Intercultural Pedagogics

1. Intercultural Pedagogics Corrie Tijsseling, M.Sc. in Theory and History of Pedagogics FEAPDA-2005, Geneva, Switzerland

2. Introduction • Sexual abuse; interviews with pupils and clients. • Addition to identity-confusion in Deaf/HoH adolescents: a conflict between the culture of the family and the culture in the institute Viataal. • Project RESPECT: change of culture at Viataal. • Intercultural pedagogics: respect for diversity

3. Parenting styles in other cultures Gardiner et al. (1998), found a difference in: • (duration of) breastfeeding • Sleeping (in parental bed or own bed) • Closeness (carry the child with you or not) • Games and playing (sharing or performance) • Values (preference to different values)

4. Parenting in other cultures (ctd.) Huijbers et al. (2002), behavioural autonomy and attachment in Moroccan adolescents: • Lesser permission of making decisions • More attachment to parents • Boys: conflicts in first period of adolescence • Girls: conflicts in second period of adolescence

5. Parenting in other cultures (ctd.) Pels (1998), values of Moroccan mothers: • Continuity: transfer of values and culture • Social performance • Respect and obedience • Social autonomy less important • Other disciplining methods • Different demands to boys and girls

6. Parenting in other cultures (ctd.) Van Niekerk (2000), Creole and Hindustan Surinam people: • Both groups consider educational opportunities as important • No difference in social mobility • Hindustan parents are more strict, more safeguarding of culture, closed group • Different attitude towards boys and girls

7. Parenting in other cultures (ctd.) Chao (1994), Chinese parents: • Strong emphasis on success in education • Continuous ‘training’ of child in educational tasks • Authoritarian parenting style, much controlling of child • Not ‘training’ of child is being experienced by the child as neglectance

8. Parenting in other cultures (ctd.) Wathum-Ocama & Rose (2002), Hmong-parents: • Grief and disappointment over disability of child • Teachers consider parents to be ashamed of child • Parents: unconditional acceptance of child • Support in use of hearing aids • Child is free to, or not to, use hearing aids at home • Children are ashamed of themselves • Low expectations of child in parents

9. Parenting in other cultures (ctd.) Nelson & Allison (2000), Aboriginal-parents: • Little use of special education • Survival more important: finding food, social relations • Intuitive style of parenting: learning here-and-now • Structure and continuity not considered as important

10. Adolescents and cultures Vollebergh (1996), the Netherlands: • Turkish and Moroccan people are in the lowest ranks of ethnic hierarchy • Ethnical distance: preference of the own group highest in Caribbean and Surinam adolescents • Limiting to the own group highest in Dutch adolescents • Similarity between ethnic groups not because of culture, but the experience of discrimination • Psychological well-being lower due to discrimination and lesser opportunities

11. Adolescents and cultures (ctd.) De Waal (1993): • Ethnicity main factor in construction of peergroups • Concentration of groups in areas and ‘black schools’ • Mix of Dutch and non-Dutch adolescents mainly in groups with low SES and low education • Non-Dutch girls have lesser opportunities to mix with other ethnic groups

12. Adolescents and cultures (ctd.) Forster & Kinuthia (2003): • Deaf + Afro-American / Asian-American / Latin-American • First Deaf, then member of an ethnic group • First Usher, then Deaf • ‘Nested identity’

13. Adolescents and cultures (ctd.) Deaf and HoH adolescents: • Psychological well-being lower because of discrimination and communication problems • No automatic assimilation in the own ethnic group • Easier to mix with other ethnic groups • Being Deaf/HoH as a connecting aspect

14. Cross-cultural? Hofstede (1998), differences between cultures in: • individualism - collectivism • authoritarian - egalitarian orientation • moralism - rationalism • gender-difference • masculinity - femininity

15. Masculinity - femininity • Masculinity measured in 53 countries • Netherlands: 51st place • Arab countries: 23d place • 1st place: Japan • 9th place: United Kingdom • 10th place: Germany • 15th place: USA

16. Masculinity = • Social success highly appreciated; both material as social status • High appreciation of objects, houses, cars • Men should be tough and strong, women should be soft and caring • High rates of sex and violence in written media, TV and Internet • Position of women in a society is no variable for the masculinity of a culture

17. Cultural policies? Starting point are foundational values: • freedom • Individual responsibility • solidarity • tolerance Problem: difference in interpretation of values, meaning of concepts through cultural differences. Who is right?

18. Cultural defined? Human behaviour not only cultural defined but also: • social-economic • psychological • ecological How about Deaf and HoH children?

19. Problems in intercultural pedagogics • Negative ideas about multiculturality • Generalisation • Lack of respect for diversity • “If they are more like us, then they (and thus we) have lesser problems” • ‘Ethnocentric reflex’: the habit of considering one’s own values as standard values • ‘Pedagogical inability of the society’

20. Myth: intercultural expertise(Dean, 2004) • Modern definitions of culture: “Ideas, habits, competences, artefacts of a people or group that are being transferred to new generations”(Webster’s New World Dictionary, 1988). Or: “Organised activities, based on communal ideas and definitions”(Becker, 1986)

21. Post-modern definition • A culture is being constructed both by the individual and the society: “Culture is always defined by context and manifest and develops itself in an improvising manner. It transforms and is politically laden, it is moreover a matter of linguistics and language competence, of discourse”(Laird, 1998)

22. Intercultural competence, 3 components (Shadid, 2003) • Individual: personal qualities; especially motivation, knowledge and skills • Communication: communicative status of interactional partners, impression they have of each other communicative competence and social status. • Relation: common competences, respect for each other’s need for autonomy and privacy, reciprocal acceptance, etc.

23. Third perspective • Open-minded for new ideas and experiences • Empathy towards people from other cultures • Being able to perceive differences and resemblances between cultures of others and one’s own culture • Tendency to describe behaviour that is not being understood, rather than value / judging it • Acute and non-critical observances of one’s own behaviour and the behaviour of others • Capable in developing meaningful relations with people from other cultures • Low ethnocentricity

24. Recommendations • Developing intercultural pedagogics in the education of Deaf and HoH children. • Projects for parents. Not ‘to involve parents’, but to co-operate with them. • Attention for identity-construction and (meaning of) values in Deaf and HoH children.

25. Food for thought Plurality is the condition of human action, because we are all the same, that is, human, in such a way that nobody is ever the same as anyone else who ever lived, lives, or will live. Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (1989, p.8)