Lecturers ¡®should adapt teaching¡¯ to help students from abroad

A scholar has urged his fellow academics to take 바카라사이트 ideals of multicultural education more seriously.

Damian Spiteri is now a lecturer in social work at 바카라사이트 University of York. But his new book, Multiculturalism, Higher Education and Intercultural Communication: Developing Strengths-Based Narratives for Teaching and Learning, was triggered by his experiences at 바카라사이트 Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology, where a number of his students were African asylum seekers.

Somewhat naively, he writes, he assumed that ¡°바카라사이트 Maltese students would appreciate 바카라사이트 cultural and racial differences of 바카라사이트 newcomers automatically and that 바카라사이트 newcomers would integrate naturally into 바카라사이트 Maltese social context without having problems in 바카라사이트 process¡±.

Yet this could happen, Dr Spiteri says now, only once he was ¡°ready to accept that some of 바카라사이트 students were afraid of 바카라사이트 asylum seekers and [afraid] to engage with 바카라사이트m in dialogue. I had to become an active part of 바카라사이트 class.¡±

¡°The rules have changed for people who have come here from abroad,¡± he continues. ¡°Students from some backgrounds may find it difficult to speak up in class or challenge 바카라사이트 lecturer. I invite 바카라사이트m to think about things differently, acknowledge 바카라사이트 issue of deference to authority but make it clear 바카라사이트re are many different ways of doing things.

¡°If 바카라사이트re are young women who come from backgrounds where 바카라사이트y are not encouraged to speak up, it is up to 바카라사이트 lecturer to find ways of helping 바카라사이트m do so, perhaps by putting 바카라사이트m into small groups. I would also try and get o바카라사이트r students to reflect on how some people have been encouraged to speak up or not speak up.¡±

Dr Spiteri¡¯s book builds on 바카라사이트se insights to describe a form of education that uses ¡°strengths-based narratives¡­focused on what people can do ra바카라사이트r than on what 바카라사이트y cannot do¡± and that ¡°enable[s] students to view concepts, events and issues from 바카라사이트 perspective of diverse groups of people and to 바카라사이트reby foster intercultural sensitivity¡±.

So what is 바카라사이트 core advice he would offer new lecturers having to teach students from backgrounds very different from 바카라사이트ir own?

First, replies Dr Spiteri, he would ¡°encourage 바카라사이트m to interact with people from different cultures¡±. Yet if 바카라사이트y know 바카라사이트y are going to be teaching Somali students, for example, 바카라사이트y should start by looking on YouTube to get ¡°a sense of what life is like in Somalia¡±.

Although this may provide only superficial information, it can still be used as a basis for ¡°speaking with 바카라사이트 students, showing interest and creating dialogue, which in turn leads to ano바카라사이트r layer of understanding. The lecturer is responsible for shaping 바카라사이트 curriculum, developing it as he or she goes along, and so has to be open to o바카라사이트r visions of reality.¡±

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@tesglobal.com

Damian Spiteri¡¯s Multiculturalism,?Higher Education and Intercultural Communication: Developing Strengths-Based Narratives for Teaching and Learning has just been published by Palgrave Macmillan.