Living in Interfaith

Posted on February 25, 2013 by arturo.romeropereda@afs.org

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:

Ten Reasons to Teach Interfaith Children Both Religions: blog entry by Susan Katz Miller on her blog “On Being Both”.
How to Successfully Raise Interfaith Children: an interview with Psychologist Dr. Tara Boadu in which she reflects on how to raise children in a household where there are race, ethnicity, nationality, culture, socioeconomic status and religious differences.
Interfaith Children’s Movement: an online platform where you can find information about programs, activities and advocacy on interfaith children’s programs.
Bi-religious: a blog entry by an Israeli expatriate in the United States on the cultural adjustment of her daughter to religious holidays.

Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section!

Intercultural Dialogue Day 2012 Photo and Video Contest Winners!

Posted on December 14, 2012 by laura.schaack

On 27 September 2012, the European Federation of Intercultural Learning (EFIL) and AFS partnered to celebrate Intercultural Dialogue Day (IDD) 2012 to promote intercultural learning. This year, IDD held a best Video and Photo contest for events and activities that celebrated intercultural learning and dialogue.

Everyone who participated in the IDD made wonderful contributions to furthering the awareness of intercultural learning. As well, many stayed connected through IDD’s facebook page, which is where the winners of the photo and video contest were announced. Congratulations to the winners from AFS Hungary and AFS Russia!

Watch the best video and see the best picture on the IDD facebook page!

21st Century Icebreakers | Tools For Online Learning

Posted on September 5, 2012 by charlotte.steinke@afs.org

It’s always difficult to begin a course or a training workshop when your peers are strangers, especially when they are people who come from a conext or a culture you know little about. Imagine then, how tricky it can be to go through this process online, without the possibility of doing ice-breaker activities in person, or the non-verbal cues we rely so heavily on in communication. When interacting online, sometimes we operate with very few cues at all!

Aditi Rao

Everyone who has facilitated an online learning activity knows that the biggest challenge of online cooperation and learning is to develop feeling for the interest, preferences, and habits of those “on the other side of the computer”. It is difficult when you can neither see them nor sense any of the (verbal and) non-verbal cues that most of us rely on when building a relationship. So if you can’t rely on these cues, what can you do to make the online interaction successful and satisfying for all involved?

Aditi Rao, who has recently published an article about 21st Century Icebreakers gives a number of very practical and easy-to-use tips for “breaking the ice” in an online interaction. Her suggestions are simpler than you might imagine.

For creative ways of getting to know each other: you can use Pinterest (ask everyone to take 10 pins to represent themselves) or ask the group to prepare a very short podcast about themselves. Another possibility is for everyone to introduce her or himself through a blog post. For younger or especially creative groups it may also be effective to ask everybody to create comic strips about themselves.
For tools to collect feedback: Polleverywhere, Google Forms, Survey Monkey, and many other tools are available – for free!
For interactive tools that keep everyone engaged, and to get dynamic feedback use Word Clouds, QR Codes, and Voki (a tool for creating speaking avatars). During the last months, participants of the Intercultural Link Learning Program have also had the chance to experience Voice Thread and Blackboard - two interactive programs that are helpful for conducting successful online learning activities.

For more tips to having successful interactions online and links to resources on Aditi Rao’s blog visit TeachBytes.

Word Cloud for this article

For those with little experience conducting webinars, Cate Brubaker, an intercultural trainer who is experienced in delivering webinars, also shares some helpful tips:

Attend enough webinars before you deliver your first own webinar.
Practice, practice, practice with friends, test groups, or by recording your own webinar.
Use a variety of strategies to deliver the content: pictures, graphs, polls, music, videos – whatever works best for you!
Cooperate with another person for the facilitation of your session. This way, you’ll have more time to focus on the facilitation of your session.
Choose a topic that you know a lot of people have questions about.
Don’t think too much – just do it!

On her website SmallPlanetStudio, Cate Brubaker offers other material, free teleclasses, and ideas for how to successfully facilitate intercultural learning – online and offline. In the past few years, AFSers all over the world have been using these tools and materials to better support the interpersonal and intercultural learning connected to the life-changing experience of going abroad and hosting a young person from another culture. AFS Volunteers and Staff involved in the Intercultural Link Learning Program have participated in anumber of these online learning activities and have used many of the above mentioned tools.

When our work is rooted in interpersonal communication and in effectively and appropriately engaging with cultural differences, we have a lot to learn from online learning and can make the most of it by exploring the myriad tools and options becoming available each day. Tell us what online tools you’ve used to facilitate intercultural online learning!

Do you know your preferred learning style?

Posted on August 17, 2012 by laura.schaack

Over the last 50+ years, many theorists have explored the idea that people have different preferred learning styles and strengths. These theorists have also developed techniques and approaches to guide your learning experience so that it is most beneficial for your preferred learning style. The first step, however, is to pinpoint which type of learner you are!

Howard Gardner

Each learning style theory is different and there is no “best” theory. In this post, we are featuring several free on-line tools to determine your learning style based on Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences.

The first site, businessballs.com, offers a relatively detailed overview of Gardner’s theory as well as offline learning style surveys you can download (one even self-calculates your scores).

A second online resource is learning-styles-online.com, which gives you free information on which type of learning style suits you and and how to use that knowledge to your advantage. The 70-question test gives you clear, graphic results to best guide you to your most optimized learning experience! Or you can browse the types of learning styles and read about each one.

This visual (to the left) and the text provided on the website explain how the different learning styles interact and are related.

It’s very useful to be aware of the approaches that support your preferred way of learning, allowing you to maximize your learning potential. Also, if you identify the learning styles that you struggle with the most, you can use resources like those on the website, Brain Training Games, for example, to improve aspects of your learning.

As noted, Howard Gardner is just one of numerous theorists who have explored the concept of learning styles. His theory is not perfect, nor does it speak to everyone, but it is a very useful tool for analyzing and reflecting on our preferred ways of learning. There are several books available on Gardner’s theory, if you are interested in more information.

Happy learning!

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

Posted on July 23, 2012 by charlotte.steinke@afs.org

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.

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.

Dialogin – The Delta Intercultural Academy is available online

Posted on March 19, 2012 by laura.kline-taylor

The Hochschule Konstanz/Germany – University of Applied Sciences offers the online knowledge community, Dialogin, which focuses on intercultural communication in business and management. Members have access to a wide range of materials such as book reviews, articles, and other relevant media by community members (among others, Fons Trompenaars is one of the publishers). Other opportunities include access to research articles in the field, calls for papers, courses, and forum discussions.

The best part? Thanks to generous funding by its corporate and individual sponsors, membership at Dialogin is free of charge! It is open to everyone who works in international business and management, as well as to university researchers, teachers, students, intercultural trainers, and consultants.

The online platform was first presented at the SIETAR Europa Congress in Brussels in 2000, and now, with more than 4000 members from around the world, it works to meet its ultimate goal of contributing to the improvement in competence in the field of communication and cooperation in international business and management. In 2010, it was relaunched in its current form.

The upcoming Global Leadership Competence Conference taking place this June in Konstanz, Germany is one of the many ways AFSers and others involved in the field can meet experts and engage in discussions around the competencies required to lead people and organizations in successful communication across cultures.

Click here to join dialogin and take advantage of this online source as you create connections between new ideas, theories and our day-to-day intercultural experiences.

East meets West through Images

Posted on March 6, 2012 by paul.edinger@afs.org

Maria Popova maintains a blog called, “Brain Pickings” (http://www.brainpickings.org/) where she shares thought-provoking posts ranging from philosophy to intercultural learning.

One of Maria’s posts was on the artist, Yang Liu and her project, Ost trifft West (East Meets West). Chinese-born and German raised, Liu has a unique perspective of the differences between Eastern and Western cultures and Ost trifft West very clearly displays key cultural differences between China and Germany with minimal words and simple but insightful illustrations.

For example, Germans tend to be very punctual, whereas Chinese are generally a little more flexible. Liu illustrates this cultural difference through the image to the left.

Similarly, the image to the right from the Ost trifft West project demonstrates the cultural difference between China and Germany when people gather to form a queue.

And this image from her project attempts to illustrate the culturally acceptable level of noise in a German restaurant versus a Chinese restaurant.

Liu’s work is part of the ever-increasing interest in and importance of intercultural learning. AFS, like Liu, is continually seeking new ways to provide intercultural learning opportunities to its diverse audiences.