Facilitating intercultural education in majority student groups in higher education

ABSTRACT

The present article critically analyses the pedagogical efforts of two teachers to promote values education and intercultural reflection in their own educational practice. They teach in higher education in Norway and most of their students have majority backgrounds. Based on their teaching experiences with VaKE (Values and Knowledge education), the article discusses opportunities and challenges when working with values education in majority student groups. It concludes that discussing values is difficult but can be eye opening. It also raises the question of which dilemmas can prevent stereotyping and foster more complex intercultural thinking and shows that intercultural education requires a discussion of one’s own cultural position. The article highlights the teacher’s crucial role in the VaKE-process regarding the aims of intercultural values education.

KEYWORDS:

• Intercultural higher education
• VaKE (Values and Knowledge Education)
• value dilemmas
• challenging majority privilege

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We do not distinguish between intercultural and multicultural education (Holm and Zilliacus 2009); for a critical discussion see Portera (2008).

2. In our discussion, we used SF for Students’ reflections followed by the month and year they were collected. We collected two sets in September 2014, and the reflections from The first teacher’s (Frédérique) group is called A, while the second teacher’s (Helga) group is called B. All student quotes were translated from Norwegian into English by the authors.

3. For a critical analysis of VaKE in mathematics teaching, see Haara and Smith (2012).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Frederique Brossard Børhaug

Frederique Brossard Børhaug is Professor of Education at NLA University College, Bergen in Norway. She teaches intercultural education for BA and MA students. She holds a PhD in education from the University of Oslo, Norway. Frédérique conducts research on Ethics and Anti-Racist Education in French and Norwegian multicultural school contexts, on the Human Development and Capability Approach (HDCA), on Inclusion of minority youth, on VaKE-didactics (Values and Knowledge Education) in intercultural teaching, and on climate change.  A key focus in her research is the critical reflection on one’s own cultural position and the fostering of complex intercultural and anti-racist value thinking that can counteract the reproduction of a sense of privilege and lead to more inclusive educational practices for all in respect with the nature.

Helga B. Harnes

Helga B. Harnes is assistant professor of social science in pre-service teacher education and a PhD student of history education. She works at NLA University College, Bergen in Norway. Research interests are intercultural education in the social sciences, women's history, VaKE-didactics (Values and Knowledge Education), history education. Her current PhD project explores how lower secondary students contextualise primary sources about colonial imperialism in Africa.