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Notre Dame Workshop
Earth Principles
Differentiation: the
uniqueness of the Universe’s
beings
• The Universe consists of differentiated
centers- articulated energy constellations
(example: Fire ball differentiates into
galaxies; stars differentiate into solar
systems) Everything is different from
everything else – not uniform homogenous
sludge. The Universe is varied and
diversified. Everything has its uniqueness.
Subjectivity
• Subjectivity (Interiority – Individuality):
The depth of the Universe’s beings
• The Universe consists of subjects with an
interior dimension. Everything that exists
has an interior reality – depth, sentience,
numinosity.
Communion (Community Unity)
• The interrelationships of the Universe’s
beings
• The Universe is a communion experience
taking place in a multiplicity of centers.
Everything is related to everything else.
“To be” is to be involved in the primordial
web – communication, sharing, relationship.
The Universe is one united, interacting,
developing organism.
Cosmological principles of the
Earthview perspective of teaching
and leadership:
1. Everything is connected.
2. Order/hierarchy is circular.
Everything is interdependent and
interrelated as a valuable
contribution to the whole. Human
beings have a special role of choice
and responsibility.
Earth Principles
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Rather that in a static existence, the
universe continually unfolds and emerges
in time and space. All creatures are part
of this process. Once an event takes
place, it is irreversible.
Participation in life is not an choice
Life reacts to directives.
Earth Principles
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Human beings create their own
interpretation of reality.
A living system becomes healthier
by connecting it more to itself.
Note: Adapted from Swimme, B., & Berry, T.
(1992) the Universe Story: From the primordial
flaring forth to the ecozoic era—a celebration
of the cosmos. New York: Harper Collins. (See
also Senge, 1990 and Wheatley, 1999)
Everything is connected!
• We are all part of the “Great Story”
• The Universe principles of
Differentiation (diversity)
Subjectivity ( individuality) and
Communion or Community are part of
each of us and all life.
Culture
• Definition-one of many, many choices
• A property of a group—shared
collective meaning system through
which the group’s collective values
attitudes, beliefs, customs, and
thoughts are understood.
•
Culture, continued
• Culture is an emergent property—
that is comes forth through the
members’ social interaction and,
• A determinant of how the group’s
members communicate
Culture, continued
• Culture may be taken to be a
consensus about the meanings of
symbols, verbal and nonverbal, held
by the members of a community.
Intergroup Perspective
• How people identify with groups
• How other identify people as members of
groups
• How groups define themselves and are
defined by others
• How groups separate from and/or compare
themselves with other groups.
•
(Hecht, Jackson, &Pitts, 2005)
Culture:
Layers of Meaning
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Structure/Patterns
Functions
Process
Product
Refinement
Group membership
Power/Ideology
Implications for
Educators:
• Culture is a lens through which we view the
world
• Distinguishing feature – cultural values
shared by group not necessarily the
individual
• Cultural values persist – even though not
expressed consistently
• Culture is a dynamic process – change over
time.
Culture General
Framework
• Developed by Richard Brislin for use
in International business
interactions.
• Critical incidents developed by
Kenneth Cushner for us in multiple
cross-cultural situations including the
classroom.
Eighteen Categories on the
Cultural General Framework
• People’s intense Feelings:
– Anxiety: A common response to
uncertainty, differs from fear in that
fear is specific. In setting where there
are various cultures, anxiety may occur
when one does not know how to act or
respond. Examples?
Framework:
People’s emotional response
• Discomfirmed Expectations: People
enter most situations with cetain
expectations. Teachers have certain
culturally based expectations of
student’s behavior, motivation, and
values.
• Administration and Staff do as well
Framework, continued
• Disconfirmed Expectations:Students
also expect that the adults with
whom they interact will behave in
culturally predictable ways.
• Belonging: People need to belong, to
find their niche in the setting, to
feel accepted.
Framework, continued
• Belonging: Students and parents
from other cultures want to feel
accepted in the school setting but
often don’t because they are
“outsiders.” In school this need must
be recognized and understood in
order for these students to feel
apart and accepted.
Framework, continued
• Ambiguity: Appropriate behavior in a
cross-cultural context may be
difficult due to ambiguous stimuli.
Students form different cultures
may place an incorrect meaning on
cures form their peers or teachers.
Teachers, too, may misunderstand
their students’ behavior.
Framework, continued
• Confronting One’s Prejudice:
Prejudice serves various functions
for individuals and can be found in
many forms. Ethnocentrism and prior
prejudices may emerge even within
well-intentioned individuals in the
best of situations. These prejudices
may not be helpful in the classroom.
Knowledge Areas of
Framework
• People are socialized within their own
culture and learn certain “correct” ways of
doing things. Some of these “correct” ways
are identified in the themes of this
category.
• Work: Differences exist between
attitudes toward work, the locus of
control and proper relationship between
on-task effort and social interaction.
Framework, continued
• Work: Expectations concerning
school work are critical to academic
achievement and are subject to wide
cultural differences. Such
expectation are central to the
evaluation of students’ and staff
work and may have a major effect on
success or failure.
Framework, continued
• Time and Space: The classic crosscultural concepts of time and proper
spatial orientation for difference
interpersonal encounters vary greatly
from culture to cultural. Time orientation
issues are seen in the school context when
students come late to school or meetings
or have difficulty with deadlines.
Framework, continued
• Spatial Orientation: These issues
may emerge when some students
appear to crowd the teacher or are
labeled as “pushy,” when in fact they
are only seeking a comfortable
interpersonal space. This can be true
when meeting parents, as well.
Framework, continued
• Language: Attitudes toward language
use and the difficulties of learning
language as it is actually spoken
versus how it is “read from a book”
cause problems for all students
whose second language is English. It
also causes a problem for teachers.
Framework, continued
• Roles: Role expectations between
cultures vary considerably. Gender,
status, family, and situational role
variations may result in strained and
confusing interactions at school.
Framework, continued
• Value of group vs. individual allegiances:
Perhaps the most potent cross-cultural
difference is the way people orient
themselves to others along the continuum
from individualistic to collective. This has
a very distinct effect on types of learning
situations that are successful for
different groups.
Framework, continued
• Allegiances: These allegiances help us
understand and predict individual
learning behaviors in the classroom.
• Rituals and Superstitions: One
culture’s “intelligent practices” are
often considered another culture’s
rituals and superstitions.
Framework, continued
• Rituals and Superstitions: A
student’s behavior may seem off or
unacceptable , but it may be
perfectly normal in his or her own
cultural contact. Understanding and
negotiation better here than
punishment.
Framework, continued
• Hierarchies: Class and Status. The relative
importance of class distinctions and
markers of high versus low status differ
widely from culture to culture. Wide shifts
in status, either up or down, and
misinterpretation of status markers may
cause severe adjustment problems when
people move to a new or different culture.
Framework, continued
• Values: Understanding internalized
views—is a critical cross-cultural
adjustment. Making accurate
attributions about students’ behavior
depends on understanding their
values. One need not agree with
another’s values to understand them
Framework: The Bases of
Cultural Differences
• Categorization: People receive
literally millions of stimuli a day;
responding to each separate stimulus
would be difficult if not impossible.
So – we categorize the stimuli into
groups and respond to the group.
Framework, continued
• Categorization: People of different
cultures learn to place the same
elements of information into
different categories, which often
causes confusion when trying to learn
and live across cultures.
Framework, continued
• Differentiation: Categories themselves
contain much information that must be
ordered. One’s culture determines how
finer distinctions are made within groups.
In school cultures, teachers not only know
how to teach reading but know and can
differentiate between several methods of
teaching reading.
Framework, continued
• Differentiation: Differentiation of more
and more information within a given
knowledge area can cause confusion.
• In-group-Out-group Distinction: Outgroup members must recognize there are
some in-groups behaviors in which they
can never participate.
Framework, continued
• In-group-Out-group: If new and old
students alike recognize this fact,
the can avoid the hurt and anguish
that comes of coveting some thing
they can never have.
Framework, continued
• Learning Styles: The style in which
people learn best differs from
culture to culture. It is most helpful
for school administrators and
teachers to recognize the culturally
based learning preferences of their
students to ensure that optimum
learning will take place.
Framework, continued
• Attribution: People observe the behavior
of others and reflect upon their own
behavior. Judgments about the causes of
behavior are called attributions.
Inaccurate or faulty attributions underlie
many intercultural misunderstandings. The
object of this framework is to help make
this possible.
Framework - final
• Isomorphic Judgments: When an
attribution I give to a behavior is, in
fact, the actual reason for the
behavior, this judgment is called
“Isomorphic” – alike in shape and
form. This is something to strive for
in the classroom.
Critical Incidents
• Break up into groups of fours
• Each group receives an actual
incident that needs interpretation
for the best possible response.
• Check responses, choose one,
identify framework categories on
which you base your choice.
Critical Incidents
• Discuss choices
• Read choices from the author as to which
would be “isomorphic” and discuss whether
your choices were the same.
• What categories does he cite from the
framework?
• Reporting back to the group
Stories
• “Anyone who tells a story speaks a world
into being.” Michael E. Williams
• Story as the foundation of everything:
the stories we tell ourselves determine
how we see the world and our place in it.
• Stories about various cultures give us
insight into the reasons for how they think
and why they act.
Recent Fiction
• The Help – Kathryn Stockett
• Based on the lives of maids in the
1960’s in Jackson, Mississippi
• Little Bee – Chris Cleave
• Based on the difference between a
Nigerian refugee and a British family.
• Others?
This is “our” Story.
We are all one and helping our students to
understand one another is a great gift to all on
Earth.
Questions, comments
• Thank you for participating in this
workshop.
• If you would like any of the material
as handouts, please request them
electronically from me at:
• [email protected].