Fred Dervin

Yasmine Abbas

Digital technologies of the self

Saija Benjamin

The concept of Third Culture Kids is often used to describe people who have spent their childhood on the move, living in many different countries and languages. This book examines the hype, relevance and myths surrounding the concept while also redefining it within a broader study of transnationality to demonstrate the variety of stories involved.

Beyond Third Culture Kids

Migration, Diversity, and Education

Andreas Jacobsson

This book deals with the importance of interculturality in teacher education and training. It is mostly through the concept of intercultural competence that interculturality has been constructed and problematized for educators. However, different approaches and paradigms are available and differ and/or share similarities in terms of ideology, method, practice, theoretical frameworks, and ethical considerations. There is no global agreement on the meanings of interculturality in teacher education and training, although some principles might be common across national borders. There is thus a need for educators to consider these aspects of interculturality in education to be able to become better teachers in a diverse world like ours.

Teacher Education for Critical and Reflexive Interculturality

Inspired by the “technologies of the self” theorized by Michel Foucault in the early 1980s, this volume investigates how contemporary individuals fashion their identity/identities using digital technologies such as ambient intelligent devices, social networking platforms and online communities (Facebook, CouchSurfing and craigslist), online gaming (SilkRoad Online, Oblivion and World of Warcraft), podcasts, etc. With high-speed internet access, ubiquitous computing and generous storage capacity, the opportunities for staging and transforming the self/selves have become nearly limitless. This book explores how technologies contribute to the expression, (co-)construction and enactment of identities. It examines these issues from various perspectives as it brings together insights from different disciplines – design, discourse analysis, philosophy and sociology.

Digital Technologies of the Self

Xiangyun Du

Anu Härkönen

As the number of international students in Chinese higher education increases steadily, this volume is one of the first to focus on their many and varied experiences. With contributions focusing on such topics as intercultural adaptation, soft power and interculturality, language learning strategies and the intercultural, and transformations in perspective, this volume provides the reader with a broad overview of the latest advances in the field of interculturality and study abroad. While the book will appeal to a global audience of researchers, practitioners and students with an interest in Chinese higher education, it will also be of interest to all those who remain intrigued by conceptual and methodological issues of interculturality.

Education, Student Life and Intercultural Encounters

International Students in China

Tuija Itkonen

This volume aims to stimulate interest in the under?researched role of silent partners (SPs) in multicultural education. Silent partners include formal and informal places?spaces in schools (e.g. architecture, classroom facilities, libraries, corridors, playgrounds, canteens), objects (e.g. teaching aids, furniture, wall decorations and overall interior design), interactive technologies (use of devices and applications) but also often taken?for?granted and not immediately visible patterns of thought, ideologies and assumptions. People involved in education all engage and work with a number of SPs that contribute to the delivery of curricula, but also to social life and well?being in and out of schools. The way places?spaces, objects and technologies influence the school community’s experiences of learning, well?being and social justice is rarely observed and problematised in education – hence the adjective ‘silent’ in the term ‘silent partners’. This book not only fills a significant empirical gap, but it can also inject public debate over future working environments in schools for multicultural education. It will be relevant to both researchers interested in developing their knowledge on these issues from a different perspective but also educators in search of inspiration for multicultural education. Praise for Silent Partners in Multicultural Education: “How to organize your classroom’s configuration in such a manner that all pupils feel welcome and comfortable? While most of those invested in multicultural education focus on the optimization of various linguistic aspects, Itkonen, Dervin and their colleagues give voice to the non?verbal aspects of education. In this book they elaborate how formal and informal places?spaces in schools can unintentionally reflect ideologies and cultural assumptions. They illustrate this perspective with telling examples that come from what is widely perceived as one of the best educational systems in the world. This book is an important, innovative contribution to the question of inclusion of all pupils in our school systems. It provides an eye?opening perspective to researchers in the field, teachers, principals and stakeholders willing to work for social justice in their schools”. ~ Emmanuelle Le Pichon, Vorstman, Researcher and Assistant Professor, Languages, Literature and Communication Department, Utrecht Institute of Linguistics “Congratulations are in order for this ground breaking and significant book. As the editors and authors convey convincingly and often poignantly, multicultural education is an increasingly politicised phenomenon that needs all the friends and allies that it can garner. The book's coverage of silent partners in education ? objects and technologies operating in specific places and spaces ? is therefore timely. Yet, as the book also highlights, these silent partners can exert negative power as well as positive influence on educational outcomes. The book presents a compelling account of the fundamental ambivalence framing these partners and formal educational provision more broadly. Rendering these silent educational partners visible and open to scrutiny is a significant scholarly achievement by the Education for Diversities Research Group in the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Helsinki, Finland, building on their well?deserved reputation for exploring the implicit and tacit and yet impactful dimensions of intercultural education and understanding. The book is appropriately diverse and inclusive in its concerns, with attention being directed at education in Finland, France, and the United States. Likewise the coverage traverses international and national schools, higher education, teacher education and productive methodologies for researching silent partners. This innovative and thought?provoking volume is highly recommended for its originality in helping us to see education for diversities in a new and powerful light.” ~ Patrick Alan Danaher, Professor in Educational Research in the School of Linguistics, Adult and Specialist Education, Associate Dean (Research and Research Training) in the Faculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts, Toowoomba campus of the University of Southern Queensland, Australia; Adjunct Professor in the School of Education and the Arts, Central Queensland University, Australia. “Silent partners do not only reflect the ways we conceive of education but they also influence our practices as educators. Being silent, they are often taken for granted. The strength of this book lies in its critical questioning of the notion of silent partners. The chapters enlighten about the untold and the effects they have in an educational environment. The readers, especially in the fields of education and social justice, will definitely acquire a more sensitive perception of how silent partners affect our approaches to multicultural education.” ~ Dr. Regis Machart, Senior Lecturer, Universiti Putra Malaysia; Adjunct Professor, University of Helsinki, Finland

Silent Partners in Multicultural Education

Ning Chen

Sude

Mei Yuan

This book urges readers to develop a radical capacity to unthink and rethink interculturality, through multiple, pluri-perspectival and honest dialogues between the authors, and their students. This book does not give interculturality a normative scaffolding but envisages it differently by identifying some of its polyphonic textures. China’s rich engagement with interculturality serves to support the importance of being curious about other ways of thinking about the notion beyond the ‘West’ only. As such, the issues of culture, identity, language, translation, intercultural competence and silent transformations (amongst others) are re-evaluated in a different light. This is a highly informative and carefully presented book, providing scientific insights for readers with an interest in interculturality.

Unthink, Dialogue and Rethink

Interculturality Between East and West

Julie S. Byrd Clark

With the impact of accelerated globalization, digital technologies, mobility, and migration, the fields of Applied Linguistics, Language, and Intercultural Education have been shifting. One shift in need of further exploration is that of systematic and coherent reflexivity in researching language and culture. This unique and timely book thus examines the significance of reflexivity as an integral process, particularly when researching the multifaceted notions of multilingualism and interculturality in education. It also contributes to current critical approaches to representations of languages and cultures in identity politics. As such, the authors offer innovative ways of engaging with reflexivity in teaching, learning, and research through multimodal and complex ways. The chapters span a diverse range of educational settings in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America.

Rethinking Multilingualism and Interculturality

Reflexivity in Language and Intercultural Education

Eija Suomela-Salmi

The goal of this volume is to examine academic discourse (AD) from cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspectives. The adjective "Cross-cultural" in the volume title is not just limited to national contexts but also includes a cross-disciplinary perspective. Twelve scientific fields are under scrutiny in the articles. One of the unique aspects of the volume is the inclusion of a variety of foreign languages (English (as a lingua franca), Spanish, French, Swedish, Russian, German, Italian, and Norwegian). Besides, in several articles dealing with oral AD, comparisons and parallels are also established with written AD. The research methodologies used in the studies are varied and they offer an overview of the diversity and richness of approaches to AD. All in all, it is hoped that the volume appeals not only to young researchers but also to confirmed scholars interested in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural aspects of AD. It will also be of interest to language teachers or teachers who are involved with e.g. international students and academic mobility.

Cross-linguistic and Cross-cultural Perspectives on Academic Discourse

Regis Machart

Minghui Gao

This volume revisits the notions of Orientalism, Occidentalism and, to a certain extent, Reverse Orientalism/Occidentalism in the 21st century, adopting post-modern, constructionist and potentially non-essentialising approaches. The representations of the ‘cultural Other’ in education, literature and the arts are examined by scholars working in Australia, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the USA. Vinyl compilations, TV series, novels, institutional discourses and surveys, amongst others, are examined so as to better understand how people construct their identity in relation to an imagined and idealised Other. This book will appeal to all researchers and students interested in cultural identity and stereotypes of the ‘East’ and the ‘West’, in particular in the fields of academic mobility, cultural studies, intercultural education, postcolonial literature and media studies.

New Orientalism, New Occidentalism, Old Exoticism

Intercultural Masquerade

Le nombre de couples interculturels ne cesse d'augmenter. La question du choix des langues est essentielle. Pour les couples de cette étude, c'est le recours à une langue autre que leur propre langue maternelle qui caractérise leur relation. Quelles incidences cela a-t-il sur les identités des couples en question ? Qu'en est-il des "cultures" ?

En finir vraiment avec la culture ?

Les identités des couples interculturels

Anahy Gajardo

Anne Lavanchy

Politics of Interculturality fulfills the need for a thorough and critical evaluation of the notion of interculturality. Taking institutional and educational discourses on the ‘intercultural’ as its main focus, the volume captures vigorous debates currently underway across four continents – the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania. The volume’s prominent and emerging scholars all agree that change is needed in the way interculturality is used and conceived, especially at a time when the ‘Other’ is an increasing issue of social concerns and political debates. The authors break with tradition by teasing out the hidden assumptions and implications of interculturality – making explicit the implicit presence of the tired old notion of ‘culture’. They also look to establish new ways of engaging with interculturality. The book will be of substantial interest to a wide range of readers who are interested in international communication, education, migration studies, critical race studies, cultural studies, anthropology, linguistics and business. Undergraduates and novice researchers will also find invaluable advice on how to research politics of interculturality.

Politics of Interculturality

China has awakened but is international education ready? Chinese students, teachers and staff are now familiar faces in universities around the world and this original volume examines their multifaceted experiences in Australia, Denmark, France, Japan, the UK and the US. The authors propose case studies that will appeal to an international audience interested in one of the most mobile populations in global Higher Education. By doing so they question some of the assumptions and misleading facts about Chinese students, teachers and staff abroad. This volume will serve both as a solid introduction and as a thorough review for more knowledgeable readers.

Experiencing Otherness

Chinese Educational Migration and Student-Teacher Mobilities

A major objective of this book is to identify the key determinants of the “East” and the “West” in the field of intercultural communication. It examines but also counter-attacks essentialist and culturalist analyses of intercultural communication between China and the rest of the world. Offering a cross-country examination and comparison of drought awareness and experience, this book shows two fields of research, which are complementary but rarely found side by side, i.e. the Arts and Intercultural Encounters, serve as illustrations for theoretical and methodological discussions about intercultural communication between China and the West. Scholarly and media discourses will find this work thought-provoking, instructive and informative.

Beyond (Reverse) Essentialism and Culturalism?

Intercultural Communication with China

The concept of culture has long been criticized, with many scholars reformulating it or discarding it entirely. The field of intercultural communication and relations, however, still relies on culture to examine interculturality and this volume provides a comprehensive examination of the problems that the concept poses today.

Fred Dervin

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