AFS Intercultural Link Newsletter – volume 3, issue 3

Posted on by
1

The newest edition of the Intercultural Link Newsletter has just been launched. Feel free to leave a comment after you read it. Enjoy!

 

AFS Intercultural Programs is pleased to announce the July/August/September 2012 issue of AFS Intercultural Link Newsletter volume 3, issue 3 – Global Edition, which can be shared with everyone interested in learning more about intercultural education.

The AFS Intercultural Link Newsletter is the quarterly newsletter on intercultural learning in the AFS Network. The newsletter features content shared by the Intercultural Learning Work Group as well as other AFS Partners and guest writers, including information on trends in intercultural education, interviews with experts in the field and overviews of upcoming and previous conferences.

Senior Internship Position

Posted on by
Reply

AFS Intercultural Programs seeks a senior level intern with an educational and/or professional background in Intercultural (Ic) Communications to support the AFS Intercultural Link Learning Program. The Learning Program is a global training and assessment program for AFS volunteers (44000+) and staff (800+) that enhances AFS’s educational approach to intercultural relations.

The intern will support the Learning Program Manager with ongoing Program activities: provide support to Program trainers; support the work of the Curriculum Design Team; administer assessment tools and track results; improve and format Learning Session Outlines; archive intercultural material; support with Program marketing and promotion; organize virtual meetings and events; communicate with the AFS international community and Intercultural Learning Team to develop content for our Newsletter and Blog.

Qualifications

We welcome applications from candidates who are bright, motivated, self-directed, interested in intercultural issues, have a strong sense of humor, and meet these internship qualifications:

  • Be in or have recently completed a degree in Intercultural studies (or similar) and be familiar with and readily able to refer to theories, concepts, and current research and practices;
  • Have experience in teaching and curriculum development in formal and/or non-formal education settings;
  • Be highly creative, solutions-oriented, and pro-active;
  • Have excellent organizational skills; be structured and detail-oriented;
  • Have excellent spoken *and* written English skills (writing samples will be required, fluency in two or more languages preferred);
  • Be technology-savvy and able to work in various online environments;
  • Be able to work with Microsoft Office (especially Excel and Word);
  • Have some experience in event management or logistical coordination;
  • Be able to work both independently and as a part of a collaborative, multicultural team;
  • Familiarity with AFS or intercultural exchange programs a plus, but not required.

This is a full-time (~40hrs/week) internship is based at AFS Intercultural Programs’ offices in NYC starting in early September 2012, and with a minimum duration of 6 months, with the option to extend. A stipend will be provided and some costs will be covered. Some flexibility required.

To Apply

Serious applicants should e-mail icl@afs.org no later than 15 August, 2012 with “Intercultural Link Learning Program: Senior Internship” in the subject line and attach the following documents:

  • A cover letter providing a brief description of yourself, examples of how you meet the listed requirements for this internship, your motivations for applying, and what you can offer AFS.
  • A current CV/resume
  • Two brief writing samples (no longer than 3 pages each). These can be articles you have already written, school papers or other samples on a topic related to the focus of the internship that demonstrate your professional and/or academic writing style.

Serious applicants should e-mail icl@afs.org no later than 15 August, 2012 with “Intercultural Link Learning Program: Senior Internship” in the subject line and attach the following documents:

  • A cover letter providing a brief description of yourself, examples of how you meet the listed requirements for this internship, your motivations for applying, and what you can offer AFS;
  • A current CV/resume;
  • Two brief writing samples (no longer than 3 pages each). These can be articles you have already written, school papers or other samples on a topic related to the focus of the internship that demonstrate your professional and/or academic writing style.

We regret we cannot reply to all inquiries.

AFS is an international, voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit organization that provides intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world. The intern will join a team comprised of fun and passionate people dedicated to promoting life-long learning for all.

Any Questions?

Posted on by
Reply
http://m.eb.com/assembly/100462

The United Nations.

An essential part of developing intercultural competence is the ability to analyze and understand a situation. Interculturalists strive to understand how a member of a given culture perceives the world. Similarly, a person with a background in international studies must look at the various reasons why a society or people pursue certain policies. People working within both of these fields ask questions when addressing a situation. Some of these basic questions exemplify how intercultural learning (ICL) is distinct from international relations (IR). Take these questions as examples – In each pair, one question relates more to ICL and the other to IR. Can you guess which?

A) What type of person has authority in this culture?
B) What does the concept of authority mean to the people of this culture?

A) What advantages does this society’s natural environment offer?
B) What does the society’s relationship with the land tell us about its value system?

A) How has a national government planned for long term international challenges?
B) What is the time orientation (long term or short term) of people who belong to the nation’s dominant culture?

The three questions preceded by the letter ‘A’ are typically asked by a person with a background in international relations. The main focus of these questions is to seek answers about how a society organizes and governs itself. In an international context, the answers to these questions would increase our knowledge of the society’s leaders, the practical consequences of its natural resources and overall governing policies.

In contrast, the three questions preceded by the letter ‘B’ relate more to the concepts and theories of ICL. The answers to these questions could help us understand a culture from its own perspective. They could provide us with information about the given culture’s view of authority, why its people interact with the environment in a particular way and in what context the people plan for the future.

While all of these questions focus on foreign cultures, they provide answers that are unique to either the field of international relations or intercultural learning. At AFS, it is common for a sojourner to question why a foreign culture values a particular behavior or belief system. It is equally common for the AFSer to use increased understanding of a host culture as a way to become more accustomed to different situations and interact with different people throughout life. At its core, ICL offers educational strategies to view and comprehend difference on a more personal level. Hence, the concepts and theories are more uniquely suited to the needs of AFS than other subjects with an international focus.

Paul Edinger is a contributing writer for the ICL Blog. He was an intern at AFS International in 2011 in the Development and Branding department, and continued in 2012 in the Intercultural Learning department. He holds a B.A. in International Studies.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking

Posted on by
1

In a recent TED talk conference, Susan Cain, author of the book Quiet – The Power of Introverts makes a case for acknowledging the power and contributions of introverts. Many introverts have a rich inner world and Cain acknowledges that they do not show themselves outwardly simply because they work best in quiet environments and don’t feel the need to self-promote. Cain suggests that introverts not be confused as being shy, as shyness is linked to a fear of social judgement. Being introverted, she says, is related to the environments in which a person feels they can do their best work and be most authentic.

Cain identifies as an introvert, and she describes often having forced herself to be extroverted having learned that some of American society may not value individuals who hesitate to communicate their knowledge, skills, and ideas. She passionately argues for accepting these differences and acknowledging the introverts around us (1 out of every 3 people is introverted). If we do so we may see that introverts have qualities that many extroverts lack; they are often strong team leaders, because they let people run with their ideas, instead of constantly talking about them or taking over with their own ideas.

Her book can make us think about how we may have a bias towards paying attention to those who talk most frequently or articulately, instead of carefully listening to all who are around us. She also encourages us to reflect on how we can create the space for quieter people to share their ideas.

Susan Cain entertains the notion of the extrovert ideal, a notion which she points out is evident in US American culture. Is this also a reality in all national cultures? Cain’s book includes a chapter that asks this very question: Do all cultures have an extrovert ideal? In many East Asian classrooms, she says, the curriculum is focused away from talking, and emphasizes listening, writing, and memorization for the learners and reserving the talking for the teachers.

As AFSers, many of us live our lives outwardly and easily connect to many people in many places around the world. We are curious about and restlessly question the world around us in order to learn about the lives of others. If we remember to remain open in these intercultural contexts and to listen and observe the opinions and messages that come through in quieter, more hidden forms we can learn a lot about others and about ourselves – we may even make more of the experience.

AFS Intercultural Link Newsletter Volume 3, Issue 3 – Preview!

Posted on by
Reply

The next issue of the Intercultural Link Newsletter (volume 3, issue 3) will be released very soon and we wanted to give you a sneak peak at some of the articles in this issue. We hope you enjoy the article below!

Concepts & Theories
CREATIVE CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

This is an adaptation of Dr. Marianella Sclavi’s article “Why humour matters in Active Listening?” (2005). Marianella Sclavi is an Italian sociologist and professor of Ethnography and Art of Listening at the Politecnico University in Milan. She received a bachelor’s degree in Intercultural Communication from Johns Hopkins University, USA, and a master’s degree in Sociology from Trent University, Italy. She has published eight books related to her specialization in conflict management and active listening, and has also been involved in urban renewal projects for low-income neighborhoods across Europe.

Before talking about what Creative Conflict Management means, a few points must be made clear. First, Creative Conflict Management is an important part of successful intercultural communication; second, an intercultural approach is necessary when confronting any difficult conflict; and third, even in a situation where the conflict is not obviously intercultural, if you perceive it as intercultural, the conflict can be approached as one. More and more often we find intracultural conflicts that are more intercultural than a lot of intercultural conflicts. Think of a conflict with a mother-in-law, which, not by chance, so often becomes the focus of jokes and cartoons, and you are already in the presence of a typical intra/intercultural conflict. That is: a conflict that, only if approached with an intercultural eye, can be transformed, perhaps, in a way that both parties may judge positively.

Active Listening is the very foundation for Creative Conflict Management. To explain this, the parable of the wise judge is useful: two citizens bring their case before a judge who listens to the first man with all his attention before responding: “You are right.” Then, the judge listens to the second man with the same amount of attention and says: “You are right.” Someone from the crowd is confused: “Your honor, how can they both be right?” The judge pauses for a minute before responding, “And you too are right.”

Gregory Bateson’s theory helps us to understand this parable. His ideas are about “frames,” or contexts. There are many things we consider when we make a decision. These things can be within the same frame (or context), or they can change their context completely. When the context is changed completely, we have to work harder to understand the situation. More specifically, we have to examine ourselves. If we examine ourselves, we are able to be aware of the existence of these frames, or contexts.

Remember that what we see depends on our point of view. It is necessary to accept the possibility of two viewpoints existing for the same situation that are both correct. If a student wants his teacher to change the deadline for an essay, and the teacher will not, one person might view the teacher as inflexible. However, another person might view the student as trying to break the rules and see this action as unacceptable.

People around the world have a tendency to think their context is the best and because of this they can sometimes develop a “context blindness,” which means they deny or ignore the context. This phenomenon is more common in Western cultures than Eastern cultures due to Westerners’ emphasis on there being one single truth and striving for objective perspectives. However, these practices limit one’s communication and conflict resolution skills when it is the perspective of context itself that is the problem. In this case, Westerners could have more difficulty managing a conflict because the basis of the conflict is outside their perception.

To be an Active Listener, you must always be thinking that the other person is right and that it is you who is not able to understand them. This causes you to 1) respect the other person and 2) assume they are intelligent. It is important to keep in mind that one thing can have two completely opposite meanings when in different cultural contexts. You must keep in mind that misunderstandings, frustration, and especially awkwardness and vulnerability are natural feelings to experience during intercultural communication and Creative Conflict Management.

Sigmund Freud describes a set of steps experienced by Active Listeners: Phase 1: Bewilderment (and annoyance) at something that at first appears to make no sense. Phase 2: First Illumination, suddenly we understand the hidden meaning. Phase 3: Second Illumination, when we realize that something has been able to fool us, or was beyond our immediate understanding. This third phase is where humour is important. As an Active Listener, you will realize your mistake, which allows you to laugh at yourself and your confusion. At this moment, your self-awareness is an essential part of Active Listening and Creative Conflict Management.  These three things (Self-awareness, Active Listening, and Creative Conflict Management) are essential qualities for good intercultural communication and they are interconnected and related to one another.

When Active Listeners think about a situation, they are keeping the entire context in mind. They try to think of how things are related and interdependent, and they are always examining themselves and trying to be self-aware. With these strategies, they are able to communicate well in environments with many contexts, or “frames.”

From all this information, we can understand that the most effective way to communicate is to be conscious of the context you are in, be self-aware, and be an Active Listener. These three qualities are the ingredients for effective intercultural communication.

All Different-All Equal: A Wealth of Education Materials Online

Posted on by
Reply

On its website, the European Youth Center in Budapest (supported by the Council of Europe) provides a wealth of interesting, useful, and free materials – one of them is Compass: A Manual on Human Rights Education With Young People. Compass is a resource that can give you a lot of interesting ideas for how to conduct workshops with young people, and how to support them to find out more about world issues. Detailed session plans and materials are available to you – to facilitate sessions on globalization, social rights, peace and violence, discrimination, gender equality, and many other topics.

Another tool that is offered by the the European Youth Center in Budapest  is the All Different – All Equal Education Pack. It provides basis for intercultural education, and can be very useful for facilitating sessions on the meaning of difference and how we deal with it across cultures of age, gender, ability, social class and ethnicity. Topics that the Education Pack touches on are discrimination, economical inequalities, and the way we think about and classify the world around us. An awareness of these differences is important for us to manage them effectively and appropriately.

In addition to an introductory discussion of these issues, more than 30 activities are listed and explained. They can help to explore what it means to be truly open to those from different backgrounds. You can also find a list of movies to illustrate the content and help facilitate discussions. The All Different – All Equal Education Pack is a resource that helps us take a deeper look at how we live together and how we can develop the curiosity that is needed in order to overcome the fear and uncertainty that often goes hand in hand with being confronted with difference. These tools are useful to support an AFS experience with the political and intercultural awareness that can help young people to really learn about the world we live in and have the knowledge, skills, and understanding to create a more just and peaceful world.

Recommendations for Building Interculturally Competent Leaders

Posted on by
1

In a recent issue of IIE Networker, a publication by the Institute of International Education, Darla Deardorff, Executive Director of the Association of International Education Administrators and editor of The SAGE Handbook of Intercultural Competence (2010) offers advice on how to make our lives and those of others as successful and enriching as possible in an article on Building Intercultural Competence:

To build interculturally competent leaders, she says, we need to be mindful of the following:

1. Our intercultural attitudes: how open am I truly towards those from different cultural, socioeconomic, and religious backgrounds? Do I make quick assumptions about a person? Do I prejudge or do I try to explore all facets of the situation?

2. Our intercultural knowledge and awareness: am I aware of my own cultural conditioning? Can I describe the cultural values that impact my behavior and judgment, and how I communicate? Am I aware of the different worldviews of those I work or live with, and of how they are different from my own perspective?

3. Our intercultural skills: do I actively observe the subtle nuances of my and other’s interactions?  Do I reflect on how I interact with those I work or live with? Do I seek to understand the reasons for the incidents I experience, and what I can learn from them?

4. The outcomes of the intercultural communication for ourselves: do I adapt how I interact and communicate? How flexible am I in responding to the needs of those I live or work with?

5. The outcomes of our intercultural communication for others: how appropriate is my behavior and communication style in the eyes of the other? Do I meet the goals of the communication in an appropriate and effective way?

As leaders and facilitators of intercultural learning in AFS we need not only ask others to understand the complexity of intercultural competence, to design workshops and courses to go beyond knowledge transmission and towards intercultural understanding and application, but we must also encourage each other to provide feedback and reflect on our intercultural journeys with others from diverse backgrounds.

To do this successfully, we must recognize the relevance of intercultural understanding. Deardorff warns that if we ourselves don’t see the relevance, we may lose our way. She reminds us that over the course of five decades research that provides definitions and rameworks can offer a starting place for an organization such as AFS to define what Intercultural Learning (ICL) means for us.

With Intercultural Learning and increased intercultural competence, leaders can grow beyond the operational and results-oriented approach to a process-oriented one that recognizes the importance of critical reflection and analysis in lifelong learning. Find the original article here.

AFS History & Archives

Posted on by
Reply

As AFS Intercultural Programs approaches its centennial in 2014, we should all take a moment to reflect on the history that has led AFS to become what it is today!

Originally an ambulance service that was active during both of the World Wars, AFS, or American Field Service at the time, rescued wounded soldiers from the front lines, regardless of their nationality, and brought them to a hospital to be treated. Soon after the end of the Second World War, AFS changed its focus to become an exchange program working to increase global peace and international understanding. Today, AFS still upholds intercultural interconnectedness as a standard practice as it provides intercultural learning experiences to a wide range of audiences. To learn more about AFS’s rich past, visit the AFS Archives online, or in-person (at the AFS-USA New York office) where you can see World War I and II helmets, uniforms, photos, letters and other types of memorabilia.

This is a photo of Howard Brooke, just after his ambulance collided with a tank going in for attack. It was taken in the winter of 1943 – 1944 near Ortona, Italy. (Photograph by John C. Cobb II)

A group of U.S. American volunteers and British soldiers in Tunisia in 1943.  Pictured from left to right: Bill Cobb, Gordon Ellis, Bombardier Jones (Medical Orderly), Bob Orton (AFS Volunteer), Dick Corse, Doc Brown, Tom Jones. (Photograph by John C. Cobb II)

These are just a few examples of the images that are available in the AFS Archives. If you wish to view any of this material in person, or learn more about the archives, you are welcome to contact Nicole Milano, the AFS Head Archivist (nicole.milano@afs.org) or call (212) 479-1129.

Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters – An Online Tool

Posted on by
Reply

How do you feel when you live or work together with someone who is very different from you – when this person has different ways of communicating, evaluating things, different ways of enjoying life, a different understanding of “how things are”, and different values guiding him or her through life? Are you curious, anxious, neutral – or does it even make you angry? What thoughts and feelings do you experience?

The set of materials called Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters provides useful tools for you to reflect on your encounters with individuals from different backgrounds. You can ask yourself: what could I have done differently in this situation? How were my actions influenced by an idea I had about the other? What puzzled me? How did I adjust? How did the other person adjust? What did I understand only after reflecting on the experience?

The Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters is a reflective tool you can use by yourself or ask your trainees to use; facilitator’s notes; context, concepts and theories, concepts for discussion, and an Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters for younger learners with respective facilitator’s notes, text cards, and picture cards. Find an overview with links to all of these materials here.

When we learn about intercultural adjustment, communication styles, and the different historical developments that have shaped societies all over the world, we may better be able to connect our experiences to our new knowledge. Having cases and situations in mind that have puzzled us can help bring clarity to theories on intercultural communication – and to link them to our lives! This clarity can help us navigate through daily life in an intercultural environment and to develop strategies to improve our interactions and experiences.

To cooperate successfully in an increasingly globalized world is becoming increasingly important. As an AFSer, you can probably recall many encounters where things didn’t go as you planned. Your experiences may have taught you a lot about cultural differences and about how you react to, process, and learn from them. If you want to deepen your understanding, access the materials here and use them alone or to facilitate the intercultural learning of others. Reflecting on what made the communication difficult, what puzzled or confused you, and how you could overcome these difficulties makes for rich learning opportunities – and best of all: it’s free and available in French and Italian as well!

IR and ICL on Youth Exchanges…

Posted on by
Reply

When a person participates in a cultural exchange, the concepts and theories of intercultural learning are invaluable when adjusting to a new culture and they also aid positively in personal development. Yet, such cultural exchanges are also beneficial from an international relations perspective. How do the ways people with backgrounds in international relations versus intercultural learning perceive youth exchanges help us further differentiate these two fields?

For decades, international students have been a welcome part of schools and universities around the world. Indeed, studying abroad is recognized as an extraordinary experience that one remembers for a lifetime. The thousands of AFSers who look back fondly at their time abroad demonstrate the impact of this type of experience. International youth exchanges can even serve as case studies in the field of intercultural learning. What is less recognized is that such exchanges can play a part in a state’s foreign policy for several reasons. Two of these reasons in particular stand out:

The ideal of a world coexisting peacefully is still alive and well. Many governments believe that if the youth of one state traveled and experienced life in another state firsthand, then misunderstanding and prejudice about other societies can subside. Consequently, many governments promote youth exchange programs so their young citizens can understand that they share the world with many other people who live differently, yet are still worthy of respect and peace.

Another reason why many in the field of international relations advocate for youth exchange programs comes from a national hosting perspective. If citizens of a state open up their homes, hearts and minds to teaching a young sojourner about their country by first hand experience, then it is quite possible that the sojourner will not allow misunderstanding to color his or her opinion about the host country in the future. This result can only be benefitial to all the citizens of the sojourner’s home and host country. When thinking of their host country, many AFSers immediately think about their host family and all the friends they made in the country. Building relationships literally puts human faces on this type of citizen diplomacy.

Of course, the two fields strongly interlap because they are globally focused. This is why one can specify a single global topic, such as youth international exchanges, and easily understand its benefits from both fields’ unique perspectives. Since intercultural learning is so clearly distinct from the larger field of international relations, AFS stands to continuously benefit from its concepts and theories. The focus on people and cultures makes ICL unique as a subject, and ideally suited to be a tool in a sojourner’s individual development when living abroad. ICL is much more suited in this task than the field of international relations. Since AFS works with thousands of young travelers, ICL is also ideally suited for AFS.From these two reasons we can better understand how international exchanges are seen from an international relations standpoint. Like in other areas, the field of international relations is different from intercultural learning because it emphasizes understanding the governmental and organizational level over the individual and social levels. It also emphasizes the state as a political entity. Such a perspective explains why youth exchanges can be recognized as benefitical to a national government. In contrast, Intercultural learning tends to focus more on understanding at the individual and social levels. It emphasizes cultures, not nation-states, and consequently recognizes the benefits of youth exchanges on an individual and cultural level.

Paul Edinger is a contributing writer for the ICL Blog. He was an intern at AFS International in 2011 in the Development and Branding department, and continued in 2012 in the Intercultural Learning department. He holds a B.A. in International Studies.