What's your point?
Phil Stiles, Head of Society & Culture at University of
Leicester Global Study Centre, explains how examining
viewpoints is crucial in Intercultural Studies.
The world is shrinking. Two hundred years before the Industrial Revolution, there was neither the technology for travel (the average speed was 10mph by land or sea), nor communication. Thus, most people remained unaware of the greater world around them.
In 2021, however, with instant connections available to an ever-increasing proportion of the global population, the world is starting to resemble the late Marshall McLuhan’s ‘global village’*.
As teachers in international education, we know first-hand how easy it is to offend by placing our viewpoint above that of others. With experience and time, we learn to be more sensitive to the different perspectives our students bring to the classroom. It is neither easy, nor is it something we get right every time. For students, however, a multi-ethnic classroom is fraught with the possibility of losing face or giving offence. Students may be aware of the need for change but can find the process daunting.
In a 2019 University of Brighton-published paper titled Decolonising the curriculum: Teaching and Learning about race equality,
Fine Arts teacher Naomi Salaman makes the point that if we are to become inclusive, we need to consider how society developed. She writes that this consideration ‘provokes an interrogation of taken-for-granted narratives that have dominated education and shaped society’.
This concept lies at the heart of Intercultural Studies. By considering that ‘the many lenses between us and others – lenses of personality, class, educational background, gender, professional experience and race – can obscure the other person’s perspective’, as argued by Advance HE’s Marita Grimwood, students can examine how identity is shaped and maintained. In so doing, they become aware of differing norms and mores; a crucial part of breaking down cultural barriers and displacing ethnocentric viewpoints.
As such, Intercultural Studies is not only a course that plays an essential part in facilitating entry to higher education, but also genuinely inclusive, allowing an exchange of ideas in which the tutor may benefit as much as the students.