I'm having a bit of a hard time with the question this week. In general, sometimes I feel like when I talk about cultural difference and similarity I'm coming off as ethnocentric and I really don't try. There are a lot of different criteria we've covered in the classroom so far about what makes a person "intercultural", but as I've never been outside of the US I feel like I'm at a loss to some extent going in to the service learning of this course. I know that actually becoming part of this service learning will enlighten me and help me move more in to the ethnorelative side of the equation and I wanted to preface my post with this sort of side thought to help frame what I say in a way that doesn't sound too harsh one way or the other. Anyway, let me get down to how I think we can use Hofstede's dimensions of national culture to shape a set of questions for a survey.
I think one of the hugest dimensions that Hofstede uses is the dimension of individualism/collectivism. The US being a highly individualistic culture is one of the hurdles I think, especially from the organizational perspective, that we will encounter when doing our work. The directness of our culture, even in university, is a question in and of itself. What do the students think the expectation of their work will be? Do they envision a more group oriented work environment or do they expect to be tossed in the deep end, so to speak? Our culture centers around self motivation and self sufficiency to the point of fanaticism in some instances. The ideal of "American exceptionalism" is a real thing to consider when discussing the differences and similarities of burden of work between cultures. Another dimension that is tied in to the idea of collectivism and individualism (I mean, there's a reason Hofstede picked all of these right?) is the power distance dimension. The different power distances between cultures is huge. For instance, the way in which we perceive men and women's roles in relationships. Rich has said in class we will see a lot of men interrupting women and other people in general because in certain cultures the power lies mostly with the men of the realm. My biggest survey type question that will come from this dimension in relation to the students actually entering in to the American university system is: What do you feel the relationship between the student and teacher will be when you enter TTU? Will it be similar to the way their culture gives lessons? What is different? Will it be an issue if the instructor is a woman? These are all questions that relate to Hofstedes idea of power distance just on a micro level of the classroom. I must admit, I'm completely blind going in to this sort of situation. I think some of Appadurai's scapes about the economic and political sphere that these students come from will help me in developing some type of heuristic to start from, but the questions I've asked above seem most clear to me in relation to Hofstede. As we can see here a lot of the dimensions cross over in to one another as the male/female roles also refer to the masculine/feminine traits in a culture.
We might also think about the uncertainty factor in things like using and adopting the idea of the "hybrid" course. We didn't really talk about it in class the other day, but our Composition program relies on the burgeoning principle of hybridity between the classroom and the virtual world aka the internet. How common is this concept to students from different cultures? More specifically, are the students prepared to learn and adopt the technology and mindset that goes along with this concept? I think that the ELS students are learning English to proficiency will play a large part in this because I'm not actually sure how much accommodation we have for students in translation etc. But this idea of only seeing a class once a week and then giving them the bulk of the work on their own time seems foreign even to some students who go to school in America first. Also, how will they address the instructor through email? Will they be comfortable with the one on one office hours? How these dimension cross each other is something that is interesting and I'll be paying special attention to in the coming weeks.
Michael, I enjoyed reading your post about the types of questions you thought were important based on the chapters because you took a different perspective on their life experiences than I did. I especially think the questions you posit about the teacher-student relationship expectations and the classroom hybridity were excellent questions I hadn't considered. Something we might add to this list is how do they expect their instructors to respond: that is, what is our role as culturally competent people (although, I suppose once we are culturally competent this isn't a question anymore).
ReplyDeleteMichael,
ReplyDeleteBased on our readings and in-class conversations, I would have to agree that the dichotomy of individualism/collectivism is a really important cultural consideration. I think an identification with either side of these contrasting ideals gives a tremendous amount of insight into a person's cultural position and intercultural competence.
I'm especially interested in your discussion of the uncertainty factor and the hybrid nature of first-year composition courses here at TTU. Likely, many students are familiar with using technology, but whether or not they've applied that technological framework in an academic setting might be an interesting consideration to give during our upcoming interviews. The set of questions you pose that relate to the hybrid setting of these courses will be very beneficial to us, I think. Not all courses at TTU are hybrid, of course, but as technology continues to advance and further dominate the academic market, classes will likely become increasingly hybrid or fully online. As a result, the use of technology in an academic will continue to be of utmost importance as we seek to find intercultural competence and become more ethnorelative in our approach to culture.
Michael--Not easy, but perhaps it will become more clear after interacting some this week with ELS students during the townhall. Please prepare a memo after the townhall detailing what you learned as you're the lead on this service-learning exchange this week. Might bring up the questions you've raised here during class tomorrow morning, too.
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