In Europe today growing internal and external mobility, brought about in particular by programmes such as Socrates, the European Higher Education Area and the enlargement of the EU, is leading to increasingly heterogeneous student groups (language, cultural background, learning styles, expectations…). Little has been done, however, to train staff for this new reality. There is therefore a need to design training modules for university teaching staff to deal with this new situation, as indeed preliminary studies amongst lecturers confirm.
The project we are presenting here intends to do just that, and has been lucky enough to obtain finance in order to do so from the European Commission under Socrates Action 6.
The main objective of our joint project is the design and implementation of a training module for teaching staff to help them deal with multicultural student bodies. The first stage has been the pooling of existing information and research in the partner institutions, leading to wide-scale data collection (by questionnaires and group discussions for both staff and students involved) in order to identify needs; based on this needs analysis, partners are currently proceeding to design the training module itself, and to pilot it. After validation, the module will be translated into the languages of all partner institutions in order to be completely operative in both face-to-face and distance formats. Finally, results will be made public in various ways (a book and electronic publication (CD-Rom), email lists, professional associations, website), and debated at an international conference. Information about the TeMCU final conference is available on this website.
TEMCU Approach to Multiculturalism
Unlike previous approaches to multiculturalism, which have emphasized marginalized groups and their integration into the dominant, majority society (in the US racial issues, in Canada minorities, in Europe immigrant groups), this project will look at different kinds of (voluntary) border-crossing, and include a positive appraisal of cultural mobility, giving rise to increased cultural sensitivity. Issues such as language barriers, culture-bound teaching and learning styles, expectations, cultural meanings, academic norms, concepts such as success, competition, academic ethics, plagiarism and so on, will all be addressed in the study.
Project Objectives And Intended Outcomes
The main objective set by the TeMCU group is to promote reflection amongst university staff about the implications of student mobility and to enhance skills of university teaching staff who receive incoming European exchange students.
Moreover, the following secondary objectives have also been set:
- To contribute to improving the learning experience of exchange students in host institutions.
- To contribute to improving the teaching experience of teachers teaching exchange students in mixed groups with home students.
- To identify the pros and cons of the Multicultural classroom for teaching staff and exchange students.
- To raise awareness within universities regarding multiculturalism.
- To improve the level of intercultural competence of all those involved in university education.
- To promote continuous staff training for multiculturality and interculturality.
- To describe current attention for diverse student groups in participating universities.
- To describe exchange students’ specific needs in the classroom.
- To identify and disseminate practices appropriate for teaching exchange students in different European university systems.
- To promote multicultural and intercultural education.
