Culture and Pedagogy:
international students and
inclusive practices in local HE
classrooms
Dr Yvonne Turner
University of Newcastle Business School
YT/Lanc/Sept 2007
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The context: cultural epistemologies, cultural pedagogies
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Epistemologies derive from socio-historical and cultural contexts – emic, not etic
But: the influence of European scientific empiricism engenders notions of
universality
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Interpretivist views – important to disaggregate scientific ‘truths’ from human processes of
investigation which are enculturated
Constructionist views: social mediation of mind – pluralizing knowledges
Pluralism culturally situates not only behaviours and T & L practices but
constitutes learning differently within local contexts
Cross border travellers possess well-developed, valid but diverse notions of what
knowledge is, how we can come to know it and how we can meaningfully
(legitimately) express it within educational settings
Effective mutual knowledge discovery / learning can only take place when
epistemological beliefs are transparent and all participants are equally enabled to
participate
(Woo, 1993; Bruner, 1996; Brown, 1998; Smith, 1998; Batelaan, and Gundare, 2000; Woodrow, 2001; Murphy and
Ivinson, 2003; Halstead, 2004; Turner, 2006)
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HE Internationalization and cultural practices at
institutional level
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Internationalization: a pervasive but contested metaphor used to describe
increasing international flows between local academies
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Local orientations exist on a continuum from Symbolic to Transformative:
increased international traffic does not necessarily imply increased
inclusivity (Bartell, 2003; Turner and Robson, 2007)
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Long-term, sustainable internationalization is underpinned by cultural
reciprocity (Yang 2001, 2002)
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Internationalization in Anglophone nations has tended to be driven by
competitive, knowledge transfer stimuli rather than cooperative, reciprocal,
knowledge-sharing (Van der Wende, 2001; Luijten-Lub, Van der Wende, and Huisman 2005)
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little evidence that increased international traffic is renegotiating underlying local
constructions of e.g. ‘learning’, ‘teaching’, ‘student’, ‘teacher’, ‘assessment’,
‘participation’, etc in the light of increasing diversity or that appropriate funding is
hypothecated to support this (Welch, 2002; Teekens, 2003; Stone, 2006)
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Teachers, power and practices in (culturally) diverse
classrooms
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HE Pedagogy and Practice in the UK: relatively untheorized, governed by ‘folk
pedagogies’; cultural pedagogy under-discussed within much of the HE literature (Bruner,
1999; Simon, 1999; Gabb, 2006)
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Academic Development reinforces ‘generic skills’ orientations to teaching and learning
tasks (Rowland, 2001, 2002; Trowler and Cooper, 2002)
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Teachers’ World Views: shape what happens in the HE classroom
(Samuelowicz and Bain,
2001; De Vita, 2002; Sanderson, 2004; Walker, 2004)
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Implicit Theories of Learning: past experiences determine how teachers teach and
learners learn (Claxton, 1996)
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Anglo Academic Practices marginalize social, cultural and affective aspects of learning,
isolating a focus on cognitive development
(Hufton, Elliott and Illushin, 2002; Egege and Kutieleh, 2003;
Turner, 2006)
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Unequal Terms of Engagement: Teaching and learning happens on the teacher’s /
‘hosts’ terms rather than within a negotiated, inclusive space - privileging of colloquial
local self-stereotypes alongside negative stereotypes of cultural others who participate in
local systems
(Pritchard and Skinner, 2002; Biggs, 2003; Burke, 2006)
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Conclusion: teasing out some of the teaching and learning
challenges in diverse settings
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Culturally Problematize Pedagog(ies): re-examine local practices and their validity
for diverse participation; explore the impact of implicit local values on what constitutes
learning and the shape of learning spaces, assessment practices, knowledge
dissemination etc
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(International) Students and (Cultural) Diversity: establish inclusive practices to
provide equal access for all students – international students don’t need anything that
any other student doesn’t need
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Academic Practices: Considering what gets Discussed in the Classroom: issues
of balance between technical aspects in T & L e.g. citation, plagiarism, academic
writing skills, decoding local T & L practices and assumptions, establishing
intellectual rationale for orientation
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Reciprocity: classroom power dynamics; knowledge transfer vs. knowledge sharing;
Internationalization at Home / Abroad; Student integration / cultural peer support;
languages in use etc
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Defining the Boundaries around the Learning Experience: evaluating the
contribution of social and cultural learning within educational settings
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