SOe110 Engaging Diversity in Communication with Cultural Others

Faculty of Education
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Zdeněk Janík, M.A., Ph.D. (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Zdeněk Janík, M.A., Ph.D.
Department of Social Education – Faculty of Education
Contact Person: Mgr. Zdeněk Janík, M.A., Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of English Language and Literature – Faculty of Education
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
Course objectives
The main goal is to develop students' intercultural skills and the capacity to fully engage with diversity in and out of the classroom. By diversity we mean individual as well as group differences that students and teachers bring into the learning environment (for example, personal history, life experience, educational background, learning style, race, ethnicity, religion, language, socioeconomic status, country of origin, and sexual orientation). Students will learn how to engage in and facilitate intercultural interactions and create a collaborative learning environment in which they will see a purpose as well as reward in working together and across differences.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course, students will: - develop their intercultural attitudes, i.e. respect to others and their cultures: students will become more aware of their identities and will enhance the ability to explore their identities in relation to the identities of others; they will be able to recognize the identities of others and affirm their self-esteem so that they feel secure in their identities. - develop their intercultural skills: students will improve the ability to analyze and reflect their own cultural assumptions and become aware how one’s own cultural worldviews are the basis of interpretations of others’ ideas and behaviors; they will enhance the ability to attempt to see the world from the perspective of another and their ability to analyze, interpret and relate to others before forming judgement; students will also improve their skill to manage their own anxiety in the face of uncertainty and develop tolerance for ambiguity. - be able to recognize and engage with diversity and create interculturally inclusive learning environment: students will be able to recognize the cultural differences of others and will accommodate diverse communication styles; they will demonstrate how to work with different perceptions of experiences and deepen their empathy through facilitated reflections; they will be able to interact with different perspectives and think critically through multiple readings; they will be able to address and work with anxiety producing topics and respond to biased comments and micro agressions triggered by ethnocentric talks.
Syllabus
  • 1) Identity and cultural awareness 2) Cultural diversity 3) Ethnocentrism, stereotypes, and cultural perceptions 4) Intercultural communication 5) Status and power in communication 5) Managing anxiety and uncertainty in communication 6) Engaging and empowering diversity in and out of the classroom
Literature
    required literature
  • Jackson, Jane (2019) Introducing Language and Intercultural Communication, 2nd Edition, London and New York: Routledge
  • TING-TOOMEY, Stella a Leeva C. CHUNG. Understanding intercultural communication. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. xviii, 404. ISBN 9780195330069
  • HOFSTEDE, Gert Jan, Paul PEDERSEN and Geert HOFSTEDE. Exploring culture : exerscises, stories and synthetic cultures. First published. London: Intercultural Press, 2002, xix, 234. ISBN 1877864900. info
  • The skin that we speak : thoughts on language and culture in the classroom. Edited by Lisa D. Delpit - Joanne Kilgour Dowdy. New York: New Press, 2002, xxiv, 229. ISBN 1565848209. info
    recommended literature
  • Lee, A., Poch, R., Shaw, M., & Williams, R. D. (2012). Engaging diversity in undergraduate classrooms : a pedagogy for developing intercultural competence. (32 ed.) Jossey-Bass. http://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/9669622
  • JANÍK, Zdeněk. Negotiation of Identities in Intercultural Communication. JoLaCe Journal of Language and Cultural Education. Berlin: WALTER DE GRUYTER GMBH, 2017, vol. 5, No 1, p. 160-181. ISSN 1339-4045. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/jolace-2017-0010. URL info
Teaching methods
class discussion, facilitated group reflections, observation, montitoring and reflective writing of intercultural learning experience in the e-portfolios, COIL-based learning
Assessment methods
active class participation in discussions, evidence-based, intercultural experience reflections in the e-portfolios
Language of instruction
English
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/ped/spring2025/SOe110