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The Discursive Construction of Intercultural Understanding in China
A Case Study of an International Baccalaureate Diploma Program
Authors:
Publisher:
2015
Summary
This book represents an ethnographic study of an International Baccalaureate Diploma Program in a school in mainland China, serving Chinese students and staffed by teachers from a variety of origins. It offers in-depth descriptions of the way in which students, teachers, and managers interact and communicate with one another in a variety of school activities. Through the communication process, cultural experiences and understandings are negotiated constantly among school participants. The ethnographic study also has a critical intention. Going beyond description, the author discusses the extent to which networks of social relationships in the case are imbued by asymmetries in power, and how this leads to people’s inability, unwillingness, and unawareness to interact with those from different cultural backgrounds. As research findings reveal, where the construction of meaning is less equally available to each participant, prejudice and exclusiveness are more likely to be assumed, impeding individuals’ intercultural learning. The key is to empower those less privileged, giving them legitimacy to come to voice in an institutional context on the one hand, and protecting their reflections on hegemonic discourse meticulously on the other hand.
Since the research explores the complexities and subtleties of the communication process that are bound to particular contexts, like most ethnographic studies, it aims at adding a body of experience and humanistic understanding of cultures, rather than testing theories. Although the IB Program being studied can hardly be representative of the overall development of international education in China, the detailed description of contextual issues of the case and the research procedures could facilitate the readers to vicariously experience these events, thus they can make their own decisions about the transferability of the research to their own unique situations.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2015
ISBN-Print
978-1-4985-1430-9
ISBN-Online
978-1-4985-1431-6
Publisher
Lexington, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
234
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Contents No access
List of Abbreviations No access
Preface. Background to the Study No access
Acknowledgments No access
Chapter One. Framing the Research: Theoretical and Methodological Concerns No access Pages 1 - 36
Chapter Two. Stories from Class 2 No access Pages 37 - 64
Chapter Three. Discursive Practice in Lessons No access Pages 65 - 90
Chapter Four. Discursive Practices in Extra-curricular Activities No access Pages 91 - 108
Chapter Five. The Stratified and Differentiated Institutional Context No access Pages 109 - 126
Chapter Six. Representations of Communication: Analysis of Individual Participants’ Interview Transcripts No access Pages 127 - 162
Chapter Seven. The “Negotiated” Nature and the “Social-ness” of Organizational Communication: Discussion and Conclusion No access Pages 163 - 190
Chapter Eight. Reflecting on Field Relationships and Ethical Issues No access Pages 191 - 208
Appendix 1. Hymes’s (1972) Speaking Model No access Pages 209 - 210
Appendix 2. Transcript Conventions No access Pages 211 - 212
Appendix 3. Coding Chart No access Pages 213 - 216
Appendix 4. Curriculum Design of This IBDP No access Pages 217 - 218
