BSc Education / Course details

Year of entry: 2024

Course unit details:
Intercultural Learning

Course unit fact file
Unit code EDUC24062
Credit rating 20
Unit level Level 2
Teaching period(s) Semester 2
Offered by School of Environment, Education and Development
Available as a free choice unit? Yes

Overview

The unit will start with an exploration of theories in relation to culture and from here, the inherent topics regarding how different cultures conceptualize, and practice, learning. This will include a focus on culture from the broad to the narrow, involving, for example, the international and the local levels. Content will also involve a focus on linguistic issues such as pragmalinguistic errors and the influence of culture on language which leads to such, though the course unit will also include broader theory related to indigenous knowledge and meaning-making.

Aims

  • Introduce foundational concepts regarding the theory of culture, including relevant topics such as intra- and inter-cultural understanding and communication
  • Make students aware of the implications within an otherwise ‘global village’ of how culture and language are intertwined, and how this can lead to misunderstandings and pragmalinguistic errors within contexts of international communication
  • Introduce students to the issues involved with the different ways of conceptualizing, and understanding knowledge transmission within different cultures, such as oral versus written traditions
  • Allow students to consider the implications for ‘correct’ communication within the global reach of English, and its manifestations within outer and expanding circle countries

Teaching and learning methods

Interactive lectures supported by relevant e-learning tools (e.g. discussion board)

Knowledge and understanding

  • Develop a detailed understanding of the ways in which culture is realized on many levels, including both the intra- and inter-cultural levels
  • Likewise, develop a detailed understanding of how learning is conceptualized on several levels, such as Higher Education and community learning
  • Be able to synthesize the two foci of culture and learning and in doing so, have a better understanding of how culture and learning both reveal, and reinforce, each other

Intellectual skills

  • Apply critical reflection to approach culture from a more relativistic approach, in order to find solutions for more effective learning
  • Reflect on the role of culture and the ways in which it influences thought and identity, on both a personal and national level
  • Be enabled to consider their own learning approaches from a more conscious perspective and in doing so, understand how culture is realized within themselves from potentially multiple perspectives

Practical skills

  • Develop more autonomous research skills appropriate for third-year work, reflective of critical thinking and reasoning
  • Expand their capabilities in both written and oral communication through class discussion and written assessment
  • Develop an understanding of how culture, seen through a very detailed lens, is relevant to future professional careers and vocational contexts

Transferable skills and personal qualities

  • Present one’s ideas regarding culture from a more nuanced perspective, avoiding more Eurocentric views and thus avoiding a potential otherising of cultures viewed as ‘different’
  • Develop sensitivity to an increasingly multicultural world and environment, and the ways identities are played out within

Assessment methods

Method Weight
Written assignment (inc essay) 100%

Recommended reading

Banks, J. and Banks, C. (2015). Multicultural education. Oxford: Wiley.

Baratta, A. (2018). The role of world Englishes in the EFL classroom. Online resource.

Kohls, L.R. and Knight, J. (1994). Developing intercultural awareness. London:

     Intercultural Press.

Semali, L. (1999). What is indigenous knowledge? New York: Taylor & Francis.

Tett, L. and Fyfe, I. (2010). Community education, learning and development. Edinburgh:

     Dunedin Academic Press.

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures 50
Independent study hours
Independent study 150

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Alexander Baratta Unit coordinator

Additional notes

Activity Hours Allocated
Staff/student contact 50
Private study 80
Assessed work 50
Tutorials 20
Total 200

 

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