Pedagogic Research The Nature of CrossCultural Teaching and Learning

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Pedagogic ResearchThe Nature of Cross-Cultural
Teaching and Learning

• Dr. Alison Morrison
• University of Strathclyde

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION

• Overall project management Dr. Alison Morrison,
  Director of Research
• Research Principal Dr. Dennis Nickson, Iran
  Programme Manager
• Research Principal Bill Johnston, Centre for
  Academic Practice

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PROJECT BACKGROUND

• In 1999 The Scottish Hotel School (SHS)
  established an offshore higher education
  provision in Tehran
• Students complete a two-year diploma devised by
  SHS delivered by Iranian lecturers
• SHS personnel deliver the third year in Tehran
  leading to a BA Hotel Hospitality Management
  degree

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PEDAGOGIC ISSUES

• Quality assurance
• Cross-cultural dimensions
• Offshore challenges
• Geographically volatile environment
• Politically charged following 1979 Islamic
  Revolution
• Current Iraq war situation

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PROJECT AIMS

• Investigate the impact of cross-cultural features
  at a micro-level within the context of the
  learning teaching environment
• Examine the implications of widening
  participation in higher education
  cross-culturally
• Analyse appropriate innovative effective
  learning teaching practices

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PROJECT OBJECTIVES

• Culturally align learning teaching approaches
  that achieve stated educational objectives
• Formulate learning teaching strategies that
  explicitly recognise address the diversity of
  cultural profiles
• Provide an evidence-based example of innovative
  effective learning teaching methods with
  reference to QAA frameworks

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PROJECT METHODOLOGYPhase 1

• Review associated documentation
• Course design
• Class outlines
• Teaching packages
• QAA evaluation reports
• Samples of student coursework
• Minutes of review boards etc.

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PROJECT METHODOLOGYPhase 2

• Fieldwork Tehran
• Focus groups with the total first cohort of 38
  student
• In-depth taped interviews with a sample of 5 of
  the students
• Focus groups with Iranian lecturers senior
  staff within the educational institute

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STUDENT EXPERIENCE
The induction programme in my opinion was very
good professional and it made us think that
Strathclyde really cared about us..
They taught us how to be more in control of
what we learn through asking questions and being
more active in and out the classroom to find out
information to help our studies.
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STUDENT EXPERIENCE
Our teacher was different from Iranian
teachers.. if I wanted them to help me out of
class, I could run to them with a question and
they would spend time helping me to understand
things
I was used to memorising the lessons and then
come to the exam and just write like a parrot and
this escapes from your mind very easily
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PROJECT METHODOLOGYPhase 3

• Fieldwork SHS
• Taped in-depth interviews with all SHS staff who
  had been involved in the management delivery of
  the programme in Tehran
• Written reflections from each of these persons
  reflecting on the key issues challenges they
  encountered following the surfacing of trains
  of thought in the interview
• Focus group to discuss findings from two stages
  above to consider implications for future

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TEACHER EXPERIENCES
..one of the issues is the challenge to
professionalism I was a female teaching in a
very male dominated environmentpersonnel seem
determined to undermine professionalism
There was excellent social interaction within
the group which didnt have a gendered image
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TEACHER EXPERIENCES
Using teaching materials of western origin
didnt cause a problem, in fact the students were
perhaps more interested because I was a foreign
teacher rather than someone perpetuating what was
happening in Iran.
It is a culture of an intelligent nation that
has gone through turbulent times. There is an
extremist approach to organising society but
what you see now is the emergence of a generation
that is questioning these values.
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PROJECT METHODOLOGYPhase 4

• Analysis, synthesis, conclusions
  recommendations
• Currently this is on-going

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SOME EARLY FINDINGS

• Professionalism in course design practice of
  teaching learning as important as staff/student
  cultural background
• Fundamental human aspects of the learning
  alliance such as rapport, trust, reliability,
  commitment ambition appear to have been
  significant in achieving a genuine breaking down
  of cultural barriers
• Attention to the practical and pedagogical
  features of offshore micro culture context is
  crucial

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SOME MORE EARLY FINDINGS

• The nature of critical thinking its explicit
  positioning in offshore, cross-cultural teaching
  programmes may provide a major focus in future
  development of teaching learning strategies
• Given the nexus of global, international,
  regional and local relationships represented in
  the discipline of hospitality management it would
  seem essential to develop a strong sense of cross
  cultural influences in teaching the
  socio-political dimensions of the field of study

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EXPECTED OUTCOMES

• Development of teaching learning strategies
  practices that are transferable generalisable
  within wider international HE environment
• Enhancement of learning teaching methods within
  HLST subject specific areas
• Understanding knowledge contribution to the
  nature of cross-country offshore teaching