Cultural Diversity and NVC

Spring 2009

Aims and Outcomes

Aim: To build on the introduction to NVC in previous module, this time in the context of promoting cultural diversity

Outcomes: learners to be able to:• Understand the importance of quality measures for

promoting cultural diversity• Have an awareness of recent policy initiatives for

colleges to help prevent violent terrorism• Have practised methods of discussing difference without

making judgements • Have explored responses to potential conflict in class

Policy Background

• Speech_by_David_Bell_HMCI_further_education_The_first_Ofsted_inspection_cycle_and_the_way_ahead_(Word_format).doc

• Common_Inspection_Framework_for_inspecting_education_and_training_(Word_format).doc

• Cornwall College Ofsted monitoring 2009.pdf• Ofsted to inspect cultural diversity in schools.pdf• FE and terrorism from Guardian.doc

Link to this module

• Examine and critically evaluate ways in which equality of opportunity and respect for diversity can be built into teaching and learning practice. (WPP 1.2)

Paired activity – can you explain, as if to an Ofsted inspector, how you build respect for diversity into your teaching?

Reading exercise –Mixed blessings

What strategies can/do you use to extract meaning

from a fairly long and complex article like this?• Study picture• Skim read and then re-read• Look for key words/sentences• Read beginning and end first• Highlight important points• Make notes – summarise – mind map – flow chart

Communicating about cultural difference

• Look at these three pictures

• Jot down thoughts/reactions

• Why do you think I have shown them to you?

Being criticised for your culture

• Divide into two groups – one will be English and one will be ‘foreigners’

• Scenario is a social get together for people on a computers for beginners course

• ‘Foreigners’ to go out and prepare – come in, find an English person to talk to and respond to their question

• English people to start by asking: ‘So what do you think of England then?’ – then react to answer

• Back to whole group – how did it feel to be criticised for basic cultural practices?

Respectful communication

• Remember Non-Violent Communication?

• How could it help here?

• The first stage of the NVC process is to observe without judging

• Can you re-phrase the comments on English hygiene habits so that they are non-judgemental? (but still explore difference)

How do we react to difference?

• Look at these pictures• Note your reactions/thoughts• Why have I shown you these pictures? • What do we/our students find difficult to

understand/accept about some aspects of cultural practices linked to some Muslim communities?

• In groups of 3 practice asking someone from a Muslim community about their culture without being judgemental – How did you find this?

Using empathetic listening to tackle anger and prejudice

• Read the extract by Marshall Rosenberg

• In threes check you understand the method he is explaining

• Can you see how using these techniques of empathetic listening and reflecting back could help deal with difficult situations in your classes?

Possible scenarios

• Responding to a story in the news, one of your students says loudly ‘You can’t trust any of them, all Muslims are terrorists’

• An English born and bred student from a Pakistani background aggressively tells you they will support any team against England in the world cup

Summary – what have you learnt?

This slide set has been released as part of the OSIER project, which is promoting the use of resources to support the training of practitioners in Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship within the curricula of all of the home nations of the United Kingdom. You can find out more about the project on the ‘About’ page of the project repository site, http://osier.ac.uk. OSIER is part of the second round of the UK OER (Open Educational Resources) programme, funded by HEFCE and administered by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). The resource forms part of ‘Outside the Green Box: Embedding Education for Sustainable Development in Teacher Training’ by Dr Denise Summers, Johanna Wright, Dianne Dowling, Chris Savory and Ros Spain , and copyright resides with the University of Plymouth. Any images or other materials are original unless stated otherwise. Copyright images may be excluded from the Creative Commons licence described below. See http://www.edu.plymouth.ac.uk/esd/Index.html and  Summers D. (2010) 'Embedding Education for Sustainable Development in Initial Teacher Training in the Lifelong Learning Sector.' Teaching in Lifelong Learning, Vol 2 (1), 35-46

The resource is made freely available under Creative Commons licence BY-NC-SA which allows you to use this material for any purpose as long as you:

• acknowledge the original author• do not use it for commercial purposes• publish any derived materials under the same licence conditions

You can find out more about this licence at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

September 2011