Sustainability, stability, and adaptation in transcultural learning environments

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Tuesday I)

Group Submission Type: Refereed Round-Table Session

Proposal

Sustainability does not imply stability. Change is the norm. As we move towards 2030 and beyond, the world faces numerous challenges from global warming and climate change to increased mobility and mass migration. It is no longer prudent to plan for change; we need to develop our ability to plan for change while we are in the midst of change. Education can no longer be limited just to local concerns but must also prepare people to be global citizens in an increasingly mobile world and to understand interests that are not their own.

Our panel consists of four doctoral candidates from the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary in Canada whose doctoral research addresses education in a world of constant change, increasing mobility, and transcultural development. Members of the panel will present their doctoral research, including critical literature reviews, theoretical frameworks, and implications of their studies.

The first presentation provides an exploration of the perspectives of Internationally Educated Nurses (IENs) about soft skills in the Canadian workplace, and how IENs conform to or resist soft skills in their everyday nursing practice.

The second presentation discusses the workplace learning experiences of settlement workers from governmental, institutional, and individual perspectives. The presenter discusses how settlement workers view the workplace as a site of learning.

The third presentation provides a comparison of the Western and Chinese approaches to the conceptualization of critical thinking, with a particular focus on the Chinese dialectical and Western critical thinking paradigms. The presenter also discusses critical thinking from the perspectives of Chinese university instructors.

The fourth and last presentation provides a review and analysis of the limited body of literature on intercultural education in a community-based English as a Second Language program. The study is a qualitative single case study framed within an intercultural model that addresses different perspectives.

The first two presentations focus on the voices of immigrants to Canada in the workplace. In these presentations, immigrants share stories of formal learning experiences both in their home countries and in Canada. They also reflect on informal learning experiences in the workplace and how both have shaped their sense of identity transitioning from learner to worker.

Presentations three and four focus on formal learning contexts. The third presentation focuses on Chinese university instructors’ perspectives of critical thinking among university students in China. The presenter’s study captures the voices of the university instructors who are teaching critical thinking. The presenter observed university classes to get first-hand experience of university instructors teaching critical thinking skills within their curricula. The fourth study was based in a city in Western Canada. The presentation includes the voices of low English proficiency immigrants about the role of intercultural learning and the importance learning about it has on their integration into society. Like the third presenter, the fourth presenter observed formal classes. Presenter four observed how instructors in a community-based ESL program approach teaching interculturality to newcomers.

While all four of the presentations focus on different topics, they share similar themes. First, they emphasize the voices of instructors, students, and workers in a society that is fast changing. Second, they focus on different aspects of preparation for future learning and working in a global market. Third, all four touch on the conception of the workplace as a site for learning. More importantly, the participants in each of the doctoral studies are all focused on their local needs for employment and education in a global environment that is increasingly mobile and transcultural. Each study is aimed at capturing voices at the interface where employment, mobility, education, and transculturalism meet, where change is the fastest.

Sub Unit

• SIG: Cultural Contexts of Education and Human Potential (CCEHP)

Presenters

• Marcia Kim, University of Calgary

• Jingzhou Liu, University of Calgary

• Xiaoli Liu, University of Calgary

• Erica Amery, University of Calgary

Individual Presentations

• Internationally Educated Nurses and Soft Skills in the Workplace - Marcia Kim, University of Calgary

• The Changing Nature of Working in the Age of Immigration: Exploring Settlement Workers’ Workplace Learning Experiences in Canada - Jingzhou Liu, University of Calgary

• Critical Thinking in Cross-Cultural Contexts: The Voice of University Instructors in China - Xiaoli Liu, University of Calgary

• Intercultural Approaches in Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) Programs - Erica Amery, University of Calgary