coding. Triangulation)
    • Phase 8: Further interviews w/ the students (questions drawn upon based on the preliminary analysis). Ongoing observation.
    • Phase 9: Analysis and write-up.
  • Research site
    
    • Selection criteria (purposive sampling): a. social studies class in rural high school; b. teacher agreement on using ISHS for entire school year; c. culturally isolated & racially homogeneous
    • Instructional characteristics of the Eliot School (school vision)
      
    • Technology use in the Eliot School
    • Participants (students, teachers)
• Data collection
  
  • Observation (regualr classes without ISHS; class during the ISHS sessions; hallways & cafeteria; school functions such as athletic events; school area & nearby towns) ; to minimize the researcher's obtrusiveness (as an Asian) by regrulating her visits to the public areas of the school so that the students would become accustomed to her presence; examples of the observation data
  • Document analysis (textbook; class assignments)
  • Interviews (student, teacher)
• Data anaylsis (p. 45)
  
  • Reconstructive analysis & diglogical data generation (emerging themes; check understandings with teachers & locals)
  • Coding (repeated reading of the data - preliminary analysis; topics compared across the data and grouped into emerging themes. Peer debriefing; discussion with the faculty)
  • Discovering system relations (findings compared w/ larger social context - Carspecken, 1996): Hermeneutic-reconstructive anlysis emphasizes action orientations such as interpretive schemes within a culture; systems analysis emphasizes action consequences and the distribution of action conditions broadly throughout society
    
    • The findings from the school site were compared w/ info about the neighborhood & the town (community)
    • The findings were compared to the dominant discourse of the period that sutdents were exposed to from media sources and conversation w/ others outside of the school
• Possible limitations of the study
  
  • Focus group interviews w/ the students (group form may have inhibitory effects)
    
  • My role as researcher/participant (3-fold role - involvement in the implementation; worked as presenter; conducting the research process)
  • The novelty factor of the videoconferencing technology
  • Myself as an international student (Hawthorne effect)

Chapter 3. "Bringing the world into the classroom": The ISHS program in session (p. 50)

• Sections
• Discussion
  
  • Emphasis on interaction
  • "Personalized narratives
  • Uses of other technologies
  • Presenter's characteristics
• Other instructional interventions for intercultural awareness
  
  • Career talk with the ISHS outreach coordinator
  • Ms. Hilary's diversity program

Chapter 4. "Making it relevant": The teacher's use of the ISHS program (p. 82)

• The teacher's personal values and views on education
  
  • Being a coach vs. being a teacher
  • Being tolerant vs. having strong moral convictions
• 'No Child Left Behind' & issues of parental responsibilities
• On instructional strategies
  
  • Increasing student motivation
  • Student-center pedagogy
  • Bringing in current affairs
• "Making relevant": Integrating ISHS into the curriculum
• The future use of ISHS (p. 101)
• Discussion
  
  • ISHS as a "live" resource
  • Understanding Mr. Gordon's identity

Chapter 5. "Meeting the real person": The students' interpretation of the ISHS program (p. 105)

• Students' interpretation of the "other": Constructing difference in school (Identity - Mead, 1934; Habermas, 1981; Kanpol & McLauren, 1995, Hall, 1996; Taylor, 1994; Schutz, 1970; Sleeter & Grant, 1991; Hall & du Gay, 1996)
  
  • Groups & labels (social class variations - Brantlinger, 1993) - being popular
  • Homosexuality (Allport, 1979, p. 87 - well-deserved reputation theory)
  • "Being popular": Power & legitimacy (Allport, 1979; Kanpol & McLaren, 1995)
    
  • Racism
• Difference & the ISHS videoconferencing programs (Self-Other relations - Fine, 1994)
  
  • Interest in the exotic (Ashcroft et al., 2000, p. 94)
  • Americanized cultural forms & U.S.-centrism
  • "Coming from a real person": Authenticity & group essentialism
  • Differentiating vs. "othering"
• Discussion
  
  • Popularity & racism: The discourse of exclusion (Sarup, 1996, p. 59)
  • Making sense of the difference (Cushner, 2003 - difference as diviation generates the sense of fear)
  • Oversimplification of other cultures
• Possible reasons for the interpretation (p. 139)
  
  • Culture-specific approach to understanding other cultures (Cushner, 2003, p. 42)
  • Emphasis on ethnicism or "national character" (internally homogenous - Brah, 1997, p. 129)
  • View of culture as static (Kanpol & McLaren, 1995)

Chapter 6. Conclusions & implications for future research (p. 142)

• Tentative conclusion
  
  • Positive response to ISHS
  • resulted in interpretations of culture emphasizing the exotic in some cases and in the search for Americanization in others
  • didn't result in an awareness of, or challenge to, an already established framework for understanding differences
• Future implications
  
  • Providing a support system for the teacher
    
    • understanding how differnce is constructed
    • community of practice for social studies teachers (Wenger, 1998)
  • Implications for instructional design issues (Merryfield, 2001)
    
    • continuous implementation of ISHS
    • collaborative problem solving approach
    • teaching tolerance: providing instructional resources
    • collaboration between rural schools and universities
    • providing a panel of speakers
  • Administrative support for the ISHS program from the university
    
    • creating more tangible incentive for the presenters
    • creating additional partnership
  • For further research
    
    • further conceptualization of differences for particular contexts and learners
    • issues on curriculum design in social studies
    • teacher education for social studies
    • politics of international education

References

Appendix

• Sample interview protocol for students
• Sample interview protocol for teacher
• Pre-survey questions for students
• Reflection of the session (students)
• Summary of events
• Sample of preliminary analysis

Gill’s Conceptual Framework of Intercultural Interfacing

Following the conception of cultural interfacing at different levels in diverse context, Gill (2007) delineated three orders of gap of rationality:

This conception of the interface gives rise to a first order gap of rationality (conceptual gap) between what is termed ‘actuality’ (the experiencing that draws on past, present, and expectations of future) and ‘reality’ (the observed present). The second order gap of rationality arises from the design competency—gap between the conception and the model. The third gap of rationality of design is technical competency, the application gap. The cumulative affect of these gaps is that it can lead to the severe breakdown and disruptions of interaction. (pp. 642-643)

Gill (2007) pointed out that the tragedy of this breakdown is that the designers of the interface may not even be aware of the existence of such interfacing gaps, and they may come to “blame the frailty of the human rather than recognize the limitations of the observed reality” (p. 643). Such limitations prevent us from knowing the user from the use context. Therefore, he proposed a human-centered vision of the interface cultivated in the notion of the interdependence between the reality and the actuality – the symbiotic interface.

The symbiotic interface seeks an interdependent relationship between the personal, social and cultural roles (tacit dimension) and the functional (objective) roles of the user, thereby perceived as the “between-ness” interaction between the reality (objective world) and the actuality (tacit, practice) (p. 643). The “tacit” is defined as the interrelationship between the “personal” (feeling/experiencing) and “experiential” (collective experience/practice), which provides a “conceptual handle” (p. 646) to articulate interdependent (symbiotic) relationships between the “personal”, the “experiential” and the objective:

It can be argued that part of the “personal” knowledge can become part of the “experiential” dimension over time during the process of participation in a group, and that part of the “experiential” knowledge can become absorbed into the “objective” dimension over time through the process of collaboration. Following the similar argument, it is proposed that part of the “objective” knowledge can also be transferred to the “experiential” domain, and part of the “experiential” knowledge to the “personal” domain. It is further proposed that this symbiotic idea of transference between “personal” “experiential” and the “objective” provides an insightful framework for designing interfacing architectures for “in-between” interactions. It is this symbiotic notion of transference and “between-ness”, which provides an interdependent relationship between cognition and action, and thus the core concept of interfacing and collaboration. (p. 646)

The notion of symbiosis provides a conceptual basis to design interfacing architectures for the intercultural interactions. It provides a conceptual tool to find coherence between diversities, ambiguities and uncertainties of the human situation in seeking interdependence between the reality and actuality, between the objective and the tacit. This conceptual tool can be further combined with theories in educational technology and diffusion of innovations (Rogers, 1995) when considering distance education as an innovative learning approach.

Other concept:
"culture of the artificial" enables individuals (or groups) from two different cultural spaces to create a third artificial cultural space in which to meet and share and pool their common cultural experiences for a common purpose, while recognizing and accepting their cultural differences as a further resources for cross-cultural learning-valorizing of cultures (Gill, 2007).

Reference
Gill, K. S. (2007). Rethinking the cross-cultural interaction architecture. Artificial Intelligence and Society, 21, 639-647.

Model of cross-cultural interaction

Flowerdew and Miller’s (1995) model of cross-cultural interaction will help answer these questions. After carrying out a three-year ethnographic study on the interaction between American, British, and Australian lecturers and Hong Kong Chinese students, the two researchers proposed a four-element framework for analyzing second language lectures at four cultural levels—ethnic culture, local culture, academic culture, and disciplinary culture (see Figure 4).

The first element, ethnic culture, is defined as “social-psychological features which affect the behavior of students and which may contrast with the social-psychological make-up of Western lecturers” (p. 356). For example, the Chinese students’ Confucian heritage has place an emphasis on family value and respect for elders. However, their reluctance to express opinions in front of the teachers may be associated with another Asian value of saving face. A “high level of achievement motivation” (p. 358) is also considered pertinent to their ethnic culture.
The second element in this framework is that of local culture, which is defined as “aspects of a local setting with which the members of a particular society are familiar” (p. 359). An example was that the Chinese students expressed their complaints for the lectures’ lack of use of local examples when elucidating concepts in their presentations.

A third element is academic culture, which refers to “those features of the lecture situation which require an understanding of the particular academic values, roles, assumptions, attitudes, patterns of behavior, and so on” (p. 362). They note that academic culture is situated at several different levels: (a) within a group of countries (European nations for example), (b) at a nation level, (c) within a group of institutions, (d) in a given country, or (e) within a particular institution. In the case of the Hong Kong Chinese students, they have found that four features are involved. The first feature is that memorization is being used as a primary cognitive learning strategy. This strategy has been highly developed since a young age. The second feature is that the Confucian value for respect to teachers and the language barrier produce a significant avoidance of classroom interaction with teachers. A third observation is “the propensity of students to help each other” that is rooted in the Chinese “collectivist approach to social interaction” (p. 363). The fourth feature involves the lack of creativity on the part of students due to rigid examinations and assignments and “lacking in critical and original thought” (p. 365).

The fourth dynamic in this framework, disciplinary culture, is defined as “the theories, concepts, norms, terms, and so on of a particular academic discipline” (p. 366). It connotes that some disciplines may be common to different cultures, however, they may use different theories, concepts, and norms that are expressions of those cultures. Taking lecture structures for example, Flowerdew and Miller (1995) point out that the other-culture student is faced not only with learning lecture structures related to various disciplines but must also cope with the discourse features of English language.

Flowerdew and Miller suggest that their model may be useful to researchers and educators in the fields that involve oral instruction across cultural boundaries. However, they lament “there is a dearth of information as to the cross-cultural aspects of lectures which can assist Western lectures in teaching non-Western students” (p. 370).

Reference
Flowerdew, J., & Miller, L. (1995). On the notion of culture in L2 lectures. TESOL Quarterly, 29 (2), 345-373.

Dissertation ideas

Title

The complexities of cross-cultural interface in a "distance": Interpreting an international distance learning program in a Midwest university

Purpose of the study

To provide a description of interpretations and understanding of the complex nature of cross-cultural distance learning in a Midwest university.

Research questions

Major question
How might we model the development and experience of a cross-cultural university curriculum in distance technology?

Sub-questions
(1) What are the relationships between participants, technologies, and contexts in the development of an international distance learning program? (e.g., teacher-teacher, teacher-student, student-student, administration-teacher, teacher-technology, student-technology, technology-culture interactions)
(2) How does a teacher integrate distance technology into his/her cross-culture studies curriculum?
(3) How do the students understand and interpret their cross-cultural encounters through the international distance learning program?

Literature Review
Key words:
International/cross-cultural education -> academic growth/educated person/
Intercultural competency/Digital literacies/Globalization
Professional development/teacher readiness/motivation
Novice-expert experience (teacher-teacher interaction)
Digital natives-immigrants experience (digital disconnect) (teacher-student interaction)
Instructional design (modules)
Models/frameworks of relationships, factors, constructs, technique

Research design/Methodology

To meet the purpose this study will examine the development and implementation of a interactive videoconference-based international distance learning program developed by a Midwest American University and foreign Universities. (Use pseudonyms for proposal?)

One possibility is IDEN (pseudonym), a culture studies program currently organized through the Global Media Network, Center for International Programs, and the Honors College. Selected students from the Honors College get the opportunity to learn about cultures of three different countries by participating in a course taught through digital video conferencing technology.

The normal procedure of a IDEN class is described as the following: "before the classes begin, each country is paired up with one another. After the first five weeks, the partners are switched, until each class has met with every country. Each course is customized to cover the topics which the students are most interested in. The students are assigned a partner and are required to correspond with one another by email and MSN Chat. There is a group conference during the first ten minutes of class. Afterwards, half of the class stays for another personalized video conference session, while the other half goes to a computer lab to have one on one conversations with their international partners through chat. Throughout the semester, collaborative papers are written by each student and their partner."

Currently the program is under the change of leadership. The next course won't be offered until Spring 2009. The new leader of this program has never taught a IDEN course before. Getting to know how He is going to make things work will be part of my research interest.

Ethnography will be considered as the primary research method for this study. Sources of data will consist of the written transcripts of the interviews, online exchanges, pre- and post-course surveys, journals, participant observations, and archived documents.

Data Analysis

Upon the completion of data collection, I will examine and reexamine the data in search of themes and integration in the data to arrive at a number of themes. Triangulation among asking questions, observing, interviewing, peer review, and analyzing documents and transcripts will help to integrate the analysis.

Timeline

* June 2008 Comprehensive exam
* July 2008 Proposal defense
* August 2008 IRB
* Fall 2008 Start data collection and analysis. Building rapport and network with research participants (instructor, technology staff, administration, and students); literature review; going through previous archives and documents of the IDEN program; interview; fieldnotes
* Spring 2009 Continue data collection and analysis: Participant observation in the IDEN class;
* May 2009 Data analysis, interpretation and dissertation writing
* June 2009 Finalizing
* July 2009 Defense

Resources of ethnography in cross-cultural technology

Lee, Mimi Miyoung (2004) "Going global": The complexities of fostering intercultural understanding in a rural school using videoconferencing technology. Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, United States -- Indiana. Retrieved January 11, 2008, from ProQuest Digital Dissertations database. (Publication No. AAT 3141606). >>>

Abstract (Summary)

In light of recent world affairs, many educators have recognized a need to incorporate international content, issues and perspectives into the existing curriculum, especially in racially and culturally isolated rural environments. Considering the relative disadvantage that these rural students have in terms of cross- and multi-cultural exposure, such addition to the curriculum is expected to help students grow beyond their original cultural understanding.

This is a year-long ethnographic study conducted in a rural middle school classroom where an International Studies program was introduced through interactive videoconferencing technology with the goal of fostering intercultural understanding. The methodology of Critical Ethnography (Carspecken, 1996) was used in the design of this study. Observations, interviews and document analysis were conducted. The data was analyzed to answer the following questions: (1) how does a middle school teacher in a racially homogenous rural community integrate the International Studies program into his social studies curriculum; and (2) how do the middle school students understand and interpret the encounters with people from other countries through interactive videoconferencing technology?

The key findings show that (1) the teacher and the students considered the program to be a very valuable opportunity to interact with people from other cultures; (2) the main purpose of using the program for the teacher was to motivate the students; and (3) the students had a framework of differentiating themselves in their local culture and used it to interpret the cross-cultural encounters made possible by the program. The findings suggest that the students' interpretation often resulted in measuring the differences of other cultures with the symbols of American consumerism, producing " Americanized other cultures." The study concludes that the integration of the International Studies program was received very positively by the teacher and the students but did not result in an awareness of, and challenge to, already established frameworks for understanding difference. In order to provide instruction that results in a more sophisticated level of intercultural understanding, the study suggests future implications in pedagogical, instructional and administrative issues.

The evolution of constructivist learning environments: Immersion in distributed, virtual worlds

Dede, C. (1995).The evolution of constructivist learning environments: Immersion in distributed, virtual worlds. Educational Technology, 35 (5), 46-52.

Abstract (retrieved Dec 5, 2007 from VLearn)

A review of psychological advantages and disadvantages of virtual environments within a constructivist learning approach and which properties of vr can be exploited depending on users characteristics.

Focusing on what participants want is very important to designing any type of learning environment.

Some personality characteristics of users:
a wide range of participants are attracted to cooperative virtual environments because they gain something valuable by collaborating together.
people who don't do well in spontaneous spoken interaction (e.g. shy, reflective, more comfortable with emotional distance). For them informal written communication is often more authentic than face-to-face verbal exchange. A new dimension of learning styles orthogonal to the visual/auditory/kinesthetic/symbolic categories now underlying pedagogical approaches to individualization.

Non-verbal context worlds offers:
disinhibition as a potential for learning in constructivist environments, since this creates cognitive and emotional dissonance that can undercut suboptimal mental models.
the fluidity of users' identity is a psychosocial dynamic of virtual environments that opens opportunities to encourage learning. Synthetic environments dissolve boundaries of identity enabling communication about very personal things through a depersonalized medium. Many aspects of this openness are quite positive from a constructivist perspective, as people often reject new ideas because they feel that their own identities are contained in their existing mental models.

Cross-cultural & historical perspectives on the developmental consequences of education

Cole, M. (2005). Cross-cultural and historical perspectives on the developmental consequences of education. Human Development, 48, 195-216.

This article examines efforts to understand the developmental consequences, particularly the cognitive consequences, of children spending large amounts of time in formal schools where their activity is separated from the daily life of the rest of the community and mediated by technologies of literacy and numeracy as well as specialized uses of language. The analysis begins by examining the history of formal schooling in relation to its social and cultural circumstances and progresses through an examination of different research strategies for reaching plausible conclusions about its cognitive consequences in the sociocultural context. The discussion ends by considering two contradictory tendencies, centralized standardization versus de-centralized adaptation and separation versus embeddedness, which have characterized education since its inception and which societies around the world confront in our current historical circumstances

Technolgy, culture, and instructional design

Technolgy, culture, and instructional design: A review of technology-based cross-cultural immersive learning models

http://wma.iweb.bsu.edu/crossculture.html

Intercultural competence and the role of technology in teacher education

Davis, N., Cho, M. O., & Hagenson, L. (2005). Intercultural competence and the role of technology in teacher education. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 4 (4), 384-394.

This article "focuses on intercultural education and the role of technology to facilitate such education in formal courses of teacher ed and in the lifelong reflective practices of educators. The role that information and communication technologies have in increasing the need for education related to globalization and to the increasing digital divide is also recognized. Intercultural ed is a general term pertaining to the ability to understand, empathize with, and respect all ethnicities. Multicultural ed, inclusive ed, ed for social justice, and international ed are terms often associated with intercultural ed. " Three theorectical perspectives and various challenges of applying technology to intercultural education are introduced.

Integrating intercultural online learning experiences into the computer classroom

St. Amant, K. (2002). Integrating intercultural online learning experiences into the computer classroom. Technical Communication Quarterly, 11 (3), 289-315.

"Technical communicators of the new millennium will need to develop certain skills to succeed in international online interactions (IOIs), and computer classrooms with online access can help students to develop these skills through direct interaction with materials and individuals from other cultures. This article presents exercises instructors can use to help students develop these particular skills."

Cross-Cultural Psychology

Berry, J. W., Poortinga, Y. H., Segall, M. H., & Dasen, P. R. (1992). Cross-cultural psychology: Research and applications. New York: Cambridge University press.

This book is a comprehensive overview of cross-cultural studies in psychological development, social behavior, personality, cognition, and perception. It covers theory and applications to acculturation, ethnic and minority groups, work, communication, health, and national development. Cast within an ecological and cultural framework, it views the development and display of human behavior as the outcome of both ecological and sociopolitical influneces, and it adopts a "universalistic" position with respect to the range of similarities and differences in human behavior across cultures: basic psychological processes are assumed to be shared human characteristics, but culture plays variations on these underlying similarities.