A collaborative autoethnography of developing a ‘Cultural Stories’ exercise for intercultural teaching in China

ABSTRACT

Intercultural teaching often emphasizes exposure to and understanding of cultural differences. Although it acknowledges the importance of cultural self-awareness, little research has been done to explore how such a goal is achieved. This article adopts collaborative autoethnography (CAE) to explore the creation, development, and use of variations of the ‘Cultural Stories’ exercise to enhance cultural self-awareness in intercultural education. Three culturally diverse instructors (in background, generations, contact/integrated cultures) narrate developments of this process for foreign language teaching in China as creators, teachers, and researchers. Analysis focuses on: (1) transformative learning process and experience of using the ‘Cultural Stories’ exercise; and (2) enhanced pedagogical understanding of intercultural teaching in China gained through developing and using this exercise. Results indicate that: (1) cultural stories have the potential to shape or start transforming students’ originally essentialized understanding of culture and identity, and (2) contextualized pedagogical implementation and reflective professional commitment help inspire and bring greater reflection or transformation to the teachers’ understanding of intercultural teaching. Implications of this instructional intervention and the research process are also discussed.

跨文化教学往往强调接触和理解文化差异，尽管它也承认自我文化意识的重要性，但很少有研究探讨如何实现这一目标。本文采用协作式自我民族志(CAE)方法来探索‘文化故事’练习在中国的跨文化教学中，作为促进自我文化意识的教学活动的价值和意义。三位不同文化 (背景、年龄、多元文化接触和融合方面) 的教师分别以创作者、教师和研究者的身份，叙述和评价了这一练习在中国外语教学背景下的发展。分析重点关注(1)使用’文化故事’练习所带来的转化式跨文化学习过程;(2)通过开发和使用这种练习，教师获得了关于在中国进行跨文化教学的何种认知。研究结果表明:(1)文化故事有助于学生认识到并改变自己对文化身份认同原本偏本质主义式的理解;(2) 基于文化故事的情境化教学和专业性反思有助于推动教师不断更新自身对跨文化教学的认知。文章最后探讨了使用该教学工具和协作式自我民族志方法对其进行研究的普遍意义。

KEYWORDS:

• Intercultural learning
• transformative learning
• cultural identity
• collaborative autoethnography (CAE)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was sponsored by Shanghai Pujiang Program [grant number 16PJC078]; Shanghai International Studies University [grant number 2017114008]; [grant number 2021114007].

Notes on contributors

Ruobing Chi

Chi Ruobing (PhD University of Hawai’i, Manoa) is Associate Professor and one of the founding members of the SISU Intercultural Institute. Her research interests include the formation and impacts of interpersonal social networks in acculturation contexts, the disciplinary development of intercultural communication as a field (from a bibliometric perspective), and quantitative studies on intercultural interactions.

Hongling Zhang

Zhang Hongling (PhD Shanghai International Studies University, SISU), is a Full Professor and one of the founding members and now Co-Director of the SISU Intercultural Institute, Director of the SISU Office of International Cooperation, and PhD supervisor, conducting research IC education and competence development, IC in FLT teaching content and IC training methodologies, online (MOOC, etc.) and computer-assisted language learning (CALL), and educational contributions to human development (IC, cultural, and communicative competence) and the global communication of Chinese culture.

Steve Kulich

Steve Kulich (PhD Humboldt University, Berlin) is a Distinguished Professor, SISU Intercultural Institute (SII) Founder (2006) and Director at Shanghai International Studies University, President of IAIR (2019-2021), and has been teaching, and doing research, and developing the field of Intercultural Communication for over 30 years. His work focuses on the history and pedagogy of Intercultural Studies, intercultural values and identity studies, and changing Chinese culture. He has published over 100 chapters, journal articles, and books.