The Power Of Bridging The Cultural Divide

The Cross-Cultural Learning Environment

Introduction

Culture plays a vital role in how people perceive the world around them. It influences and guides us consciously and subconsciously in our everyday lives whether we recognize it as being a contributing factor to shaping our perspectives or go about unknowingly. Culture plays a significant role in how we process information and influences our ability to build upon new information. Taking time to learn the valuable contributions of cross-cultural experiences when designing courses and approaching learners works to build towards a learning environment that is focused on motivating, engaging and communicating lasting meaning for learners.

Through the combined use of structure and theory it becomes the role of the instructional designer and instructor to find a delicate balance between creativity and intuition that facilitates a learning environment focused on motivating learners’ curiosity through cross-cultural learning.

In the not-so-distant past learners would have to leave their environments to experience another culture in an immersive state. In today’s interconnected and globalized network with the aid of technology we can Google Earth ourselves from Cairo to Florida in seconds, we can immerse ourselves in language and experience customs and traditions through media, and yet the overall acceptance of cultural learning in the classroom and workplace has yet to catch up.

Learning like many other aspects of society has taken on a global approach. With the advances and vision behind learning technology Instructional designers and instructors find themselves in a new landscape of instruction. The ability for learners to access information anywhere and anytime is becoming more common place. As architects of instructional design, the responsibility to “prepare learners of all ages and backgrounds to help create a better, more inclusive world” (Penn LPS, 2022), has been passed to us.

Learning to Love Learning

The concept of loving learning is fostered at an early age, within the first 4-5 years of a person’s formative years, in most cases beginning as early as pre-school. It is at this stage that preschool age learners first unknowingly encounter an opportunity to intellectually engage in cross cultural learning.

Show and Tell Foreign Languages | Show and Tell | HiHo Kids

Reiser and Dempsey (2018) Introduces the principle of learner engagement by elucidating on the psychology of a successful learner and identifying principles, traits and motivations that often reflect in a successful learner. One of the principles they identify is curiosity. What do all children have in common? Simply put, curiosity. Every learner begins their learning journey as a curious child. It is when children enter the collaborative structured learning environment of the classroom that we can highlight obvious differences in behavior, attention and factors for motivation.

Well, the same can be said about Institutions, instructional designers and instructors. Their influence and inherent approach to passing on information will contribute to shaping the environment that learners find meaningful and engage in. These engaging and unique environments often reflect a learning community that is mindful of their learners’ backgrounds and interests, culturally engaged and operating with a cross-cultural mindset.

Outside of nonverbal communication one of the primary ways that learners begin to express curiosity is through the development of language. In their early years sentences often begin and end with, why? When designers and instructors engage learners at this age it is common practice in Western, European, and Northern countries to focus on problem solving, creativity and teach children language using phonics, visual aids, music and videos specifically images often organized alphabetically that utilize relevant images of animals or food that aid young learners in building concrete connections between language and their physical environments.

Phonics Song | Letter Sounds by Gracie’s Corner | Nursery Rhymes + Kids Songs

All instruction is culturally responsive. The question is: To which culture is it currently oriented?"—Gloria Ladson-Billings

This approach to learning is not unique to the regions listed above but it is seen less in practical application in African, Asian, and Southern countries where children are taught to rely on memorization through more culturally relevant phonics, rote learning, music, pictorial images (varying images by relevance and region or subject matter) and handwriting. They experience a more inherent cross-cultural approach to learning as they are educated in environments where regional languages, dialects and nuances of their own intercultural differences are common and adapted in lessons.

Learn Japanese Hiragana Alphabet - AIUEO Song - Funnihongo

Regional Learning and Language

Today, society is functioning at a fast-paced collaborative cross-cultural approach, why should the classroom be any different?

Reiser & Dempsey (2018) state that “Motivation to learn is prompted when the knowledge is useful to one’s goals and relevant.” There is no one size fit all solution to effective cross-cultural learning. Cultural learning is multi-facetted, sometimes cultural learning is not based on an entire country, state, or city. Sometimes it’s regionally based within a particular city, or community. How does regionally based learning add on to the work of ID and learning to maneuver cross-cultural learning and training? A regional approach to learning targets specific audiences with specific learning needs. For example - being aware of a group of student’s regional dialect gives the instructional designer and instructor the opportunity to frame some learning material and visual media or perhaps a project-based learning module with relevance to their interests, while introducing the topic to the class in a collaborative way.

'Black English': How AAVE Developed From Slave Resistance & African Dialects | The Breakdown

Regional English Words

If given the opportunity as instructional designers or instructors, we should learn from students’ cultural differences and modify design plans or lessons and ways of training to incorporate relevant lessons that speak to an aspect of their cultural identities. This will encourage learners to engage in social interactions as they feel a desire to impart a point of view. With the cross-cultural approach to learning comes some hesitancy when introducing learners to each other’s culture, regional dialects, experiences and unique languages within the learning setting.

Create the Learning Environment you Want to See

Today, society is functioning at a fast-paced collaborative cross-cultural approach, why should the classroom be any different? “Instructional designers and teaches can predictably influence motivation and volition by simply applying a systematic process of design. Using theories of learning like imitative learning, instructed learning and collaborative learning,” (Reiser & Dempsey, 2018).

One of the questions I recall hearing from fellow learners in every phase of learning is “how can I use this in real life?” You finally have your answer, no matter the subject or age group use cross cultural learning to connect the learning to a real-world example or problem. Giving learners no matter the age a practical application for the information they’ve acquired positively reinforces their passion to learn. Embed culturally relevant content. “As teachers, we do not only impart content. We do more than that. We try to build capacity and empower students to learn for themselves (Penman, J., & Ellis, B. ,2009).”

Creating lessons and crafting environments for cross-cultural learning to take place gives learners the skills they need to critically engage with global issues and keeps them engaged through cultural engagement in collaborative learning spaces. Implementing cross-cultural learning in the learning environment and the workplace helps people develop better communication and problem-solving skills, greater innovation, provides competitive advantages, and builds trust.

Implementing New Behaviors

Introducing cross cultural learning and training in the early learning classroom setting works to develop a learners equipped with “self-efficacy” according to Reiser and Dempsey (2018) people can plan and implement behaviors that will result in successful goals. Applied over the course of their entire educational career these skills intrinsically motivate and encourage learners.

Cross Cultural learning is defined by Interlink International Institutes as a learning method by which learners “increases students' intellectual understanding of their own and other cultures; it enhances one's knowledge of the norms, values, and behaviors that exist in cultures. And it allows the student both to discern and communicate cultural differences with sensitivity and confidence.”

When learners inside or outside of the classroom setting master cross-cultural learning it serves to equip them to be able to receive, interpret and implement information in less stressful way. Cross cultural learning offers a unique skillset that proves useful in everyday instances of what Carla Oonk refers to as “boundary crossing” (Oonk, 2016). Boundary crossing refers to individuals “working and learning across practices…to tackle complex problems (Oonk, 2016).” The theory of boundary crossing focuses on educating learners in curiosity driven, effective learning environments that facilitates “individual learners as being a part of different practices simultaneously” (Akkerman & Van Eijck, 2013; Bronkhorst & Akkerman, 2016; Konkola et al., 2007), making the concept of learning for an individual a process that is able to be moved across multiple disciplines of study at the same time, not solely focused on just one area at a time thereby creating a greater opportunity to find meaning and learn from greater perspectives.

Conclusive Observations on Trends in Cross-Cultural Learning

The use of technology in bridging the cultural divide and connecting students and instructors in ongoing feedback of cultural learning. Engaging in a more progressive form of learning highlights aspects of social reconstruction acquired inside the learning environment but adaptable to real world problem solving. The hope of the future is aiming to create learning environments that foster global citizens.

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