“Passive Asian Students”? A Cross-Cultural Examination of Humility in Education

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 4:55 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Reimagining Student Autonomy and Voice (Table 12)

Abstract

This paper challenges the stereotype of “passive Asian students” by examining cross-cultural differences in views of humility in education. The aim is to examine assumptions about expressing humility to shed light on cross-cultural differences and articulate capacities and virtues that are not well understood in western academia. Exploring humility cross-culturally helps us understand how our perspectives are not universal but learned. This means that in a diverse classroom, there can be miscommunications. In western classrooms, some perceive that Asian students are being passive in an unhelpful way. Yet these students are being active in engaging in a learning style that has makes sense to them. Thus, exploring humility cross-culturally can help us understand classroom dynamics in a different way.

Author

• Liz Jackson, University of Hong Kong