Teaching Interculturality Otherwise

This edited volume focuses on the thorny and somewhat controversial issue of teaching (and learning) interculturality in a way that considers the notion from critical and reflexive perspectives when introduced to students. Comprised of three parts, the book discusses the nuts and bolts of teaching interculturally, considers changes in the teaching of interculturality and provides pedagogical insights into interculturalising the notion. It studies both teaching im-/ex-plicitly about interculturality and how to incorporate interculturality into teaching practices or into an institution. By sharing varied cases and theoretical reflections on the topic, the editors and contributors from different parts of the world aim to stimulate more initiatives to enrich the field instead of delimiting it, especially in complement to and beyond the “West” or “Global North”, and also to build up further reflexivity in the way readers engage with interculturality in education. This will be a must read for teachers and researchers of intercultural communication education at different educational levels, as well as anyone interested in scholarship on education for interculturality.

Offering a unique reading experience, this book examines the epistemologies of interculturality and explores potential routes to review and revisit the notion anew. Grounded in different sociocultural, economic and political perspectives around the world, interculturality in education and research bears a paradoxical attribute of 'contradictions' and 'inconsistencies', making it a polysemous and flexible notion that has no definitive diagnosis and requires constant unthinking and rethinking. The author provides a toolbox of 'out-of-box ideas' in the form of fragmental yet standalone writings and follow-up questions concerning stereotypes about the very notion of interculturality and conceptual and methodological flaws in the way it is used. Readers are encouraged to critically reflect about interculturality as it stands today in global research and education. In identifying the paradoxes of interculturality and proposing alternative directions, the book stimulates a diversity of thoughts about the notion that goes beyond the 'West'. The book will be an essential reading for scholars, students and educators interested in education philosophy, applied linguistics and the broad field of intercultural communication education. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license. Funded by University of Helsinki

Seeking to uncover underlying epistemic invisibilities in generating intercultural communication education and research knowledge and to open up space for envisaging interculturality alternatively, this book reexamines and problematizes the assumptions and ontologies in the conceptual systems of interculturality. In enunciating and critiquing what has been largely endorsed, normalized and taken for granted, this volume brings to the fore different, changing and situated understandings of intercultural ontologies and epistemologies in terms of premises, workings and objectives, unveiling the entangled factors and contexts that have delimited and circumscribed the realm. The authors believe that the field would benefit from some cognitive and sensory dissonance while reengaging effectively with notions to move forward. In particular, they endeavour to de-monumentalize and disrupt the very conceptual tenets that may have rendered interculturality myopic, repetitive, monolithic and aseptic in expanding the epistemic concerns of the “intercultural”, especially in the English language. This book will be an essential read for scholars and students of the sociology of education, educational philosophy and intercultural education and also for all readers interested in the broad field of interculturality.

This book does not instruct the reader how to communicate interculturally but supports them in reflecting on how they can (re-)negotiate and (re-)construct knowledge(s), ideologies and relations around the notion of interculturality. Anchored in the author’s original and thought-provoking perspectives on interculturality, this interdisciplinary and global-minded book explores how communicating around the notion cannot do away with ideologisms, issues of language and translation or the problematization of voice and silence in research and education. Written in an original and stimulating way, relying on different writing genres and styles to ‘mimic’ the dynamism and flexibility of the very notion under review, the author urges us to (un-)voice, scrutinize, nurture and galvanize our ways of dealing with interculturality alone and together with others in academia. The very specific focus of the book, communicating around interculturality (instead of ‘doing’ interculturality), represents a fresh and important move for observing, analyzing, speaking of and contributing to today's complex and divided world. The title is aimed at researchers, students and educators interested in examining and enriching their own takes on interculturality, from a more reflexive and interactive perspective.

This book explores the decades-long use of the notion of interculturality in education and other fields, arguing that it is now time to move beyond certain assumptions towards a richer and more realistic understanding of the ‘intercultural’. Many concepts such as culture, identity and intercultural competence are discussed and revised. Myths about interculturality are also unpacked and dispelled. Written by one of the leading scholars in the field, this book proposes a very useful framework to address theoretical and methodological issues related to interculturality. This somewhat provocative book will be of interest to anyone who wrestles with this knotty but central notion of our times.

This book proposes a new method for working on the complex and polysemic notion of interculturality, aimed at scholars, students and educators who have an interest in enriching and challenging their own take on this somewhat controversial scientific notion. Multiple examples of observability made by the authors are provided to illustrate the method. The book helps readers to look at themselves as ‘producers’, ‘consumers’ and ‘promoters’ of selected knowledge of interculturality. This book represents an original contribution to the field, by introducing the importance of observation and reflexivity in building up varied epistemic engagements with the notion of interculturality.

This book continues the two scholars’ endeavours for opening up more spaces for alternative perspectives, analyses and praxis in interculturality. The main text features fragments that bear relevance to a wide range of topics including education, politics, personal experiences, social realities, hierarchies, self-critique, language and locus of enunciation. The book takes a step forward by using fragments as an alternative way of doing research and writing scholarship. The premise here is that fragments are human and they reflect our fleeting, inconsistent and unsystematic production of knowledge that today’s scholarship has presented to be linear, structured and aligned. The authors draw on fragments to make their points as forcefully as possible by constructing sentences that destabilize themselves and readers to consider other paths and perspectives. That is, writing otherwise may propel thinking otherwise since the very bases, upon which we push our insights to mould through and by, are shaken and ultimately transcended. The chapters include questions with (temporary) answers as an attempt to induce readers to think for themselves and to move beyond what this book has to offer. This book will be a great read to scholars and students in the field of interculturality, education and sociology. The authors hope that this book will be seen as a genuine example of de-linking from mainstream writing and thinking conventions about interculturality in communication and education without compromising epistemic depth and nuance.

This book deals with the importance of interculturality in teacher education and training. It is mostly through the concept of intercultural competence that interculturality has been constructed and problematized for educators. However, different approaches and paradigms are available and differ and/or share similarities in terms of ideology, method, practice, theoretical frameworks, and ethical considerations. There is no global agreement on the meanings of interculturality in teacher education and training, although some principles might be common across national borders. There is thus a need for educators to consider these aspects of interculturality in education to be able to become better teachers in a diverse world like ours.