Cultural Academy: a new approach to cultural enquiry

• Norman Jackson, Director SCEPTrE• Vasso Vydelingum & Nimmi Hutnik, Senior

Lecturers, Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford. UK.

Creation of Cultural Academy

• University of Surrey: nearly 30% of our students originate from over 130 different countries.

• SCEPTrE wanted to make multiculturalism a more explicit part of students’ educational experiences.

• The motivation for ‘Cultural Academy’: to learn more from the cultural diversity within our own campus society

• Ideas underpinning Cultural Academy:• collaborative learning

• productive inquiry

• Immersive experience

Cultural Academy aims to:

• Build and support a diverse community of enquirers (students all levels and staff facilitators) willing to share their understandings and experiences of culture and how it affects us

• Engage members of the Cultural Academy in thinking about their own Cultural identity

• Involve the community in enquiry into our own multicultural campus society

• Influence the university – by highlighting the importance of culture in the experiences of students preparing for a lifetime of living and working in an a culturally complex world.

• Its about communicating across cultures having fun and learning in the process!!!

Cultural Academy: An Overview

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Process

• Through a series of Workshops• Planning meetings &• A student-led conference extending over five

months, participants (students, facilitators and mentors) shared their experiences and understandings of culture and its influences on their lives.

Cultural Academy productive enquirers

Sarah Campbell Y3 Psychology student on placement with SCEPTrEevaluation of learner experience& on-line staff and student perception surveys

Lori RileyM level student

micro-conversation research

Ben Mercer & William Pattersonrecent graduate

enquiring film makers

Nimmi Hutnick Norman Jackson

Vasso Vydelingum

workshop design and evaluation

17 student participants

FACILITATORS

Workshop 1 Theme: Me and My Culture

Introduction to the Cultural Academy Get to know members of the Academy Acquaint participants with the aims and

objectives of the Cultural AcademyExercises: I am & I am not What does my name mean?Cultural Gift

Cultural Gift:Exploration of Self-Cultural

Identity‘Anything personally significant that you think contributes to and represents an aspect of your

own cultural identity’

Exploration of Self-Cultural Identity: Using Concept

maps

Workshop 2

Theme: Culture and Others

Discovery and discussion on idea of ‘difference’ in culture

Produce a Cultural GenogramVoting on propositions

On-line social networking space

WORKSHOP 2

A good way of enquiring into culture was to share beliefs by voting on propo-sitions

I donI don’’t feel I fit into any specific culturet feel I fit into any specific culture

9%

27% 27%27%

9%

1. Strongly disagree

2. Disagree

3. Don’t know

4. Agree

5. Strongly agree

Workshop 3

Theme: Organisations, Language, and Culture

An organisation as a cultural web Importance of language (and other

forms of communication) in organisations through which culture is propagated

Workshop 3:Japanese Calligraphy

Control systemsControl systems

Rituals & routinesRituals & routines

Stories & mythsStories & myths

SymbolsSymbols

Power structuresPower structures

Organisation Organisation structuresstructures

The ParadigmThe Paradigm

Reflective Process

‘Appreciating Being Multicultural’ Conference

Reflective Accounts as Student Legacy

STUDENT LED CONFERENCE OUTLINE

14.00 Sharing cultural experiences – workshops, conversations and quiz Sessions will run concurrently. Most will last about 30mins and be repeated. Participants welcome to move freely from one conversation or activity to another. Location and theme for each session shown on room/timetable sheet.

15.45 Tea/coffee break 16.15 Enquiring into our own multicultural society AC 01 Lecture Theatre

‘Appreciating our Multicultural Campus’ A film by Ben Mercer and William Patterson (SCEPTrE Film Makers)

Our multicultural campus society Norman Jackson and Vasso Vydelingum and Sarah Campbell

Final act – a certificate for all the students who participated in the Cultural Academy, presented by Professor Bernard Weiss (Pro Vice Chancellor Student Experience)

17.30 International buffet – the cultural gifts of food and music. Live entertainment from African drum group ‘Jali-Djembe’ (18.00-19.30).

Class activity

• ‘ I am’ Exercise 5 mins• Naming Exercise 15 mins

Integration across Curricula

Informal Curricula: Cultural Academy

Workshop Discussion Group

Formal Curricula: Interpersonal

Communication MA Research on Conversation

Analysis

Pedagogic practices within the enquiry process included

Concept mapping – to facilitate personal enquiry into understandings of culture

• Cultural enquiry using simple question-based tools

• Voting systems to reveal patterns of beliefs in response to propositions about culture

• Story telling – descriptions of personal experiences and on-line blogs and postings to community forum

Pedagogic process contd.

• Mentoring to encourage conversation and reflection

• Film making – enquiry into our multicultural campus, the recording of the cultural academy process

• Peer ‘teaching’ – the facilitation of conversation• Questionnaire surveys • End process reflective account and conversation

Multicultural Questionnaire

100 staff responded

473 students responded

Information about ethnicity and culture

Key Findings

Ethnicity and culture conceptually very complex

General feeling of cultural awareness and acceptance of cultural diversity at Surrey

Feeling more could be done to incorporate different learning approaches into teaching in response to cultural differences

Key Findings

Students feel there is a need for more conversation about cultural diversity

More integration between British and international students is needed

Cultural complexities are present even in the British home students

Cultural Academy - the student experience

Members of the Academy were interviewed

Appreciative conversations

Analysis of written ‘Learning through experience’ accounts

Cultural Academy - the student experience

Learning Environment Motivations

Skills; abstract & concrete knowledge;new perspectives; developed as people

Relationships Emotions

Positivity - ‘positive attitudes towards different cultures’

Communication Expectations

Wider context Safe environment for sharing

Background

Stereotypes Respect, trust, confidence

Experience

Similarities & Differences

Evocative Words from Accounts

‘deeper sense’

‘embedded’

‘reflection’

‘I feel so grateful that I am Chinese’

‘Another inspiring part of Cultural Academy'

‘understanding is enhanced’

‘culturally sensitive’

‘a better person’

‘I wish we had the chance to meet more often’

‘to reflect on what culture is and to respect its deep meaning’

‘more accepting, considerate and open-minded of other opinions’

‘respect’

‘immersing oneself in the experience’

‘passionate and curious’

‘deeper discussion and inquiry’

‘self-discovery’

‘I was proud of our achievement’

‘interdependence’

‘sensitive’

‘united in experiencing learning’

‘a creative venture’

‘I had a sense of shame’

‘personal choice is important’

RecommendationsCultural Academy wiki, develop and connect

‘Cultural Academy Alumni’

Members suggested more sessions, with more regularity

Members suggested the structure should be thought out more carefully; either designed and owned entirely by members or rigid structure around the objectives of Academy leaders

Recommendations

Tasks between sessions led to thinking outside of sessions, learning through reflection

Workshops more explicit in direction, objectives and generalisability

Some members felt awareness of courses and backgrounds should be considered in workshop planning.

Cultural Academy grown to provide space & support in the form of a drop-in for students needing support or a confidential place to discuss cultural issues they may be experiencing

Impact

Student Experience Strategy

Induction week for Freshers

Conference promoted awareness and interest among senior managers and departments such as Careers Service

Conclusions• The appreciative inquiry approach certainly

has had beneficial effects as participants developed a very positive sense of culture

• Cultural safety • Better marketing techniques for such events• Learning about culture is a life-long learning

conversation.

References- Further reading• Cooperrider, David L. & Whitney, Diana (1999). Appreciative

Inquiry. In Holman, P.& Devane, T. (Eds.), Collaborating for Change. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

• Novak J.D ( 1998) Learning, Creating, Using Knowledge: concept maps. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. London

• Hay, D.B. & Kinchin, I.M. (2006) Using concept mapping to reveal conceptual typologies. Education & Training 48(2/3), 127-142.

• Ramsden I H (1992) Cultural safety in nursing education in Aotearoe at the Year of Indigenous People’s Conference, Brisbane, Australia.

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