Transcript Writing

Promoting Intercultural Understanding in
the International Baccalaureate Diploma
Programme: A Qualitative Case Study in
Hong Kong Second Language Chinese
Classrooms
Alliance for International Education
Mumbai,
10 – 12 October, 2014
Strand D. Intercultural Understanding in the Curriculum
Kwok-Ling LAU
PhD candidate, Faculty of Education
The University of Hong Kong
Supervisor Dr. Mark Shum
1
The Aim of Study
 The aim of this study seeks to examine the enabling
factors for successful implementation of
‘intercultural understanding” and ʻinternational
mindednessʼ in the International Baccalaureate
Diploma Programme (IBDP) in a Chinese as a
second language Chinese classroom in three
international schools. The IB programme promotes
intercultural understanding and international
mindedness in education and it is of great interest to
see how it is implemented in second language
Chinese classrooms in Hong Kong
2
Research questions and Methodology
Research Questions
Research methodology
1. How successful do the
teachers of Chinese as a
second language of the
International
Baccalaureate Diploma
Programme teach the
concept of international
mindedness and
intercultural
understanding in Chinese
lessons?
I apply multi-methodological
approach in order to get
triangulation.
Classroom observation,
In-depth interview teachers
with semi-structured questions.
•Classroom discourse analyze
(Christie, 2008) , Systemic
Functional Linguistics (SFL)
(Halliday, 1994) and Appraisal
theory (Martin and White 2005)
are be applied.
3
Research questions and Methodology
Research Questions
Research methodology
2. How successful do
the students of
Chinese perform in
class work in the
teaching and learning
cycle?
Classroom observation,
In-depth interview students
with semi-structured
questions.
Classroom discourse
analyze (Christie, 2008) ,
Systemic Functional
Linguistics (SFL) (Halliday,
1994) and Appraisal theory
(Martin and White 2005) are
used for student text analyze.
4
Research Methodology
 Choice of the Case Study
 I collected the data from three IB schools which were not be
chosen only for the sake of convenience.
 School A was opened in 1894 which has been authorized as
an IB school and it has been authorized to offer the IB Chinese
B Diploma Programmes since in 2005.
 School B was opened in 1983 and it has been authorized to
offer the IB Chinese B Diploma Programmes beginning in 1991.
 School C has been authorized to offer the IB since 2000.
 Since the choice of the representative cases contributes much
to the external validity of the case study, it is important to
show that the school in question is typical example of the
implementation of an IB Chinese Diploma Programme.
5
Theoretical Framework
 In the theoretical framework, I refer to Thompson
(2012), Haywood (2007:86-87), UNESCO Declaration
in 1974 and Hill (2006, 2012), McKenzie (2012:227)
and Harrison (2013:95-96) contribute new insights on
international mindedness.
6
Adapted from Thompson (1998, 2013), Hill (2012:258-259 and 2014 HK Seminar)
Theoretical Framework of International mindedness
International mindedness
Skills
Knowledge
Attitudes
Communication Skills
Global
Citizenship
Intercultural
Understanding
Research skills
Human rights and
democracy
Values Education
Collaborative skills
Critical thinking skills
Conflict
Resolution skills
Adapted from Thompson (1998, 2013), Hill (2012:258-259 and 2014 HK Seminar)
7
Table 3 Judgement of IBO’s mission statement
•Text
•Judgement positive
The International Baccalaureate aims to
develop inquiring, knowledgeable and
caring young people who help to create a
better and more peaceful world through
intercultural understanding and respect.
inquiring, knowledgeable (Social
esteem: positive 〔capacity〕)
caring, better , peaceful, respect
(Social sanction: propriety
〔ethics〕)
To this end the organization works with
schools, governments and international
organizations to develop challenging
programmes of international education
and rigorous assessment.
challenging, rigorous (Judgement:
positive 〔capacity〕)
•These programmes encourage students
across the world to become active,
compassionate and lifelong learners who
understand that other people, with their
differences, can also be right.
active, lifelong learners (Social
esteem: capacity)
compassionate, respect (Social
sanction: propriety〔ethics〕)
(www.ibo.org/mission/)
8
Analysing Appraisal Theory
 White (1998) indicates that JUDGEMENT is obviously a
system which is very much culturally and ideologically
determined and particular judgements of behaviour will
depend on socio-semiotic position, on the set of social
values to which the evaluator subscribes. JUDGEMENT
provides one of the most explicit means by which
writer/speakers can inscribe their heteroglossic
position in a text. ……They thereby confront those
who would ascribe a different set of judgements to those
behaviours. We are concerned with, what Fairclough
(1989: 78) terms the ‘conception’ of the world, including
normative values.”
9
Curriculum Macrogenre: School B: (Christie: 2000:162, Shum, 2010: 140): each lesson 60 minutes
Curriculum Macrogenre
10
Table 1
Curriculum Macrogenre
Curriculum Initiation
1.Introduction: Teacher gave an introduction on aims of the unit plan
objectives in the first lesson.
2.Task Specification: Teacher set the task and gave the instructions and
expectation about the aims of tasks; and define the definition of poverty
by scaffolding through question and answers . Teacher initiates
students' learning motives and fixes the direction of learning by inquiry
based learning & give assignment of homework by group research in
lesson 1.
Curriculum Negotiation
Students were divided into 5 groups to research about the topic of Poverty in
China and the world in group discussion. Teacher gave comments on each
group’s presentation. Students had group presentations from lesson 2 and
lesson 5 as shown in Figure 1.
Curriculum closure
Teacher gave comments and drew the conclusion of the lesson.
11
Intercultural Understanding
 老師：這個是中文課，你們必須要知道中國的情況,香港的情況，
因為你們住在香港，然後呢，歐洲、美國、非洲，你們找另外一
個國家，或兩個國家，但起碼要找一個國家，它的情況是怎麼樣
的？他們怎麼處理？到最後呢，你們要講出你們自己的看法，你
們的critical thinking （+ve Judgment Social Esteem:
Capacity ) ,到底你們覺得這些國家處理得怎麼樣？還有什麼東西
他們可以做? 可是沒做的，（-ve Judgment Social Esteem:
tenacity (resolve) 或是說哪一個國家的處理手法比較有效，為
什麼？ （+ve Judgment Social Esteem: tenacity (resolve)在香港
或者中國可不可以用？這些東西你要能夠表現出來的。第1點：定
義、第2點:起因、第3點：影響、第4點（中國和香港的情況及政
府解決的方法）跟第5點其他歐美和非洲國家的情況（一國），能
幫助你們學習國際視野 （+ve Judgment Social Esteem:
Capacity )，起碼你們知道的不是只有自己國家的東西，你們關心
（+ve Judgment social sanction propriety (ethics) 這個社會，
12
這個世界上到底發生什麼事？
Intercultural Understanding
 Hill stresses that intercultural understanding is the
most important component in international
mindedness.

“International mindedness has the following
components to it: I think the first and most important is
intercultural understanding, awareness and what we
sometimes called intercultural literacy and that is
absolutely fundamental; without that you can’t have
international mindedness.” (Interview with Hill 2012)
13
Intercultural Understanding
 Harrison (2013:95-96) indicates that intercultural
understanding is an important component in and
subset in international mindedness. Students
develop intercultural understanding and respect for
cultural diversity through learning experience and
languages in internationally minded curricula.
 Cambridge (2000:26) indicates that it was very
important to have sustainable development and
intercultural dialogue in a global village.
14
Intercultural understanding
 School A
 老师：Why are we learning global issues? This is because
you can understand and respect other cultures and
heritage.
 你必须要知道其他国家发生什么，因为这样你才可以能够理解他
们的文化遗产 understand other cultures (+ve Appren）其他
的文化，对不对？你才可以尊重 respect (+ve Appren）它。
 Teacher：Why are we learning global issues? This is
because you can understand other cultures and heritage,
(+ve Appren）and 尊重 respect (+ve Appren）them.

15
Intercultural understanding
 School B
 Group Presentation: Group 1
 Chris: Moreover, internet promotes learning cultural
heritages such as Cantonese Opera and Chinese
Opera around the world. It can also promote and
preserve cultural heritages.
 Chris: The fourth point is that we can use internet to
admire the essence of the cultures of all other
countries. +ve [Apprecn] intercultural understanding
,respect other cultures. For example, people from other
countries can also watch the Cantonese or Beijing opera.
 Appreciateand preserve cultural heritage
16
Intercultural understanding
 Teacher indicated that students should cultivate intercultural
understanding as students were come from different cultural
background. She asked students to explore global issues in the
world in order to cultivate intercultural awareness, cultural diversity
and knowledge of cultural identity in a global village through
learning Chinese.
 Students answered that Hong Kong is part of China and they were
living in Hong Kong and they have to know about the cultural
identity in Hong Kong through learning Chinese language. Students
also need to learn the world through global issues.
 老师：我们现在这个世界呢，已经不是自己的一个社区了，因为世界
发生的所有事情都会影响到我们，而且世界上发生的事情，我们现在
都可以一下子就知道了。那我们要多去理解，多去了解为什么。Why
are we leaning 全球性的问题?
 老师：你要了解他们的文化遗产，你才会了解他们的文化，这才是重
点。
17
Values Education
 In the following group discussion, students
make moral judgement on the social sanction
such as gender equalities. In their research
presentation, they criticized that gender
inequalities caused poverty in China. They
criticized the government not to improve the
quality of living of girls in rural villages because
of government corruption.
 Student: 政府腐败，都可以导致贫穷causing
poverty.
18
Values Education
 Lee (2004:139) indicates that values education promote
orderly and caring school communities, improving
human rights for girls and women and promote values of
justice and equity.
 Teacher asked students to think why girls cannot go to
school because they have to do household in the family
and give birth for the next generation in traditional
Chinese ideology. Students make the Judgment social
sanction propriety (ethics) and criticize that the
inequalities and social injustice were caused by the
government’s corruption and the unreasonable Chinese
traditional ideology and discrimination. Students make
the inscribed judgment on world-view or ideological
position or heteroglossic diversity.
19
 Therefore, students think that girls should have same
Values Education
 Students also learn caring and compassion. In their
presentation, students found that they did not have
caring for others. However, students reported that
they learn the human values and caring for others
through discussion of case study. They reported
that they were willing to help and give donation in
order to improve the life of poor children. They learn
and cherish these valuable experiences and
understand social injustice and discrimination.
20
Global Citizenship
 Harrison (2013:97) indicates that global
citizenship and intercultural understanding
embrace the large scale of human
civilization, issues that affect global
populations and what can happen when
cultures interact. Global poverty is one of
the global issues, which is related to large
scale of human civilization.
21
Global Citizenship
 Students build up the knowledge of global
awareness to think globally.
 Teacher used transdisciplinary approaches to
ask students thinking about the transdisciplinary
knowledge of poverty. Students can connect
prior knowledge of other subjects such as
geography and history to generate questions
about economy, education, poverty and inequity
and health problems with poverty in the rural
area. Students mentioned that the poor were
facing illness and death caused by lack of
healthcare in the poor countries.
22
Human Rights and Democracy
 Group 2
 Student Feng:……As the first effect, the network can be
used as a platform for discussion. Everyone can comment
or express their own opinion so we have to protect the
freedom of speech and respect human right. When it
comes to express our opinions, we can promote (social
esteem: capacity) the democratic development.
(propriety (ethics) inscribed: Positive judgement). We
have a good example, it is the Arabic Spring.
23
Human Rights and Democracy
 Student C: The Internet has also become a tool for
controlling thinking. (Ideological position (propriety
(ethics) inscribed: Negative judgement) It is beneficial
that the government has closed down certain websites for
propagating their own political thinking. displacing and
replacing the culture of the indigenous country (propriety
(ethics) inscribed: Negative judgement)
 Some developed countries do not realise promoting forcibly (a
high value of INTENSITY: FORCE) their own cultures and
values to other countries by depending on their economies
and political standing in the international society. (Propriety
(ethics) inscribed: Negative judgement)
24
Human Rights and Democracy
 Students discussed human rights and
democracy in their group presentation.
 It was like China closing down the
websites regarding Liu Xiaobo 劉曉波
after winning this Nobel Peace Prize
(propriety (ethics) inscribed: Negative
judgement) because Liu fought for
democracy. (propriety (ethics)
inscribed: Positive judgement)
25
Human Rights and Democracy
 Another example is that a lot of the local
mainland Chinese do not know the truth
regarding the June 4 incident. (inscribed:
negative judgement, veracity (truth)
 Because the Chinese government has closed
down these websites so that the Government
does not want others to know what they had
done and what had really happened.
(inscribed: negative judgement, propriety
(ethics) inscribed: Negative judgement)
26
The Pedagogical approaches
 The pedagogical approaches include scaffolding, inquiry
based learning, research skills, critical thinking,
collaborative learning, student-centered teaching.
 Students realized international mindedness by making
moral judgments and applying interdisciplinary
knowledge of social issues to learn the concepts of
intercultural understanding, global citizenship.
 I hope that this study will contribute to promote
intercultural understanding and international
mindedness and give suggestions on improvement in IB
curriculum development, teaching and learning.
27
The Pedagogical approaches
 Student-centered teaching
 In the teaching cycle, teacher implemented
inquiry based teaching. Teacher identified
that they had discussed regarding the social
issues such as poverty and media by
questioning in order to enhance students’
understanding, engagement in the classroom
interaction in order to arouse their curiosity
and confidence in further discussion.
28
Scaffolding
 Vogotsky (1978: 86, Christie 2000, 125 )
indicated that ‘Zone of proximal development’ is
the distance between the actual development
level as determined by independent problem
solving and the level of potential development
as determined through problem solving under
adult guidance or in collaboration with more
capable peers.” The teacher showed scaffolding
in her teaching in order to help her students to
reach their level of potential development.
29
Scaffolding, collaborative learning, research skills and
critical reflection
 Teacher: If you look for the poverty definition, you
have read the United Nations and World Bank, United
Nations dedicated to improving the well being of present
and future generations through the promotion of
sustainable development. (inscribed: Social Esteem:
capacity Positive Judgement)
 老师：其实并不难，只要你找到贫穷的定义，看看联合国
的，看看世界银行的。开始先看联合国，不是去看世界银
行，为什么去看联合国，因为联合国是一个世界性的机构
，对不对啊？而且他在这方面呢，是不断地支持、发展、
帮助需要社会有问题的国家和人民。
30
Communication skills
 In the communication skills, teacher
taught students to read the poverty
references not only learning for
vocabulary expansion, comprehension
skills but also learning culture and the
global poverty problems. They learn
how to understand and analysis the
poverty line.

31
Research skills and Collaborative skills
 Davies, L. (2006:23) indicates that global citizen should
have research skills and the schools should encourage
research skills on global issues such as rights, poverty
or conflict in their local area.
 Hill (2012:259) indicates that critical thinking and
collaboration are applied beyond the national borders in
the education for international mindedness which will
help teachers and students to shape the attitude
towards intercultural understanding, peaceful coexistence and global sustainable development for the
future of the human race. Students found that poverty
will be caused by war because of unstable political
situation.
32
Collaborative learning, research skills and critical
reflection
 Teacher encourages students to develop research skills,
collaborative and critical reflection which are the key
components of ways of knowing. They are applying new
knowledge in real-life situation.
 Teacher: Now, I want all of you to search for information and
after 2 to 3 weeks present an oral presentation. The main theme
is related to culture, that is the influence of the internet on
cultural exchanges. As far as the economics part, it is better that
all of us learn together because it is a bit more difficult.
Sometimes, we do not know how to analyse it.
33
Conflict resolution skills
 UNESCO (2010:8) and Oxfam (2006:1) stress that
learning conflict resolution skills are important
components in international mindedness which requires
mutual understanding, nondiscrimination, respect for
difference, inclusion and equal opportunity, regardless
of race, culture, gender, language or religious or political
beliefs. It is difficult for a society without equity or justice
to remain peaceful or socially cohesive. Without peace
or harmony, economic and environmental sustainability
are also threatened.
34
Conflict resolution skills
 In the following student presentation, students found
that poverty was globalised including social problem,
climate change and civil war. Civil war caused a lot of
children were killed and they lost their homes
 Students: Poverty was globalised which was mainly
caused by war, social problems, climate change. Civil
war caused a lot of children were killed and they lost
their homes and destroying infrastructures. Children
could not receive education and therefore it took a lot of
time to rebuild the society. Moreover, the government
should provide education and necessities.
35
Critical thinking
 Teacher：This is a Chinese class. You have to know about
poverty in China and Hong Kong，because you are living in
Hong Kong. Then you need to look for poverty in another
country. You have to express your opinions critically （+ve
Judgment Social Esteem: Capacity ) on how the government
solve the poverty problems effectively. ( -ve Judgment Social
Esteem: tenacity (resolve)) You have to criticize the
government should handle the poverty problems but they
had did not handle the poverty problems properly. (-ve
Judgment Social Esteem: tenacity (resolve) )
 You hav to look for the definition, cause and effect and
suggested solutions and compare with other countries in
the world which can help you to learn international
mindedness （+ve Judgment Social Esteem: Capacity )，
You are caring the global issues. (+ve Judgment social
36
sanction propriety (ethics).
Critical thinking Skills
 Teacher used probing questions to engage students to
make judgement and self-reflection on personal beliefs
and ethics. Students have to think the relationship
between poverty and ethics. She encouraged students
to learn from the peers through discussion and critical
thinking. Students criticize that poverty was caused by
the corruption of the government. Students make the
Judgment social sanction propriety (ethics) and criticize
that the inequalities and social injustice were caused by
the government’s corruption and did not care the poor in
Africa.
37
Critical thinking
 Chris：因为网上大量的信息，所以会导致人
们很难分辨信息的真伪，所以会引起误会和错
误地接受信息，这就会使网民对其他国家的文
化可能有不正确的印象，引起对事物看法的偏
差，严重的情况下会引起种族歧视。
38
Critical thinking
 Chris: The large volume of information on the Internet
makes it difficult to differentiate between genuine and false
information, causing misunderstanding and errors when the
information is received. This will lead Internet citizens to
have incorrect impressions of the cultures of other countries.
This will give rise to bias. Under more severe conditions, it
will lead to racial discrimination. (inscribed: Social
Sanction:propriety
(ethics)
Negative
Judgement).
Students analyze casual relationship of the reasons of
internet abuse, which caused ethics problems.
 Students engage in self-reflection on personal beliefs and
values.
39
Critical thinking
 老师：……每个论点的话呢，你一定要有一个论据，
然后你要有个论证，论证就是所谓的实际，现实生活
能找到的例子，没有例子的话谁都会说，这是很明显
的。
 Teacher: For each argument point, you must have a
corresponding evidence. Then, you need to prove
that argument. Evidence for the argument is the
fact. Facts are the examples that you can find in
real life.
 Teacher requests students have to apply
reasoning,
justification,
induction
and
deduction in order to get rid of biases.
40
Critical thinking skills
 Discussion of controversial issues can build skills such
as listening, debate, handling conflict, self awareness,
distinguishing between fact and opinion, creative
problem solving, critical thinking, ethical reasoning,
recognizing bias, evaluating evidence, justifying an
argument, logical "We should be teaching students how
to think. Instead, we are teaching what to think."
(Clement and Lochhead, 1980, Cognitive Process
Instruction). Critical thinking can help students to have
self reflection and classification of values. Teacher
promotes thinking and discussion can encourage
students to have critical thinking skills and whole class
engagement which can offer more opportunities for
students to share their opinions, receive feedbacks and
achieve challenge tasks by groups.
41
Results and Discussion
 It is very important that teacher to be a role model to
promote international mindedness.
 Halliday points out (2007:187) that the second language
learning likes the first language learning is a problem
solving activity and information processing.
 The teacher encourages students to learn and respect
different points of view on social issues. Christie
(2000:169) indicates that teacher’s open-mindedness
will help students to develop international mindedness
and their independent points of view critically.

42
Results and discussion
 Interview with teacher:
 Teacher: I think the ideology of the IB mission statement
is very deep. It hope to educate children to be
internationally minded. It is very important. So they will
also be open-minded and willing to express their own
opinions. Therefore, I think in the classroom they should
be able to express their own view freely.
 老师：我想呢，因为IB Mission Statement这个理念是很
广，希望教出来的孩子是有国际视野的，这很重要，然后
有开广的胸怀，勇于发表意见。所以我觉得在课堂里面他
们可以比较自由的发挥他们的想法
43
Conclusion
 In order to be able to accept and respect other cultures
and have tolerance towards cultural differences. Both
teachers and students need to cultivate intercultural
understanding and have the ability to think globally in a
critical and logical way, mutual trust and respect and
work co-operatively, take responsibilities in society,
resolve conflict in a non-violent manner. (Judgment
Social Esteem: Capacity ).
 The teaching and learning tradition has been shifted to
conceptualized international mindedness, global
citizenship, knowledge acquisition as well as shifted
towards independent learning. (Judgment Social
Esteem: Capacity ).
44
Conclusion
developing
Zhou (2006) advocates Learning to be:
professional attributes,
including commitment, sense of
responsibility and love for teaching and for
learners to improve human
communication
Learning to live together: breaking
isolation for team work and guiding
learners as ‘coach’ of learning and as colearners with their pupils in achieving
educational aims of human development
and full flowering of human potential.
45

Peaceful World
 IBO’s mission statement is to create a better and more
peaceful world through education.”
 Confucius advocated a perfect world of brotherhood of
mankind which is an ideal world or Utopia “Da-Tong” 大同
世界 encompasses equality, union, harmony, welfare,
justice and universal peace.
 Mencius promoted peace and justice for the entire world.
 As Liu (2000) argues that Neo-Confucian philosophers
promote respecting different cultures, multiculturalism,
humanity’s “ultimate concern” “ 終 極 關 懷 ” and
compassion by sustainable development and intercultural
dialogue in a global village.
46
Reference





















Bednarek, M. (2013). Principles for Applying Appraisal Theory: A perspective from corpus-based discourse analysis
Christie, F. (2006). Pedagogy and the Shaping of Consciousness. London. Continuum.
Christie, F. & Derewianka, B. (2008). School discourse. London: Continuum.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar. Australia: Edward Arnold (Australia) Pty Ltd.
Hallilday, M.A.K. (2000). An introduction to functional grammar. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research
Press.
Hallilday, M.A.K. (2007). Language and Education: Volume 9 (Collected Works M A Halliday) . Beijing: Foreign
Language Teaching and Research Press.
Hayden.M., Rancic, B. and Thompson, J. (2000). Being International: students and teacher perceptions from
international school. Oxford Review of Education, 26 (1) p107-123.
Haywood, T. (2007). A Simple Typology of International Mindedness and Its Implications for Education. The SAGE
Handbook of Research in International Education, London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Page. p.86-87.
Hill I. (2012). Evolution of education for international mindedness. Journal of Research of International Education.11 (3)
245-261.
Liu, S.H. (2000). The Openness of Confucianism. GLOBAL DIALOGUE Volume 2 . Number 1, Winter 2000—The New
Universe of Faiths. http://worlddialogue.org/content.php?id=62
IBO (2009). IB Learner Profile Booklet. http://www.ibo.org./mission
Martin, J.R. & White, P.R.R. (2005). The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English: New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Skelton, M. (2007). International mindedness and the brain: The difficulties of “Becoming”. The SAGE Handbook of
Research in International Education, London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Page. p.380-388.
Thompson. J.J. (2013). Promoting International mindedness in schools: What does research tell us? The University of
Hong Kong Seminar Presentation on 11 March 2013.
UNESCO. (1999). International Education Bureau, A Curriculum Framework for Peace Education. p.4
http://www.ibe.unesco.org/publications/Innovation/inno100e.pdf
UNESCO (2004). What is International Education? UNESCO Answers. P.94-95
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001385/138578e.pdf
Walker, G. (2005). What I have learned about international education? Biennial Conference of IB Nordic Schools.
Stockholm: 9 September 2005. (p.1-p.8)
White, P. (1998). Telling Media Tales: the news story as rhetoric. PhD. Thesis.
http://www.grammatics.com/appraisal/whiteprr_phd.html
Zhou, Nanzhao (2006). Reflections on Curriculum Change: Overview of Directions, Policy Issues and Capacity Building in Asia-47
Pacific Contexts. Seminar/Workshop on the Management of Curriculum Change 7-9 June 2006, PSSC, Quezon City, Philippines.