“Me Exchanged” – an unusual perspective on impact of study abroad

Posted on April 6, 2013 by Eva Vitkova

From http://www.inakoehler.de/ausstellung.html

From http://www.inakoehler.de/ausstellung.html

When we talk about intercultural experiences of young people abroad, we focus primarily on the internal changes that are happening with the young individual. We can hear that “the young person has become a real adult”, “s/he is more mature”, “s/he has learned a new language” or that “s/he is now more prepared to face the reality of our globalized world”. A number of researchers have attempted to describe and interpret what is happening “inside” of the young person. But have you ever thought about what kind of change happens on the outside?

German photographer Ina Köhler posed this question after she saw how her own daughter changed after spending a year abroad. Her experience then motivated her to explore the topic through art, namely photography.

In her project, Ina aimed to capture the impact that a year abroad can show in a person’s face. She invited 30 high-school students from Berlin to pose for a portrait photography both before leaving for abroad as well as after returning home after a year. The collection of portraits was first displayed in her gallery in Berlin and it is now touring various schools in Germany. You can view sample of the portraits on her website or read a more detailed article about the exhibition.

Do you know about any other art projects inspired by intercultural exchange experience? Let us know!

New communication technologies – benefit or barrier to intercultural experiences?

Posted on March 16, 2013 by Eva Vitkova

When I embarked on my AFS exchange experience in 2001, I didn’t have a cell-phone, my e-mail account was only 2 years old and neither Skype nor Facebook existed at that time. During my year long stay in Norway, I called my family back home once a month through a land line and kept the communications short to avoid unnecessarily high phone bills.

Nowadays, everything has changed and the above description of communication with my family might resemble a chapter from a history book for the generation that grew up during the recent boom of modern technology that allows us to communicate freely across the globe. The role of modern media and communication tools in the study abroad experience is a fascinating subject and it has been recently addressed in the article “How Facebook Can Ruin Study Abroad”.

Robert Huesca, professor of communication at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas USA, uses the comparison of his two long-term experiences abroad (in 1980 and 2012) to point out both the positives and negatives that new communication technologies bring to the study abroad experience.

Digital media and technology can be used for capturing stories of the people who live abroad and they provide space for sharing their experiences and learnings with family, friends and other audiences back home. They can also serve to build bridges between the sojourner and the local culture. The negative impact comes when the time spent connecting with “the familiar on-line” exceeds the time spent “living the real life” in the host country. Huesca also argues that excessive use of digital technology protects students from experiencing culture shock and the feelings of stress, loneliness and homesickness. Lack of these experiences can reduce the transformational impact of living abroad and ruin the opportunity for the personal development that motivates many of us to move to another country in the first place.

The above mentioned examples give just a little insight into how complex this issue is and how modern technology can play role both in inefficient and efficient coping strategies. This new reality is something we can’t really change or even just ignore. As the author of the article concludes, we can learn how to cope with the new situation and we should explore new approaches to the challenges that new technology represents. One of his concrete suggestions – adding technology management to curricula preparing students for their intercultural experience – is a very relevant and useful tip for all educational institutions and organizations providing study/live abroad experiences.

A fascinating journey around the World… through photography

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Eva Vitkova

Have you ever dreamed of traveling around the World? Embarking on a journey where you are not limited to a tourist experience, but rather learn about people’s lives, listen to their stories and get an idea of what their usual day looks like? Nothing compares to a real life experience, but you can also do all this without getting on a plane or even leaving your own living room/desk.

Menzel's book, Material World: A Global Family Portrait

Photojournalist Peter Menzel has taken numerous trips around the world and invites us to join him in visiting people’s homes through the photographs that he had taken. Besides being respected for his coverage of international feature stories on science and the environment, Menzel is also known for producing a number of books that capture the realities of people living in different parts of the world.

His book Material World: A Global Family Portrait (1994) focuses on the material possessions and daily lives of average families around the world. It depicts 30 families from 24 different countries with all their possessions in front of their homes. Pictures are accompanied by essays and background stories of the photographed families. Women in the Material World (1996) is another documentary book, based on his previous work, but focusing specifically on lives of women across the globe.

Another fascinating journey, this time through people’s diets was captured by Menzel in Hungry Planet: What The World Eats (2005) and also in his latest release What I eat: Around the World in 80 Diets (2010). In the first book mentioned, families share what they week diet looks like; in the latter, 80 people are captured with the food and beverages they consume on an average day.

Images from Menzel's book, What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets

To learn more about Menzel’s work and browse through a gallery with a sample of pictures, you can visit Peter Menzel Photography website. Are you and educator and do you wonder how to use this for educational purposes? Then explore the link to educational materials that were developed in addition to the books and that represent an inspiring example of how to bring global perspectives into the classroom.

International school partnerships do make a difference!

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Eva Vitkova

Class exchanges, individual student mobility, international projects connecting schools across borders – these are all examples of activities that schools pursue in order to become more “global”, “international”, or in the European context more “European”. What is the educational impact of such activities? What do students learn during these projects and how does it affect their school and its environment?

A recent study conducted for the European Commission has shown that international school partnerships realized within the Comenius Programme have a significant impact on students and teachers, as well as on the schools as such.

Comenius, the younger brother of the well-known Erasmus program, is part of the EU’s Lifelong Learning Programme and it focuses on all levels of school education, from pre-school and primary to secondary schools. It supports bilateral or multilateral projects that bring teachers and students from different countries together. According to the study, participation in these international partnerships improves strongly key skills of students, cultural awareness and expression being the one that was reported to improve most significantly (see chart below).

Impact on students: improvement of key skills

The study also points out that the impact of Comenius school partnerships on participating students is strongest at secondary level and that student mobility, when it is made available, significantly increases project impact.

The results of this study confirm some of the major beliefs that are the backbone of the AFS educational approach: that schools, and secondary schools especially, are the places where intercultural dialogue can be fostered and that real personal encounters are key for development of intercultural competences. The AFS network is investing in building sustainable partnerships with schools more intensely than ever in order to be able to create more opportunities to connect students, teachers and school communities not only in Europe, but all over the world.

To learn more about the results of the study, access the executive summary (in English) or the full study report (in French).

Global Youth Voice Conference

Posted on September 21, 2012 by laura.schaack

International opportunities for interculturally-minded youth to get involved and collaborate with each other are becoming more and more accessible. A great example is “Global Youth Voice“, an international youth conference which brings together 200 young people from all over the globe with the common intention of finding out how young people can make the world better, together. An innovative approach to international organization, the project began in 2011 with a small group of 8 young people who dreamt of a place where all the intercultural-driven youth could collaborate and be in contact.

This year’s conference took place in Moscow, Russia on the 18^th of August, and was held at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. It is one of the three conferences that together make up the AISEC International Congress, an international event to plan projects for social and economic development. At the Global Youth Voice event, two AFS staff members had the opportunity to take a more active role and act as facilitators for one of the sessions.

Tom McLeod, an AFS returnee (Australia 2000-2001) and current Intern at the AFS Russia office in Moscow, along with Nonna Kovrizhnykh, Partner Director of AFS Russia, and Organisational Development Coordinator Natalia Zakharova facilitated a session on Intercultural Dialogue and Tolerance. The 10-day conference hopes to foster a positive global impact in the way youth collaborate and interact, and aims to build a global perspective for future generations.

UNESCO Guidelines on Intercultural Education

Posted on August 13, 2012 by charlotte.steinke@afs.org

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) offers online Guidelines on Intercultural Education. These guidelines provide an overview and fundamental understanding of an intercultural approach to education.

The document defines culture, education, language, religion, and diversity (among other concepts) and explains how their interrelation can help clarify what Intercultural Learning means and how best to approach it. UNESCO addresses the question: What is the role of Intercultural Education? and indicates four main objectives:

1) Learning to know. This objective highlights the value of a obtaining a general education, which brings learners into contact with other areas of knowledge and encourages communication.

2) Learning to do. This involves helping learners find their place within society and cultivates specific skills as well as an ability to develop and apply a broad range of new skills in diverse environments.

3) Learning to live together. Acquiring knowledge, skills and values that contribute to a collective spirit of collaboration allow learners to co-exist in societies rich with diversity.

4) Learning to be. Solidifying one’s sense of personality in order to act with autonomy, judgement and personal responsibility. Regard of a person’s potential and right to cultural difference strengthens identity and builds cognitive capacity.

The document proposes three main principles for Intercultural Education:

I: Intercultural Education respects the cultural identity of the learner through the provision of culturally appropriate and responsive quality education for all. This means that the learning content should relate to, and build on the learner’s background and the resources they have access to; also, the knowledge transmission should be culturally appropriate, incorporating local pedagogy and traditional ways of learning and teaching. This way, learners can become deeply involved in the learning process.

II: Intercultural Education provides every learner with the cultural knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to achieve active and full participation in society. This should happen by providing equal access to all forms of education, eliminating discrimination in the education system, facilitating the integration of migrant workers into the education system and respecting their special needs. It should also happen by eliminating prejudice about culturally distinct population groups within a country and by promoting an inclusive learning environment.

III: Intercultural Education provides all learners with cultural knowledge, attitudes and skills that enable them to contribute to respect, understanding and solidarity among individuals, ethnic, social, cultural and religious groups and nations. This should happen by encouraging learners to struggle against racism and discrimination. It can also occur through the development of curricula that promote knowledge about cultural backgrounds and their impact. This means that learners should be aware of how our way of thinking, feeling, and evaluating is shaped by our own cultural background and experience.

By understanding how our background has shaped our values, assumptions, and judgments, we build a base for effective, reflective communication and cooperation across cultures and social boundaries – thereby developing the knowledge, skills, and understanding to create a more just and peaceful world.

The Guidelines on Intercultural Education are a part of the UNESCO online library, where you can also find other materials to learn more about ICL, Human Rights, Education, Culture, and more.

Recommendations for Building Interculturally Competent Leaders

Posted on July 6, 2012 by charlotte.steinke@afs.org

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.

The CONTACT Program – Conflict Transformation Across Cultures

Posted on June 12, 2012 by charlotte.steinke@afs.org

Are you interested in a combination of Intercultural Learning, Peace Building, and Conflict Transformation? If you are, the CONTACT program, offered by the SIT (School for International Training) is worth knowing about! It is a program that offers learning opportunities that aim to make transformation of conflicts across cultures possible. The program has a special focus on the intercultural conflicts that we are confronted with and which often need special attention in an increasingly globalized world. In many cases, they are more difficult to transform than conflicts that occur with people from familiar contexts. In addition to this, many of them are even further compromised by stereotyping and other challenging intergroup dynamics.

The CONTACT Program deals with dynamics of intercultural conflicts, and with how these conflicts can be transformed. More specifically, the program introduces participants to the tools that can be used to achieve this. In the 3-week Summer Peacebuilding Program that takes place every year in Brattleboro, VT in the United States, practitioners from all over the world come together to learn more about intercultural conflicts and to share their experiences. The Contact program also offers a 2-semester-distance Graduate Certificate Program, which includes a field seminar. In addition to these two options, CONTACT now offers a Program in Kathmandu, Nepal, for South Asians who are interested in learning about the topic. Participants take part in a process which combines theory, self-reflection, community building, and collaborative problem solving which, within a multicultural learning environment, is extremely powerful.

The Contact program can support us in achieving the goals that we as AFSers have set ourselves: to provide intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world. This may be a reason why more AFSers than ever are signing up for structured Intercultural Learning opportunities around the world. Find out more!

SALTO Youth – Online Resources for ICL Activities and Beyond

Posted on May 25, 2012 by charlotte.steinke@afs.org

SALTO Youth is a network of eight European resource centers that support youth and youth workers in their effort to unify Europe and to sustain peace in the European states. The SALTO Youth network is supported by the European Union, and a part of the European Youth Program.

This online resource is available to everyone! (not just Europeans) and offers many resources like the Toolbox for Youth Work. In the Toolbox, you can find a lot of methods and ideas for how to organize and conduct learning activities – as well as a more general insight into youth work and ICL (Intercultural Learning).

The Salto Youth Cultural Diversity Resource Center (one of the eight contributing resource centers) offers materials and training that may be especially interesting for all those who are excited about ICL. On its website, you can find documents on methods for Intercultural dialogue, such as a Leaflet on Intercultural Dialogue, or the Resource Pack for Intercultural Communication. You can use both to learn about culture and communication theories, and to get to know methods for intercultural training and other ICL activities.

If you register at MySALTO, you can have access to even more materials, like online applications, your own dashboard, and newsletters. Overall, this website can be very helpful if you want to conduct an ICL activity or simply learn more about intercultural topics.

Relevant to the AFS context, these training and informative resources can be used to help build the attitudes and knowledge needed to develop intercultural competence, openness and tolerance for a more just and peaceful world.

When China Met Africa 中非遇

Posted on May 9, 2012 by laura.kline-taylor

“When China Met Africa,” a documentary released in 2011, presents an unbiased look at the interactions between Chinese (from the People’s Republic of China) and Zambians in an impressive example of the large scale impact intercultural encounters can have on businesses and in daily family life. Chinese investment in Africa is the topic of this documentary. Here, the viewer observes the interactions of Chinese and Zambian politicians as well as those of Chinese businessmen with African employees and families.

The viewer witnesses fascinating footage of intercultural encounters, where questions of power and hierarchy are deeply intermingled with the motives and dreams of all who are involved. Optimistic politicians try to demonstrate how the goals of two Chinese investors, one in the farming business, the other building roads, can benefit both China and Zambia.

Without mutually agreed upon, pre-defined methods of negotiation, however, and only a limited common framework for communicating and relationship-building, it will be difficult to achieve the goal on common grounds, and in collaboration with the local workers.

Few are able to speak a common language well enough to communicate without major problems and neither party has enough knowledge about the other to anticipate the misunderstandings or conflicts before they arise. Zambians and Chinese use their own frames of reference in this documentary to judge their own and other’s behavior – and so are frequently startled by unexpected behavior of the other. That lack of common expectations impedes trust-building and results in frequent breakdowns of communication and cooperation. The ways in which all parties attempt to deal with the resulting high levels of stress (smoking, yelling, laughing…and more) are highlighted in the story, as is the importance of developing knowledge of general cultural tendencies.

This knowledge can be developed through a reflective intercultural experience, and the AFS year abroad is one way of providing this kind of structured learning environment. As soon as we can understand what is driving the behaviors of others, we can better understand the thoughts, feelings, and assumptions of those with whom we interact and can have more successful experiences. It is not unnatural to rely on stereotypes in our reactions to unexpected behavior, but if our responses are grounded in culture-general frameworks, we can more constructively approach our differences with others in a way that is likely more productive and pleasant for all.

Watch a video clip here or visit the website to purchase or rent the documentary.