Author Archives: arturo.romeropereda@afs.org

AFS Intercultural Link Learning Program Upcoming Events

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In the first quarter of 2013 AFS has seen a number of Intercultural Link Learning Program events already as delivery of What Every AFSer Should Know About Intercultural Learning® picks up. The remainder of the year will continue to be full of intercultural learning and education opportunities in many AFS organizations and in all regions!

Especially noteworthy are the National Qualified Trainers Workshops for five AFS organizations in the Southern Cone, Malaysia and Denmark, as well as the 3rd Annual Regional Events in the Asia-Pacific and Caribbean regions.

The Learning Program will also collaborate with like-minded organizations in intercultural training around the globe at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication in Portland, Oregon, USA and the Summer Academy on Intercultural Experience in Karlsruhe, Germany.

For the latest updates on Learning Program events, check our website regularly or get in touch with us at LearningProgram@afs.org.

 

“Outrospection” and Empathetic Thinking

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Philosopher Roman Krznaric has coined the term “outrospection” to provide us with a new way to approach our relationships with others. Outrospection is a way to get to know oneself by developing relationships and empathetic thinking with others. Krznaric does not see empathy as a soft social concept used to connect with those who are dis-empowered, but rather as a discovery of oneself by “stepping outside ourselves and exploring the lives of other people and cultures”. In this way empathetic thinking is a pathway to expand your social influence, overcome stereotypes and barriers about those who are different and engage individuals in collective empathetic movements that can make change. Learn more about “outrospection” and empathetic thinking on Krznaric’s blog or by watching this RSA video in which his words are accompanied by drawings about this theory.

As you watch the video, you will hear about several ideas that are closely related to intercultural learning and the work that we do at AFS, such as overcoming stereotypes, affective and cognitive empathy, perspective-taking, worldview, beliefs, assumptions, attentive listening, two-way dialogues, etc.

“Highly empathetic people get beyond those labels by nurturing their curiosity about others. How can we might nurture our curiosity? How can we find inspiration?”

Concept of “Cultural Intelligence”

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Today we recommend an article on the concept of “Cultural Intelligence” by Clodagh O’ Reilly. The article is published on the site TrainingZone.co.uk, a portal with resources and articles for trainers and educators.

“Cultural Intelligence” is a concept that is directly related to cultural values and dimensions and to cultural adaptation. Generally, cultural intelligence consists of understanding the values, attitudes and behaviors of a culture group and a knowledge of how to appropriately apply this to achievement a specific goal (Earley & Ang, 2003). One’s own cultural intelligence is therefore developed not only by learning about other cultures, but also by interacting closely with people of cultures other than our own. By paying special attention to the motivations and emotional maturity of others during our own process of developing cultural intelligence, we can better foster this ability in others. According to O’Reilly, cultural intelligence also requires an intrinsic demonstration of respect for the other culture.

Cultural intelligence is relevant for individuals, but also for teams. Research shows that in multicultural teams and organizations, especially those with diversity in leadership, can offer more creative and innovative outcomes. However, diversity does not just happen by having diversity within a team. Unmoderated cultural diversity may increase team conflicts and miscommunication; therefore, cultural intelligence is necessary in teams in order to minimize the chances of experiencing conflict and increasing the successful communication that leads to innovation, Earley and Ang (2003) say.

To read more about cultural intelligence, check out Earley and Song’s book Cultural Intelligence: Individual Interactions Across Cultures or several books by David Livermore. Also, the Center for Leadership and Cultural Intelligence in Singapore and the Cultural Intelligence Center in the US are important points of reference in the study of this concept, not only with their research but also with professional and educational activities.

While defined differently by different groups of researchers and trainers, cultural intelligence is a concept that can expand the focus AFS places on increasing intercultural competence. As we learn more and incorporate frameworks and concepts into our work, we should keep an eye on research and practices in cultural intelligence that connect with our Intercultural Learning in focus (for instance: understanding values, attitudes and behaviors) and in our mission to promote heightened understanding between cultures.

Living in Interfaith

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From wikipedia.org

Today we wanted to share a blog entry by Rev. Eleanor Harrison Bregman from the Huffington Post in which she talks about living with cultural differences within the family, at home – and with something as important as religion. Although she is a Christian Protestant Minister, Bregman is raising her children in an interfaith relationship as Jewish children and they attend a Jewish school. In her entry, she describes how she tries to participate in her children’s prayers and practices, in order to be a part of this aspect of their culture.

Looking for opinion texts on interfaith relationships or bicultural/bireligious households, one can very soon find many different authors with different opinions. This is such a thought-provoking topic that it is important to learn what interfaith parenthood, interfaith relationships and living with two religions means for different people and in different geographic contexts. Here are some links to articles that encourage you to reflect on this topic:

Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section!

Arts Education for Youth Empowerment

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Artists Striving to End Poverty (ASTEP) is an Arts Education organization based in New York and with projects in collaboration in India, South Africa and Ecuador, among others. ASTEP’s approach is to bring together the creativity of arts education with youth empowerment. ASTEP “connects performing and visual artists with underserved youth in the U.S. and around the world to awaken their imaginations, foster critical thinking, and help them break the cycle of poverty.”

ASTEP and SIETAR NY will be joining forces for an interactive presentation on the “role of the arts in overcoming cultural and societal barriers.” Through the integration of drama, music, dance and other creative activities, youth experience more self-confidence, self-control and self-identity. In ASTEP’s approach, arts can also be a means to work with groups and teach conflict resolution and collaboration in age-appropriate ways and within their own communities.

Non-formal education organizations like AFS encourage its volunteers, staff and others around the world to join forces with like-minded organizations like ASTEP who are local in the community and offer space for youth to develop interpersonal and intercultural awareness.

 

Intercultural Management Institute | IMI Annual Conference: March 14-15, Washington DC

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The Intercultural Management Institute (IMI) at American University in Washington, DC is celebrating its 14th Annual Conference on Intercultural Relations: A Forum for Business, Education and Training Professionals on 14-15 March, 2013. This is a space for professionals to share and learn about successes and best practices in intercultural and international relations to promote better cultural understanding in diverse areas.

One keynote speaker will be Bryan A. Stevenson, founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and professor at New York University School of Law. You can see Bryan A. Stevenson in this Ted talk on the topic of social justice.

Another keynote speaker will be Dr. Janet Bennett, Executive Director of the Intercultural Communication Institute, sponsor of the of the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication, and director of the Master of Arts Degree in Intercultural Relations sponsored by ICI and the University of the Pacific. Dr. Bennett’s work in the intercultural field is well-known around AFS. She is one of several key theorists in the materials and programs prepared and delivered by the AFS Education & Intercultural Learning Team.

Click here for a list of the concurrent conference sessions. Registration is still open, if interested in attending click here.

Intercultural Leadership – 7 Links to Learn More!

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Leadership is a word that we hear a lot nowadays. The concept has been studied from multiple perspectives and one of them, intercultural leadership, is becoming increasingly relevant as organizations become more culturally diverse. Many theorists see leadership as a set of practices that anyone can perform in relationship with others, whatever our role may be: “[Leadership is] a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task” (Chemers, 1997, An Integrative Theory of Leadership).

For those of you interested in the topic of leadership and education, we have prepared a list of seven links with interesting research areas and examples of intercultural leadership in different cultural/regional contexts and roles:

  1. Educating global leaders: Exploring intercultural competence in leadership education: An introductory paper on the importance of intercultural competence in Leadership Education by Justin Irving, published in the Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies.
  2. Ten tips for the intercultural leader: Ten quick tips on intercultural leadership from a business perspective.
  3. Intercultural leadership: Lessons from leaders in Southeast Asia: Report on practices and testimonies of leaders in Southeast Asian organizations and contexts by Arnaud Despierre for Spencer Stuart Consulting. 
  4. A leader’s experiences of intercultural education in an elementary school: Changes and challenges: The experience of an Icelandic school principal introducing Intercultural Learning in an elementary school and the challenges faced.
  5. Intercultural competence for future leaders of educational technology and its evaluation: An editorial on the role of intercultural competence in Teacher Education and how it should be an integral part of education professions. 
  6. List of resources on Global Leadership from the Global Leadership Advancement Center in San José State University, California.
  7. Distance program at the International Institute for Global Leadership: self-directed and based on readings by level and written assignments.

Humans of…

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The Internet can be a window into familiar spaces as you had never seen them.

In 2010, photographer Brandon Stanton had a simple idea that would become a big project: he would create a photographic census of New York City. Everyday, he took and posted pictures of New Yorkers on the street. “Humans of New York” soon became a larger project than anticipated; more than 500,000 people currently follow HONY on Facebook and on its website and witness, through Stanton’s eyes, the cultural diversity of New York and the stories of regular New Yorkers of all ages, occupations, backgrounds and life styles.

What if you do not live in New York? Inspired by HONY, many photographers took the initiative of portraying their cities or countries in ways that would transform the ideas and preconceptions that we may have about those places. In Pakistan, Khaula Jamil has made “Humans of Karachi” one of the most followed sites, with over 13,000 followers! Through daily postings by Jamil and weekly submissions from regular people who happen to capture a fun shot in Karachi and have an interesting story to go with it, “Humans of Karachi” shows us one of the most vibrant and culturally diverse cities of Asia.

Other “Humans of…” to follow? Take a look at the photographs of “Humans of Rotterdam” in the Netherlands, “Humanos de La Paz” in Bolivia, “Humans of Lebanon” or “Humans of India“!

The diverse “Humans of…” sites not only serve to capture the cultural diversity of these places. With little snippets, they tell us about the people who live in cities that we may know or that we may have never visited: insights into the lives of people against whom we might otherwise hold stereotypes. These photography projects tell us more about the human side of people, something that we might otherwise not have the chance to see.

Aspects of “Everyday Life” from an Outside Perspective

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“After 20 years of opining on weighty bilateral issues like NATO expansion and ballistic missile defense, the political analyst Nikolai V. Zlobin recently found himself trying to explain, for an uncomprehending Russian readership, the American phenomenon of the teenage baby sitter.”

In early December, Ellen Barry from the New York Times featured Nikolai Zlobin‘s new book “America — What a Life!” as an interesting read on Culture-Specific Insights and the perception of U.S. culture from another cultural value lens; in this case, the Russian lens.

But this book is not about the past or present political differences about these two countries. While Zoblin has been a political analyst for years, in this book he does not dive into the traditional narratives of political or diplomatic opposition between the United States and Russia. Rather, he looks at the most quotidian aspects of the U.S. American middle class and tries to explain them, with humor, to a Russian audience unfamiliar with such everyday-life matters. As the quote above reflects, one of the topics that the book tackles is “the U.S. American phenomenon of the teenage babysitter”, exploring the tendency of U.S. American parents to look for a youth (non-relative) to be a babysitter when they go out, while Russian parents would call the grandparents to take care of the children. While the tip of the iceberg may seem a bit boring, Zlobin takes this as an opportunity to reflect on the underlying, less-visible values of family and “grandparenthood” in both cultural contexts.

Another interesting read on this topic mentioned by Barry in her article on Zlobin is Ilf and Petrov’s American Road Trip, a diary of two Russians traveling in the United States and the positive impressions that they had.

Beyond these two books, there are many others that talk about foreign perceptions of a place or country, such as The Great Little Book of Fun Things You Probably Don’t Know About Ireland, a book about Ireland seen from the outside, particularly from an Irish-American perspective, or Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America, the memories of an Iranian girl growing up in the United States.

Can you tell us about similar insightful books that portray a culture from the outside in this manner? Share in this blog entry!

Bilingualism and culture

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For several decades, experts in the field of Linguistics have debated  the benefits and disadvantages of bilingualism or multilingualism in the development of children. From a cognitive perspective, some argue that bilingualism may delay or negatively affect the linguistic development of a child. However, most linguists nowadays support the idea that bilingualism does not only provide the skills to communicate fluently and effectively in two languages, but it also enhances other cognitive abilities, such as working memory, and it may help prevent certain illnesses. Chris Berube, blogger at radiolab.org, wrote a blog post a couple of weeks ago on this topic: Mapping the Bilingual Brain. Having consulted with currently very relevant researchers such as Ellen Bialystok and Cathy Price, Berube makes some points about the “wiring” of the brain of a bilingual or multilingual person, such as the increased ability of sorting information in busy environments, and the importance of learning two or more languages from an early age.

These positive effects have been extensively studied in the area of Linguistics from multiple perspectives, also with much evidence from the area of Bilingual and Bicultural Education. Some leading voices in the field, such as Ofelia García, suggest that, along with language abilities, there are other cultural and personal abilities that are heightened in bilingual and multilingual learners.Languages are not only channels of communication, they also capture ideas, values and frameworks around which their speakers build their interactions and descriptions of their environment. With the proper sensitivity, those raised in bilingual and multilingual environments can be more likely to bond with cultures similar to those of their languages, find ways to communicate ideas overcoming language barriers, or holding greater tolerance to different beliefs, behaviors or traditions.

The relation between bilingualism and intercultural learning is very close and direct and both develop similar abilities. Of the many factors that influence our intercultural abilities, language is one not to be ignored.