1. Culture and Communication at Aston: helping staff and students to learn with and from people of different backgrounds
Aston University
2011

2. Why do we do this and how?
Developing Intercultural Competency helps cross boundaries
Celebrating diversity involves not just acceptance but also encouraging interest, a sense of enquiry and a willingness to reflect on our own and other’s beliefs and behaviour
Delivering the above means helping staff and students to engage with and learn from each other – what we do needs to be participative and interactive

3. Commitment from our senior management is crucial

4. We are developing a Multi-faith Chaplaincy that embraces the diversity of our faith groups

5. We aim to celebrate the differences and find the points of common understanding

6. Staff and Student Workshops
All students are invited to Culture and Communication at Aston Sessions during Welcome Weeks: in some schools this is part of their formal programmes of study
Staff Workshops are open to academic and support staff and include:
Introduction to Intercultural Awareness
Developing Intercultural Competency
Concepts of Politeness in Intercultural Interactions

7. In our workshops for staff and students we:
Encourage staff and students to think about their own culture and try to explain key things about this to other participants
Explore frameworks and models that help to explain cultural differences without passing judgement
Question issues of etiquette, politeness, time, status and approach to rules
Consider the impact of culture shock
Work through case studies and critical incidents - what helps and what hinders intercultural communication?

8. Aspects of culture – Explicit and Implicit
Explicit Culture (Visible, Objective)
Those characteristics that you identify as belonging to your culture and can explain
Tacit or Implicit Culture (invisible, subjective)
Everything that you know about your culture but don’t know that you know. Geertz, 1975, defines cultures as
the ‘ensemble of stories we tell ourselves about ourselves’
Give some obvious examples of ‘explicit’ culture in the UK – queuing, the Royal Family, attitude towards football etc
Examples of implicit culture might be our overall approach to politeness, to saying please and thank you, to not saying directly what we mean unless we know people very well,to not liking to be kept waiting

9. Iceberg-above and below sea level....
You may be able to see some aspects of your own and other people’s culture quite easily –above sea level
Other aspects of culture are so embedded or esoteric that it’s hard to identify or explain them
Draw an iceberg, showing the visible aspects of British culture above the line (above sea level) and the less visible ones below the line (below sea level)
This exercise is based on the idea that you cannot understand other people’s cultures until you are aware of your own and how that might appear to people from other cultures.
Geertz, 1975 defines cultures as the ‘ensemble of stories we tell ouselves about ourselves’ –this may be a good way into this exercise

10. We suggest that: Every society is as complex and
culturally varied as your own
People’s identities are complex,
multi-faceted and shifting.
Individuals do not just inherit
their culture but interpret
and develop it
We may think of our own society as diverse and multi-cultural but may not understand that in relation to other nations eg China has 55 ethnic groups in addition to the Han Chinese (majority)

11. Explicit Communication Achievement is important Egalitarian
We explore 8 Key Cultural Dimensions (adapted from Edward Hall, Geert Hofstede and Fons Trompenaars by Adrian Pilbeam, LTS Training)
Task Focus
Strict Time
Explicit Communication
Achievement is important
Egalitarian
Emphasis on Individual
Tolerant of uncertainty
One Rule fits all
V Relationship Focus
V Flexible Time
V Implicit Communication
V Status is important
V Hierarchical
V Emphasis on Group
V Preference for Certainty
V Adapting to the situation
These cultural dimensions offer us a model or framework through which we can try to understand the diversity of people’s culture and the reasons different people may view the world from a completely different perspective on some (although probably not all) issues

12. We explore Culture shock: the ‘W curve’

13. Most importantly we try to give an insight into the Aston University Community “Committed to Equality, Celebrating Diversity”