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Challenges and Opportunities in International Classrooms

Towards an Intercultural Perspective and Practice at the University

Over the past decade, the typical Dutch university classroom has turned into an international and ethnically diverse classroom. About 1/3 of our current students are either international or ethnic minority students. This comes with opportunities for more critical thinking and intercultural exchange, but also with challenges such as lower feelings of inclusion and worse (perceived) performance.

However, empirical evidence is accumulating that the challenges can be (partially) overcome by adopting a pluralist/intercultural approach that acknowledges difference as a resource instead of as a deficit for learning. Capitalising on interdisciplinary insights, the current project developed and implemented a 3-year trajectory of change toward a more inclusive learning environment.

It simultaneously targeted different levels (lecturers, students, curriculum, communication) by training lecturers and students’ diversity knowledge and skills via multiple workshops and by developing tools to critically assess and ultimately optimise both the curriculum and communication in terms of their inclusivity and interculturalism.

  • Presentation for the College and GS directors and CDO on February 8 2023
  • Recording presentation [link]
  • Presentation dissemination seminar September 23 2022 in OBA [link pdf]

Output

To implement the foreseen multi-levelled trajectory of change toward an intercultural (pluralist) perspective and practice at our faculty, the projectteam has developed and implemented:

  • 1. Workshops for lecturers

    Three workshops for lecturers on

    1. their own cultural assumptions and taking a “culturally informed, not knowing” stance;
    2. intercultural communication; and iii) concrete hands-on tools to teach from a pluralist perspective.[NHS1] 

     [NHS1]De presentaties (in pdf) zijn van workshop 1 en 3. Workshop 2 had niet zoveel meerwaarde, dus misschien niet melden op deze website?

  • 2. Workshop for students on diversity knowledge and reflexive skills

    One workshop with an accompanying train-the-trainer programme to enhance students’ diversity knowledge and reflexive skills as well as to affirm how (their own) diverse backgrounds are a "resource" instead of "deficit" to learning.

  • 3. Curriculum scan

    A curriculum scan that assessed the content and didactics of the first-year curriculum, both via document-analysis and interviews, thereby critically reflecting on how much non-WEIRD (White-Educated-Industrialized-Rich-Democratic) perspectives and diversity-rich pedagogical practices are included. [Link PDF report curriculumscan]

  • 4. Communication scan

    A communication scan that assessed FMG’s official communication on diversity, via content coding of both letters to students and faculty websites, thereby formulating suggestions for a rather intercultural than (current) colour-blind approach to diversity.  [Link PDF codebook communication scan]

  • 5. A yearly monitor assessing the UvA FMG diversity climate.

    The content of all above described workshops and tools is based on the state-of-the-art empirical literature on diversity in social and cultural psychology and educational sciences.

About the diversity monitors

The diversity monitors resulted in three empirical articles. They focus on i) how diversity approaches matter for international classrooms (De Leersnyder, Gündemir & Ağırdağ, 2021); ii) how international students’ sense of inclusion can be increased by more diverse curricula (Gündemir & De Leersnyder, 2023); and iii) the impact of the lecturer workshops (Boiger & De Leersnyder, 2023[NHS1] ).

 [NHS1]Laatste twee artikelen moeten dus nog gepubliceerd worden, liggen ter beoordeling

  • Literature
    • Celeste, L. Baysu, G., Phalet, K., Meeussen, L. & Kende, J (2019). Can school diversity policies reduce belonging and achievement gaps between minority and majority youth? Multiculturalism, colorblindness, and assimilationism assessed. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 45(11), 1603
    • Markus, H. R., Steele, C. M., & Steele, D. M. (2000). Colorblindness as a barrier to inclusion: Assimilation and nonimmigrant minorities. Daedalus, 129(4), 233-259
    • Schachner, M. K. (2017). From equality and inclusion to cultural pluralism–Evolution and effects of cultural diversity perspectives in schools. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 1-17
    • Stephens, N. M., Fryberg, S. A., Markus, H. R., Johnson, C., & Covarrubias, R. (2012). Unseen disadvantage: How American universities’ focus on independence undermines the academic performance of first-generation college students. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 1178–1197.
    • Strayhorn, T. L. (2012). College students’ sense of belonging: a key to educational success. New York: Routledge[NHS1]