CIS Splash

Welcome back to Term Four and more importantly, onsite learning! It has been amazing to see and hear the children back at school. They certainly bring the energy to our school which has been so dearly missed over the recent months.  In the last few days we have watched as the students have reconnected with their peers and teachers and the pure joy it has bought to us all.

In our last newsletter, this piece focused on the work our school is undertaking with Dr Niranjan Casinder, a Senior Lecturer at Monash University in Curriculum and Assessment and specialises in the teaching of cultural understanding.  As mentioned in the last piece, the area of teaching cultural understanding relates to developing learners who can deal with a diverse range of people in a variety of settings.  In this area we have so far learned that there are three modes of being, multicultural, intercultural and transcultural.

Over the course of the next week, Dr Niranjan will continue his work with our staff to build their competency in teaching cultural understanding to GWPS students.  In the lead up to this work with our staff, I have been privy to a number of conversations with Niranjan about the key ideas that help to develop an individual’s cultural understanding.  It has been fascinating to hear Niranjan’s expertise in this area, as he has explained that how an individual thinks about different groups in society is as equally important as how they behave towards them. 

An individual with a deep cultural understanding (transcultural) is able to monitor and critique their own thinking in relation to the cultural values of other groups.  For example, a person who is able to accept that others will not necessarily hold the same values as them, however can recognise that these values are equally as valid as their own, is thinking in a way that can be considered transcultural.   

Alternatively, an individual who has shallow cultural understanding (multiculturalism), will generally not think about the values of other groups in society and largely tend to focus on surface characteristics of culture which can be seen, such as the food, skin colour, clothing and festivals. A person who is multicultural in their mode of thinking is able to recognise that there is other groups in society, and that living with them in harmony is important, however they are unable to make a deeper connection to their views or emotions. 

So, as we continue our journey in developing our cultural understanding as a school, we do so with great anticipation as to what the future holds.  In time the work completed with Dr Niranjan will filter down into the staff’s teaching and learning practices and ultimately set up our students to become effective members of the global community.