Learning in Global Perspectives
INTRODUCTION
Learning experience is becoming increasingly a function in cultural diversity. The growing diversity in classroom makeup, put differently, has made handling differences across cultural boundaries, if any, a necessity. This development in learning contexts presents both opportunities and challenges for learners and educators. In both (opportunities and challenges) students and educators encounter situations involving negotiations about a broad range of educational issues including, for example, curriculum development, student-instructor engagement methods, learning methodologies, and, not least, cross-cultural competence. The challenges / opportunities experienced by students and educators vary according to each learning context an educational process is performed. Indeed, each and every learning context is informed – and, for that matter, defined – by a cultural makeup a learning context is made up. The collectivity of learning experiences – of students and educators alike – shape, moreover, how a learning outcome is or could be. Therefore, in an attempt to appraise how a learning experience is shaped across cultural differences, a closer examination is required of one or more specific learning contexts. For current purposes, author's learning experiences across cultural boundaries are discussed. In so doing, author's learning experience is weighed against learning experiences of major stakeholders including, most notably, classmates. This paper aims, hence, to explore author's learning experiences in a culturally diverse context against broader learning experiences of peers.
CULTURAL ENGAGEMENT
The immersion into a learning experience, rich as is, over most recent events and discussions has been informed by deeper cultural engagements. These cultural engagements have, in fact, been projected into author's awareness by, above anything else, differences. More specifically, by encountering learning patterns different – culturally – from author's, noted differences have been highlighted in more analyzable ways (as opposed to contexts of "seamless," culturally homogenous learning experiences). The examples are numerous.
Trained according to a Socratic approach, i.e. based on critical questioning of accepted knowledge (Tweed & Lehman, 2002), author has come to experience challenges in collaborating with students, predominantly Asian, who are raised according to different Confucian learning habits, i.e. based on harmonious and deferential attitude to existing knowledge as opposed to more aggressive, direct questioning of basic assumptions as in a Socratic approach (Tweed & Lehman). This difference in learning approaches has, if anything, posed challenges for author in different areas. First, in creating study groups, author has found difficulty in approaching different issues since, according to his own learning pattern, questioning a basic assumption is, for Confucian-oriented, Asian students, at best awkward and hence evoking least constructive, let alone innovative, responses. Further, by having different learning patterns, author has noticed slowness in learning pace as he attempted to recognize nuances of a learning pattern different from his. Similarly, Confucian-oriented, Asian students have shown similar slowness in learning by exhibiting a more or less irresponsiveness in engaging more actively in discussions at hand. Thus, exemplifying different learning patterns, author and peers show similar, if not for different reasons, responses to cultural engagements in a classroom setting.
For a second example, cultural others (as perceived by author), particularly ones belonging to minority groups (more specifically, Hispanics, in addition to Asians) have shown signs of yielding to a better learning pattern. More specifically, given to closer, peer-based, collective learning experiences, author's classmates of Hispanic and Asian origins appeared to opt for an independent, individual-based learning pattern (particularly when approached by or receiving a comment form instructor). This "conversion" into a different learning pattern is, upon reflection, one which uncovers deeper self-imposed perceptions of inferiority of a "non-white" race against a "white" one. True, no manifestations of cultural inferiority have been explicitly pronounced. However, by opting, consciously or not, a learning pattern different from one's own, a "minority" student shows, if anything, an inclination to switch learning codes, so to speak, as best suits her cultural adaption in an alien learning context.
INCREASED SELF-AWARENESS OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCE
As noted, author's increased awareness of a different learning context has been highlighted by his recognition of cultural differences in a classroom setting. The above mentioned examples are, if anything, insightful of how author's awareness has changed over discussion course. More specifically, by noting how "minority" students reacted to author's "majority" learning pattern, author has shown signs of slowing down his learning pace (normally quick) in order to adapt his to a different one. This has been shown by, for example, repeating questions (by author) over and again in order to better understand a group member's underlying motives; adapting body language to listener in order to exhibit more active listening attitude; writing down notes of a speaker from a different cultural background for future reference and in order to avoid any lapses in understanding in bringing up a point in discussion later on; and, not least, showing more collaboration by engaging students of different cultural backgrounds in more focused group discussions. This recognition of cultural difference in a learning context has been reflected more practically – and, for that matter, more responsibly – by showing cultural sensitivity to different learning styles. Further, by opting – voluntarily – to respond proactively to culturally different learning patterns, author has, indeed, developed initial signs, albeit unguided, of cross-cultural competence.
INSIGHTS & LEARNING OUTCOMES
The difference in learning patterns is recognized early on in cross-cultural learning literature (Hofstede, 1986). This early recognition is supported by actual practices made actual by increasing cultural diversity patterns in learning contexts, a development which has generated much more resources for cross-cultural learning. For current purposes, author has had resort to multiple resources for cross-cultural learning including, primarily, his own group discussion experience, assigned reading material, outside (university library) readings and, not least, day-to-day observations. If one idea stands out of week's sessions, cultural adaption in learning styles represents one most interesting idea. Indeed, by combining learning and cultural diversity, one is apt to drive deeper insights into more convenient (i.e. learning) settings. More specifically, understanding a culturally different other becomes a process informed not only by cultural differences but also, more significantly, by broader learning patterns cutting across different social contexts. Conversely, failure to recognize each culture's own merit (as far as learning is concerned) has been one idea author finds difficult to understand given how one's cultural context is not, at least, conceptually, inferior per se but is made so by a "dominant" culture. Clear as is at face value (given a considerable literature on "white privilege"), self-imposed inferiority in a learning context is a cultural phenomenon, so to speak, requiring more understanding, an understanding which can be achieved by more empathy / more engagement in cross-cultural learning experiences in and out of classroom settings, further reading, international travel (if and when possible) and, not least, participating more proactively in communal activities marked by / defined in cultural differences. Indeed, learning – and, for that matter, resources for more informed learning – are infinite and endless. The discussed resources represent only examples of possible learning opportunities. The broader learning experiences remain, however, "latent" in future professional diversity courses, internships and, not least, employment experiences.
REFERENCES
Hofstede, G. (1986). Cultural differences in teaching and learning. International Journal of Intercultural Relations [Online] 10(3), 301-320. ScienceDirect. doi: 10.1016/0147-1767(86)90015-5 [Accessed: 16th March, 2016]
Tweed, R. G., & Lehman, D. R. (2002). Learning considered within a cultural context: Confucian and Socratic approaches. American Psychologist [Online] 57(2), 89-99. PsycNET. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.57.2.89 [Accessed: 16th March, 2016]
