2013 CONFERENCE SESSIONS
Conflict and Power Struggles: Understanding Crises and Conflicts in the Classrooms
Presenter(s): Norman Powell, Director, Diversity Initiatives and Programs, Associate Professor, College for Education, Eastern Kentucky University
Level: Intermediate
Delivery: Skills Workshop
Keyword(s): Training of Trainers
Date/Time: TBD
According to some local and national surveys of classroom teachers, the difficulty in managing behavior in the classroom remains one of the most daunting challenges that teachers must confront daily. With the increased utilization of inclusion, the classroom management problem continues to be more problematic. Teachers and principals in schools must work with populations of students who present a variety of emotional, behavioral and learning problems. Historically, teacher education programs have primarily focused on preparing teachers to master the delivery of the standard curriculum and meet district, state and national academic achievement goals. While these are most essential objectives, traditionally, teacher preparation programs have placed little or no priority on developing teacher competence in constructive classroom behavior management. As a result, many well meaning teachers become unnecessarily involved in frequent destructive confrontations and conflict situations with their students. This presentation will examine the various components that interact when a student and a teacher unwittingly become involved in a conflict situation those results in a destructive power struggle.
Contrast Culture Simulation: The Khan Experience
Presenter(s): Dr. Gary Weaver, Executive Director and Professor, Intercultural Management Institute, School of International Service, American University and Mr. Khan, Senior Trainer, Intercultural Management Institute
Level: All
Delivery: Simulation
Keywords: Cross-Cultural Communication, Training of the Trainer, Intercultural Relations
Date/Time: TBD
The simulation is designed for cultural self-awareness and developing interpersonal cross-cultural communication and analytical skills. It uses the role-playing technique based on scenarios with specific problems or tasks involving a participating American, often representing his or her particular organization and job, and Mr. Khan as his or her counterpart in a country overseas. The scenario usually takes place in a generic non-American and non-European culture, and Mr. Khan is always culture-general. He represents no particular culture, but is instead a contrast to the mainstream American culture.
Consulting and Partnering with Global 1000 Companies
Presenter(s): Dr. Neal Goodman President, Global Dynamics Inc.
Level: Advanced
Delivery: Skills Workshop
Keyword(s): Relocation/Global Mobility, Human Resources, Training of trainers, Business Practices Healthcare, Cultural Diplomacy Cultural
Date/Time: TBD
In this highly interactive session we will examine the needs of Global 1000 corporations to promote cultural competence and a global mindset across their organizations and the wide variety of services provided by cross-cultural training organizations to meet these needs. Participants will meet in small and large groups to identify where the needs are and review best in class solutions that are being used by leading organizations. Participants with be presented with a model curriculum which highlights both the content and delivery methods being employed. We will also examine the “difficult questions” related to consultant/client relationships. Cases will be presented based upon over 28 years of experience working with hundreds of Global 1000 companies based in 4 continents. Participants will come away with a clear roadmap of where cultural competence is needed and applied in organization. Each participant will come away with an action plan for retaining cultural training or reaching out to global clients.
Culturally Appropriate Alternative Dispute Resolution
Presenter(s): Marc Brenman, Principal, Social Justice Consultancy; Faculty, Evergreen College; Former Executive Director, Washington State Human Rights Commission
Level: Intermediate
Delivery: Skills Workshop
Keyword(s): Mediation
Date/Time: TBD
The dominant form of ADR originated in the US, and incorporates Euro-American values. However, much conflict resolution elsewhere is among groups with different cultural, racial, religious, and ethnic value systems. The mediator struggles to equalize power between the parties and adjust to these values. One way is to use methods based on traditional and indigenous ways. The presenter has worked with Native Americans in the Pacific NW, with peoples in the Middle East, and uses discussion and role play to show different types of ADR. They can be used to empower a party who has little, and to bring greater understanding to the dominant culture. Traditional methods are respectful of local belief systems but can contain contradictions to values of Global North mediators, such as human rights and anti-corruption. These values cannot be imposed around the world. This can result in difficult soul-searching by Global North mediators about means-end challenges.
Cultural Differences that Challenge Multinational Corporations -- View Presentation Slides!
Presenter(s): Richard Linowes, Department of Management, Kogod School of Business, American University
Level: Intermediate and Advanced
Delivery: Other
Keyword(s): Relocation/Global Mobility, Human Resources, Business Practices, Cultural Diplomacy/Cultural Media
Time/Date: TBD
Based on research interviews with executives inside subsidiaries of American and Japanese multinationals, this session examines the practical impacts that culture has on the experience of managers who work overseas to manage an operation and achieve corporate objectives. Session participants will gain an appreciation for these situations by examining some of the cross-cultural challenges reported by these firms and then sharing their insights and prescriptions with the wider group. The presenter will then pool these recommendations and place them in a new framework that highlights where cultural differences impact workplace effectiveness.
A Culture from Nothing: Creating a New Global Culture in 1000 Days
Presenter(s): Bill Dant, President, WPD Solutions LLC, and Lobna “Luby” Ismail, President, Connecting Cultures
Level: Any
Delivery: Skills Workshop
Keyword(s): Education
Date/Time: TBD
This workshop offers participants the opportunity to learn about the daring initiative of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), a graduate-level private university that opened in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia in 2009 to students from over 60 countries worldwide. KAUST was created in just 1000 days through the private gift of Saudi Arabia’s king to create his vision of a 21st-century “House of Wisdom.” It affords masters and PhD-level students the opportunity to work in a global educational community that has no predominant home culture—Saudis form a minority within the student body as well as the faculty.
Participants will learn about--and participate in--the process undertaken to bring several hundred graduate students from over 60 countries and cultures together on this new campus to form their own international learning and living community.
Emerging Culture Conflict Mediation: a Field Manual for Mediating Tribal Conflict
Presenter(s): Patrick J. Christian, Adjunct Faculty, National Intelligence University & Policy Advisor, Office of Secretary of Defense & Doctoral Candidate in Ethnic and Cultural Conflict
Level: Intermediate
Delivery: Case Study
Keyword(s): Mediation
Date/Time: TBD
This presentation presents a field model of conflict mediation for use with intra-state cultures caught up in violence resulting from mal-adaptation to changes in their environment, population base, internal sociological psychological structures and the external forces of social and political change. Emerging culture conflict mediation constitutes a new approach to analyzing and resolving violent communal conflict within cultures emerging from traumatizing change and debilitating failures of their sociological structures. This approach is meant to augment or even supersede foreign development and aid as responses to intractable communal conflict.
Experiential Learning Design: A Model to Bridge the "Theory-Practice" Gap in Intercultural Communication Education
Presenter(s): Colleen Daley, Graduate Assistant and Peer Advisor, The University of Pennsylvania; Evan Black, Student Affairs Coordinator, Peer Advisor, The University of Pennsylvania; and Sarvelia Peralta-Duran, Alumni Relations Director, International House Philadelphia
Level: Beginning and Intermediate
Delivery: Case Study
Keyword(s): Experiential Learning and Training of Trainers
Date/Time: TBD
Though rare, collaborations between cultural centers and academic departments in university settings can create unique opportunities for students to engage in experiential learning. At the University of Pennsylvania, the Programs for Awareness in Cultural Education course are a nationally-recognized model of such collaboration. Based on this model, Graduate School of Education (GSE) students Evan Black and Colleen Daley have worked with GSE faculty and staff to develop a course intended to be part of the curriculum of the two-year Intercultural Communication Master’s Degree. The resulting course is meant to bridge gaps between theory and practice by providing opportunities for intercultural theorists to explore ways to enhance community collaborations as practitioners. During the session, we discuss the course development process, theoretical frameworks on which it is based, and constantly evolving pedagogical considerations. Participants will have opportunities to provide critical feedback and discuss how similar models may be replicated at their institutions.
Exploring Bias: Conscious and Unconscious in our Intercultural Interactions
Presenter(s): Lobna "Luby" Ismail, President, Connecting Cultures; and Jo Ann Hinshaw Ross, Principal, Center for Enlightened Organizations
Level: Any
Delivery: Other
Keyword(s): Experiential Learning
Date/Time: TBD
Examine the basics of how we're wired to make snap judgments resulting in misconceptions and misunderstandings. Raise your awareness about the emerging exploration of the mind and conscious and unconscious bias. Along with the research, hear the story of a woman whose work and life has been dedicated to breaking down the barriers of bias, across cultures, faiths and most recently, physical abilities.
Healing the World-weary and Jaded: Developing Long-term Resilience for Intercultural Sojourners -- View Presentation Slides!
Presenter(s): Ray S. Leki, Author of Travel Wise: How to Be Safe, Saavy and Secure Abroad, and Adjunct Professorial Lecturer, School of International Service, American University
Level: All
Delivery: Simulation
Keywords: International Careers, Security,Cross-cultural communication
Date/Time: TBD
Have you ever met someone who traveled too much? Crossed into too many cultures? Demonstrated signs of intercultural burnout? This session will build your skills to enable you to stay fresh and focused and to build capacity in others to do so. The session will present participants with an opportunity to do the analytical work of identify how and why intercultural burnout can happen, diagnostic work to identify signs and symptoms, and develop strategies, based on a simple resilience model, to help sojourners build resilience into their international careers.
HR - Global Talent Management Where Are We Today and Where Are We in 2020? -- View Presentation Slides!
Presenter(s): Susanne Mueller, Consulting Executive Coach, Susanne Mueller Consulting Coaching
Level: Intermediate and Advanced
Delivery: Other
Keyword(s): Human Resources
Date/Time: TBD
Global Talent Management is more important than ever in our global world. In 2020 we should have a clear vision on what we absolutely need to have in place. Nice to have is not good enough anymore. There is a competitive landscape with a clear path to victory: hire a new global employee for success (recruitment, on boarding) diversity & inclusion, employee retention, leadership development training, mentoring / coaching, employee engagement, performance management. These are the more traditional elements. We also need to look at new trends like cross cultural awareness, wellness and social media. This session will highlight the methods/models that can be used together with interactive case studies and activities.
How (and why) do we link on LinkedIn? Interactional Sociolinguistics and Social Networking
Presenter(s): Anna Marie Trester, Director, MA Program in Language and Communication (MLC), Georgetown University; Alexandra Botti, MA Student in Linguistics, Language and Communication (MLC); Alison DeBoer MA Student in Linguistics, MA in Language and Communication (MLC); and Alicia Ward, Immigration and Compliance Coordinator, Office of International Programs, Georgetown University
Level: Any
Delivery: Skills Workshop
Keyword(s): Cultural Diplomacy/ Cultural Media
Date/Time: TBD
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network and is fast becoming one of the most important ways to connect with employers, partners, mentors, former colleagues, employees, subject matter experts and clients. Thus, the communication which takes place here (or which could, but doesn’t) is tremendously valuable and important to understand. This workshop is designed to share some insights from sociolinguistics in an accessible and applied way that will help participants better understand the complexity and nuance of social interaction in this mediated context.
Specifically, drawing from an ongoing ethnography, we will present analyses of data taken from the site, using interactional sociolinguistic research to explore how the site mitigates the potential face-threats in speech acts like introductions, requests for assistance, and professional self-presentation. Participants in the workshop will gain greater insight and awareness of communication online, which they can bring to their own use of this and other social media platforms.
Integrating Intercultural and Social Justice Approaches into Diversity Management in American Higher Education Administration
Presenter(s): Amer Ahmed, Associate Director, Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Level: Any
Delivery: Case Study
Keyword(s): International Education
Date/Time: TBD
Bridging structural, practical and conceptual divides between Intercultural and U.S. Social Justice resources in American Higher Education is an ongoing challenge. As the trend of 'Globalizing Higher Education' rapidly accelerates, there are many in U.S. Diversity and Social Justice arenas who are concerned that resources are being directed away from their areas into international resources. However, there are numerous opportunities to integrate approaches and concepts that can synergize practices and efforts that can benefit both areas. In order to implement such efforts, cultivating professional behaviors and practices that model an integrated approach is necessary to successfully implement and achieve the synergy necessary to benefit each area of work. This session will seek to present examples of how the integration of these approaches can strengthen administrative practices and potentially bridge divides and strengthen engagement of a number of pressing issues that have been undermined by this ongoing divide
Life in the Village: A Simulation Exercise
Presenter(s): Zachary Baquet, Knowledge Management Specialist, USAID and Julie MacCartee, Food Security & Agriculture Program Manger, USAID, KDMD Project the QED Group, LLC
Level: Beginner
Delivery: Game/Simulation
Keyword(s): Experiential Learning
Date/Time: TBD
This session will place participants in the role of rural households in a developing country responsible for making day-to-day decisions about how to use their limited resources. The exercise aims to help program managers and implementers of development activities better visualize life for poor, food insecure households in order to improve program design and implementation. Attendees will gain hands-on experience with this capacity building approach through participation in a live demonstration of the simulation. Following the demonstration, we will lead a discussion with participants on possible applications of the simulations, lessons learned from the iterative development approach and how it can help to communicate valuable learning objectives to donors, implementers and researchers doing work in international development.
Make Your Best Training Activity Choice Interactive
Presenter(s): Judee Blohm, Independent consultant, and Chuck Needlman, Independent Consultant
Level: Any
Delivery: Skills Workshop
Keyword(s): Experiential Learning, Training of Trainers
Date/Time: TBD
Need a great idea for delivering your next training? Want to WOW your participants with an interactive learning experience? In this session, you will use the Best Choice activity matrix from North American Simulation and Gaming Association’s ( NASAGA’s) HOT-OFF the presses Training Activity Book to learn how to select an activity for presenting a training topic of your choice. Working both individually and in groups, you will discover several potential training activities in the book that fit your needs.
Managing Across Generations - How Management and Parenting Styles Can Converge, Conflict, and Connect-- View Presentation Slides!
Presenter(s): Peggy O’Keefe, Adjunct Professor, New York University
Level: Intermediate
Delivery: Skills Workshop
Keyword(s): Human Resources (HR), Business Practices, and Other
Date: TBD
Managers leverage parenting experiences to develop, guide and coach staff – with mixed results. Multiple generations in the workplace means varying perceptions of good parenting, and management. Should Gen Y employees be managed in the style they were parented? Did the generation gap of the Baby Boomers/Traditionalists influence their management style? Gen X is immersed in parenting – does it influence managing staff? When expectations between managers and staff conflict along generational lines, the advice on how to bridge the gap can feel contradictory – is this management, parenting, or pandering? This lecture/discussion session explores the life/work intersection where managing/parenting styles converge from a cross cultural perspective. An overview of how Traditionalist, Baby Boomer, Gen X and Gen Y/Millennial generations can disconnect over authority, autonomy, and accountability – both in the workplace and as parents - will set the stage for exploring how professionals can integrate the best of their parenting and management
Managing Cultures of Deadline Dilemmas
Presenter(s): Anita M. Schmied, President, Image Marketing Inc. Adjunct Professor, International Business/Marketing, Howard University, and Dr. Linda L. Smith, President, Smith Consulting; Professor, University of Maryland University College
Level: Intermediate
Delivery: Skills Workshop
Keyword(s): Business Practices
Date/Time: TBD
Today’s professionals swim in a sea of deadlines, strung together by waves of virtual communication activities and separated by our cultural views of time and space. What clues from email threads suggest differences of time and pace? What do we know about our team partners and their priorities for decisions, timelines, or schedules? This interactive session offers participants a practical approach to managing complex deadline dilemmas. Case studies of three industry sectors – healthcare, education and business -- examine how professionals can better adapt cross-cultural communication skills to teamwork online and in the work place. Presentation objectives: Recognize deadline dilemmas layered in cultural perceptions; Understand individual cultural perceptions of time and space; Manage deadlines of virtual teams across borders; Discover hidden messages in emails; Use technology to build team relationships. This hands-on session will give participants sharper skills to manage deadline dilemmas of culturally diverse teams.
A Neighborhood for All: Can Shared Vision Be Formed from Diverse Organizations and Goals? -- View Presentation Slides!
Presenter(s): Easten Law, Instructor, School of International Service, American University; and Chantel Morant, Graduate Teaching Assistant, School of International Service, American University
Level: Beginner
Delivery: Case Study
Keyword(s): Relocation/Global Mobility, Mediation, Cultural Media
Date/Time: TBD
In Washington DC, the neighborhood of Columbia Heights has become increasingly diverse both socioeconomically and racially. These dramatic shifts have important implications for how local organizations understand their work in increasingly diverse spaces. This presentation explores perceptions of vision, mission, and work in several organizations from the neighborhood including grassroots advocacy/service groups, real estate developers, community art centers, neighborhood associations, churches, and local governing bodies with the intention of identifying shared themes between them. Each is invested in working for the future of the neighborhood, doing so from perceptions based in their own mission. But can/should such diverse goals be integrated toward a shared vision? If so, how can such shared vision be facilitated and directed?
Simulating Personal Democracy: Exploring Political Decision-Making Processes Through Experiential Exercises
Presenter(s): Tali Padan, Director, Mellem Education
Level: Any
Delivery: Game/Simulation
Keyword(s): Experiential Learning
Date/Time: TBD
The gap existing between the democratic system and the individual can distance a person from participating in the political process. Principles that form the foundation of a democratic system can also be applied to everyday life, and conversely, individual life experiences can shape the political process. Interactive, experiential workshops play a large role in linking these two spheres, connecting the individual to the system through the group process. The Betzavta seminar, invented and developed by the Adam Institute in Israel, uses games and interactive activities to explore the democratic decision-making process in a more personal way, thereby giving the participants a more fundamental understanding of democracy, including concepts of intercultural communication, majority/minority decisions, equality and freedom. In this interactive workshop, participants will be put in a situation where decision making is necessary due to external restrictions. They will be faced with a challenge - how to fulfill the task in the set amount of time but together as a group. Through the already-existing group dynamics, they will make decisions based on majority and minority needs and will later reflect back to see how principles of democracy were integrated into their group process. Can this simulation of democracy be used to explain the larger political process? If conflicts arose during this exercise, how can they be resolved democratically? These and more questions will be examined and discussed, leading to a more in-depth understanding of how different interests and needs are handled in a decision making process.
Strengthening Higher Education in Africa: How can International training/exchange help? -- View Presentation Slides!
Presenter(s): Senem Bakar, Associate Director, Exchange Visitors & Student Services International Student and Scholar Services, American University, and Julia Hon, Program Coordinator, Education Programs Division
Level: Any
Delivery: Skills Workshop
Keyword(s): International Education & Exchange
Date/Time: TBD
This session will focus on best practices: Supporting the institutions in Sub Saharan Africa through the development of partnerships and training at African institutions; and Contributing to the development of tertiary level human capital by addressing the needs of African students enrolled at US institutions.
Structural Inequality: Applications of An Old Theory to New Organizational Challenges
Presenter(s): Ben Alexander, Partner, Alexander Consulting & Training, Inc.
Level: Beginning or Intermediate
Delivery: Skills Workshop
Keyword(s): Human Resources, Diversity & Inclusion
Date/Time: TBD
Responding effectively to the inequalities that may exist among the various groups that make up the diversity of today’s organizations and their customers and stakeholders is an ongoing challenge that may have critical implications for success or failure. This interactive workshop will explain the theory of Structural Inequality in terms of how the structures created by organizational systems create advantage for some groups and disadvantage for others; how the disadvantage can be identified when it is impacting specific groups; how the impact of the inequities created by the disadvantage can be eliminated or minimized; and how these applications can be used in meeting HR/EEO requirements as well as in preventing and resolving complaints and other conflict situations. A brief descriptive lecture will be followed by a hands on group activity that will allow participants to identify situations in their organizations that can be improved or resolved through the application of this theory.
Ten Tips and Techniques for Enhancing Virtual Intercultural Communication Skills and Training
Presenter(s): Shelley Morrison, Founder, Shelley Morrison Associates
Level: Intermediate
Delivery: Skills Workshop
Keyword(s): Experiential Learning
Date/Time: TBD
This highly interactive workshop will focus on improving virtual intercultural communication skills. Members of global corporations, organizations and academic institutions working across time zones, culture and language spend the majority of their time communicating virtually. Consequently, improving virtual intercultural communication skills is often more important than in-person, face-to-face skills. Also, with globally dispersed teams, virtual intercultural training is often the best and only option to include everyone in programs. This workshop will share effective virtual techniques with an emphasis on how to keep programs interactive and participants engaged. There will be a live demo of an online platform, such as WebEx. Examples for the use of games, exercises, storytelling, short literature, online assessments, pre-work and follow-up will be presented. We will also review online intercultural tools and assessments including: GlobeSmart, Culture Wizard, Country Navigator/World Prism, Cultural Orientations Framework (COF), Cultural Navigator and Culture in the Workplace (CWQ). The session will include small group discussions, role plays, demos, exercises and end with lively Q & A.
The 2012 US Presidential Election: Cross-cultural Viewpoints
Presenter(s): Motoo Unno, Professor, Meiji University in Japan; Visiting Scholar, Intercultural Management Institute, American University
Level: Intermediate
Delivery: Case Study
Keyword(s): Cross-Cultural Communication
Date/Time: TBD
The US 2012 Presidential Election has been analyzed from many political and economic viewpoints. However, it has not been examined from the cross-cultural point of views. The purpose of this presentation is to explore the 2012 Presidential Election through cultural insights. First, in this presentation the presenter will talk about the Election based on his grassroots experiences in Northern Virginia, focusing on the differences between US and Japanese elections. Second, the presenter will explain how the Japanese people see the Election and President Obama. Third, the presenter will assess how President Obama and Mitt Romney's values and beliefs had an impact on their campaigns. Also, the presenter will analyze how cultural sensitivity influenced both candidates' campaigns. In this presentation the presenter will use a storytelling technique to explain the cultural differences between the two campaigns. Participants will learn how to avoid gaffes by appropriately applying cultural understandings.
The Myths and Realities of Military Culture Today
Presenter(s): Julia Gaspar-Bates, President, Intercultural Alliances; Dr. Mark Bates, Director, Resilience and Prevention Directorate, Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE); Dr. Stephen V. Bowles, Associate Professor of Behavioral Science, National Defense University; Ivonne Arena, Deputy Chief of Staff, Defense Centers of Excellence (DCoE); Captain Chandler Swallow, Associate Professor, Economics Department, Afghanistan & Pakistan Fellows Program Coordinator, Eisenhower School, National Defense University
Level: Any
Delivery: Panel
Keyword(s): Culture
Date/Time: TBD
With the on-going war in Afghanistan, we are besieged with information about the military in the media, yet this information rarely gives a clear understanding of the breadth and depth of military culture. This panel roundtable will provide fascinating insight into the often misrepresented world of the United States military. Current and former officers from the Air Force, Army, and Navy will share their insider’s perspectives on areas such as common themes and core values across the military, themes specific to different branches, diversity, gender, community life of service members and their families and other aspects of what it means to be in the military today. Participants who attend this panel will gain a better understanding of the challenges and stressors as well as the resilience and pride that members of this unique culture contribute to our society.
Third Culture Kids Transitioning Successfully for University-- View Presentation Slides!
Presenter(s): Tina Quick, Founder and President, International Family Transitions
Level: Intermediate
Delivery: Skills Workshop
Keyword(s): International Education & Exchange
Date/Time: TBD
In this highly interactive session participants will: - Have a solid understanding of the Third Culture Kid experience - how TCKs’ lives differ in comparison to domestic peers and what happens when transitioning out of the shared experience of the expatriate culture. - Be able to identify the challenges TCKs face when repatriating or transitioning to another host country for the high school or college experience. - Understand how families, educational staff, and counselors can help prepare and support expat students who are making a cultural transition for their continued education or family repatriation.
Travel to Peace Corps Zomba Online: Engage in a Multicultural Workplace
Presenter(s): Judee Blohm, Independent consultant, Shilpa Alimchandani, Cross-Cultural and Diversity Training Specialist, Peace Corps
Level: Any
Delivery: Skills Workshop and Game/Simulation
Keyword(s): Cross-Cultural Communication
Date/Time: TBD
This session will engage participants in intercultural learning that blends both online and face-to-face instruction. To provide ongoing training opportunities for multicultural staff working in over seventy countries around the world, the Peace Corps is developing asynchronous online training that staff can do at their own pace in their own place. The module that will be used in this session focuses on introducing fundamental cross-cultural concepts that affect communication and behavior daily in the multicultural workplace. Participants will travel virtually to a fictional Peace Corps post in the country “Zomba” and experience cross-cultural differences through the different perspectives of U.S. and Zomban staff members.
Using Technology to Build Cultural Awareness -- View Presentation Slides!
Presenter(s): Claire DiDonato, Web Tools Marketing Manager, Aperian Global
Level: Beginning and Intermediate
Delivery: Presentation and Case Study
Keyword(s): Relocation/Global Mobility, Human Resources, Training of Trainers, and Business Practices
Date/Time: TBD
Today, more than ever, technology drives learning and development activities in organizations and universities. This presentation will showcase the many features of the GlobeSmart® web tool, which allows instant access to information on how to conduct business in over 65 countries and is geared towards business professionals who interact with other cultures. In addition to showing the many features of this tool, we will show client examples and case studies in regards to use of our Learning Paths. These paths are online navigable paths that a user can follow in order to reach a particular learning objective, and are often used as part of a blended learning approach in training programs. Delivery of this topic will be via presentation with case study examples and a live demo of the web tools, with time for Q&A. Learning Objectives: - Learn how cutting edge technology (web tools such as GlobeSmart and Learning Paths) can assist in enhancing cross-cultural awareness. - Gain insight into real life global business challenges and see how technology can be used to overcome them.
What Is Happening in the STEM Classroom? Identifying Communication Gaps between Students and Instructors
Presenter(s): Kyoung-Ah Nam, Professor, School of International Service, American University
Level: All
Delivery: Case Study
Keyword(s): International Education
Date/Time: TBD
U.S.-American students’ underperformance and relative disinterest in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) have become a critical national concern. Almost half of U.S.-undergraduate students switch from STEM majors to other disciplines or fail to graduate (Chen & Weko, 2009). STEM departments are predominantly comprised of international instructors from Asia (Blackwell, Snyder, Anderson & Mavriplis, 2009). While international teaching assistants (ITAs) and instructors play a key role in student learning, research indicates that students often experience barriers when encountering a STEM subject alongside an international instructor’s unfamiliar teaching and communication styles. This presentation will be based off of research which aims to identify significant factors that create communication barriers between ITAs and undergraduates in U.S. university STEM classrooms. The study incorporates a mixed methods design (Creswell, 2009). Theoretical frameworks include consideration of cultural dimensions (Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2010) and high/low-context communication theory (Hall, 1976). The results will inform theory, policy, and practice while promoting enhanced teaching, training, and learning in STEM fields.