Module 3

Intercultural Skills for

Facilitating Learning
 Aims of Module 3
• Explore our Racial Identities & how it may influence how we
work as intercultural educators
• Consider the influence of ‘positioning’ for students &
educators
• Identify inhibitors, strategies & resources for effective student
engagement in the intercultural space
• Consider barriers & facilitators for having effective
intercultural discussions

What practice based learning’s did you take away

from yesterdays session?
 Exploring our Racial Identities
• Racial consciousness:
“A process where we seek to explore how we understand
‘race’, how it has featured in our lives and what factors
influenced it, inclusive of broader social narratives and
policies” (Singleton & Linton, 2006, :73).

• For intercultural educators, reflecting on our own racial

identity supports us to be mindful of our position, & how
influences shaping our racial identity may influence how we
engage with students.
 Activity 1
• In pairs, discuss your Racial Autobiography homework
experience.

• In the whole group, discuss

1. What did this exercise highlight for you about who YOU
are as an educator in the Intercultural Space?
2. What kind of implications may this have on your
teaching?
 Theoretical Models
• Racial identity models:
– Helms White Racial Identity Development Model – talks
about whiteness and systemic privileges
– Fearon’s Model – talks about how social and personal
identity develops and there differences
– Cross’ People of Color Identity Model – talks about social
and personal identity but in context of political & historical
forces
 Self Reflexivity
• Having an ongoing conversation with one’s own whole self
about what one is experiencing as one is experiencing it. To be
self-reflexive is to engage in feeling and thought while being in
the moment.

• “If you don’t question yourself and your actions and

assumptions you could well be participating in the continued
disadvantage of others” (ICH Student Reflection, 2011).
 Positioning & ‘Lens’
• Positioning & Lens:
- Affected by discourse, individual psychology & the
dynamic social role
- Multiple positions can exist at any one time
- Lens shape how we perceive and interpret the experience
we are having

• Examples of lens we can see through:

- Gender, Cultural, Social justice, Class, Professional, Age.
Dimensions of Diversity

The photo “Dimensions of Diversity” (Loden Associates Inc, n.d.)

 Activity 2
• In groups of three, discuss Classroom Scenario 2 or 3.

• In the whole group, discuss

1. How you can draw on your own sense of your Racial
Identity, Positioning & Lens to facilitate safe & effective
intercultural discussion?
2. What other strategies can you use to facilitate effective
discussion in the intercultural space?
 Activity 3
• In the whole group, discuss

1. Is the context of the video appropriate for having an

intercultural dialogue? Why/why not?
2. Given Australia’s colonial history, how do present
material & have intercultural discussions that are
productive rather than polarising?
3. How would you facilitate this space to have safe &
effective discussions?
 Challenges to Effective Engagement
in Intercultural Space
ICH focus groups feedback:
• Feeling that material is not
• Racist students relevant….
• Difficult/ defensive • Different types of ‘colour
• Anger/ resentment (often commentary’
arising from negative past • Tokenisation
experiences) • Political sensitivities
• Denial of racism ‘walking on eggshells’
• Non-engaging/ silent • Lack of time to engage
• Sense of ‘imposed content’ students in genuine ‘shifts’
• Stereotypes • External factors (personal/
social etc)
 Strategies to Enhance Effective
Engagement in IC Space
ICH tutors feedback:
• Identify/connect with student
• Practice what you preach
• Avoid binary discussions

Asmar’s exemplars…
• Show confidence in your expertise
• Get students to question established assumptions/ myths &
stereotypes
 CCAR Strategies for Dealing
with Resistance
• Recognise resistance
• Ignore behaviours - (to see where its going…)
• Delay/ deflect - (turn issue to group, while composing)
• Respond – treat not as an attack but as ‘reasonable question’
• Direct confrontation – sometimes necessary
• Back door approach – meet individual privately
• Regrouping – separate enclave groups into random groups
• Team – get support from your colleagues
• Evaluation review – feedback to explore how resistance
affects whole group.
 CCAR Strategic Principles for
Courageous Conversations
• Remain connected
• Honesty is best policy
• Discomfort is OK!
• It’s a marathon not a sprint
• Connect through your story
• Make complexity your friend
 Key Principles for Effective
IC Teaching & Learning
• Reflexive self practice
• Understanding our various ‘positions’ & how they influence
how we make sense of experiences
• Make the information your discussing connect to the current
Australian context
• Remain empathetic & interactive
• Making connections between the material being learnt & your
own cultural frameworks
• Foster in students - & yourself- a commitment to engage
 References
• Asmar, C. (nd). Teaching examplars. Retrieved from
http://www.indigenousteaching.com/html/exemplars_index.h
tml
• Lawrence SM & Tatum BD. White Racial Identity and Anti-
Racist Education: A Catalyst for Change. Teaching for Change:
Building Social Justice in the Classroom. Retrieved
http://www.teachingforchange.org/node/149.
• Loden Associates, Inc. (2007). Diversity wheel. Retrieved from
http://www.loden.com/Site/Dimensions.html
• Singleton, G., & Linton, C. (2006). Courageous conversations
about race. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.
 References
• What I learned in the class today: Aboriginal issues is the
classroom. Tokenization (n.d.).
http://www.intheclass.arts.ubc.ca/discussion-topics/2-
tokenization.html