Transcript Association of American Colleges and Universities Annual

Association of American Colleges and Universities
Annual Meeting 2005
LIBERAL EDUCATION AND THE NEW ACADEMY:
Raising Expectations, Keeping Promises
Context Diversity: Reframing Higher
Education for Civic Learning in a Diverse
Democracy
Thursday, January 27, 2005
2:45-4:00 PM
John A. Saltmarsh, Project Director, Campus Compact
Roberto A. Ibarra, Special Assistant to the Provost, University of
New Mexico
Dan P. Young, Director, University College Academic Programs,
University of New Mexico
DIMENSIONS OF DIVERSITY
1. STRUCTURAL DIVERSITY
2. MULTICULTURAL DIVERSITY
3. CONTEXT DIVERSITY
DIMENSIONS OF DIVERSITY
STRUCTURAL DIVERSITY
Characterized by:
 compliance-oriented Affirmative Action,

support programs created to recruit/retain
underrepresented students/faculty and

to help people overcome barriers for access,

success is measured by increasing the numbers
of under represented populations.
DIMENSIONS OF DIVERSITY
STRUCTURAL DIVERSITY
Basic Assumptions:
 Assimilation
 Critical Mass
 Remediation
DIMENSIONS OF DIVERSITY
MULTICULTURAL DIVERSITY
Characterized by:
 infusing diversity via cultural customs
into our institutions,
 valuing underrepresented populations
for potential to recruit and retain others,
 initiatives that contribute toward
enhancing campus climate and,
 more awareness of multicultural issues.
DIMENSIONS OF DIVERSITY
MULTICULTURAL DIVERSITY
Basic Assumptions:
 Celebrate differences
 Multicultural awareness
 Improve campus climate
 Achieve critical mass
 Affirmative Action compliance
DIMENSIONS OF DIVERSITY
CONTEXT DIVERSITY
Characterized as:
 An emerging paradigm that emphasizes
reframing rather than reforming academic
cultures to meet the needs of all populations
and especially underrepresented groups.
 Striving to create a learning community with
myriad ways to attract diverse populations and
have them thrive in an academic or workplace
environment.
DIMENSIONS OF DIVERSITY
CONTEXT DIVERSITY
Characterized by:
 attempts to change academic culture to address
the needs of the recent demographic shifts in
US populations over the last few decades.
 Shifting diversity initiatives from current
concepts about recruitment and retention to
concepts that emphasize attracting and thriving.
DIMENSIONS OF DIVERSITY
CONTEXT DIVERSITY
 Results are measured not only by how well we
attract diverse populations, but also by how
well we enhance our campus cultures to
improve upon the academic and work
performance among all students, faculty and
staff.
 The focus is on increasing diversity by building
diversity into the context of the higher education
system, our learning community and beyond.
DIMENSIONS OF DIVERSITY
CONTEXT DIVERSITY
Basic Assumptions:
 The concern for access and achieving critical
mass are no longer the main problems.
 The lack of underrepresented populations is a
symptom not the problem.
 Underperformance issues and conflict over the
cultural context of higher education surface as
major problems.
DIMENSIONS OF DIVERSITY
CONTEXT DIVERSITY
New solutions:
 find creative ways to generate systemic change
in campus climate and academic cultures,
 Reframe (expand/shift) pedagogy and
curriculum without giving up good educational
practices,
 Include a variety of cultural contexts,
learning/teaching styles that serve the needs of
a growing multicontextual population.
THE EMERGING MULTICONTEXT WORLD
A growing number of individuals now
entering higher education bring with them
a mix of individualized characteristics
described as their cultural context
THE EMERGING MULTICONTEXT WORLD
These learned preferences influence
how they interact and associate with
others, use living spaces, perceive
concepts of time, process information,
respond to various teaching and
learning styles, perform academically
or in the workplace, and include many
other cognitive factors that were
imprinted on them in childhood by
family and community and continue to
help shape their world view.
THE EMERGING MULTICONTEXT WORLD
Cultural groups that exhibit low context
tendencies include Northern European
populations, such as English, German,
Swiss, and Scandinavian people. US
populations are varied and exhibit to
varying degrees the low or high context
imprinting of their heritage. Mainstream
American culture is primarily low context.
North American men are generally more
low context than North American women.
THE EMERGING MULTICONTEXT WORLD
Cultural groups that exhibit high context
tendencies include Asians, Arabs, people
from other Middle Eastern and
Mediterranean-based countries, Africans,
Latin Americans, and native North
American Indian groups.
High context populations are increasing in
the United States and in the world.
Low Context
High Context
Multicontext
ACADEMIC SYSTEMS
LC disciplines – mainly
sciences, engineering,
math
ACADEMIC SYSTEMS
HC disciplines – mainly
humanities, education,
liberal arts
Scientific thinking is
emphasized
Practical thinking is valued
Academic/teaching style is
technical
Academic/teaching style is
personal
Science relies on Linneanstyle taxonomies
Science includes folk
taxonomies
Reframe (expand/shift)
Pedagogy and Curriculum
Connecting
Context Diversity to Teaching
and Learning
Designing High Context Educational
Experiences
High Context Education and Civic Learning
Teaching and Learning
LOW CONTEXT
Knowledge is obtained by
logical reasoning
HIGH CONTEXT
Knowledge is gained by a
gestalt model
Analytical thinking is
important
Comprehensive thinking is
important
Students learn best by
following directions
Students learn best by
demonstration
Learning is oriented
toward the individual
Learning is group oriented
Creative learning process is
externalized
Creative learning process is
internalized
Cultural Context and Cognition
The individual’s cultural context shapes and influences basic assumptions about
the nature of truth and reality and the origins of knowledge.
High Context Education
Makes use of multiple streams of information that surround an event, problem,
or question for the purpose of creating meaning out of the context in which it
occurs.
 Oriented toward connection between the knower and the object (or subject) of
knowing – the context for knowledge.
 Experience of a process of knowledge creation.

Low Context Education
Filters out conditions surrounding an event, problem, or question to focus on
objective fact.
 Oriented toward detachment of knower and the object (or subject) of knowing
– the context for knowledge.
 Application of objective procedures for obtaining and communicating
knowledge.

Learning for the 21st Century
“People worldwide need a whole series of new
competencies... But I doubt that such abilities can be
taught solely in the classroom, or be developed solely by
teachers. Higher order thinking and problem solving
skills grow out of direct experience, not simply teaching;
they require more than a classroom activity. They
develop through active involvement and real life
experiences in workplaces and the community.”
John Abbott, Director of Britain’s Education 2000 Trust, Interview with Ted Marchese, AAHE
Bulletin, 1996
What We Know About Promoting
Learning:
[Cognitive Sciences Suggest Six Foci]
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Approaches that emphasize application and experience;
Approaches in which faculty constructively model the learning
process;
Approaches that emphasize linking established concepts to new
situations
Approaches the emphasize interpersonal collaboration;
Approaches that emphasize rich and frequent feedback on
performances;
Curricula that consistently develop a limited set of clearly identified,
cross-disciplinary skills that are publicly held to be important.
*source: Peter Ewel, “Organizing for Learning.” AAHE Bulletin, December, 1997, pp. 3-6
Connecting Context Diversity to Teaching
and Learning
National Survey of Student Engagement
National Benchmarks for Effective Educational Practice





Level of Academic Challenge
Active and Collaborative Learning
Student-Faculty Interaction
Enriching Educational Experience
Supportive Campus Environment
Connecting Context Diversity to Teaching
and Learning

“Complementary learning opportunities inside and
outside the classroom augment the academic
program…service-learning provides students with
opportunities to synthesize, integrate, and apply
their knowledge. Such experiences make learning
more meaningful, and ultimately more useful
because what students know becomes a part of
who they are.”
(2002 NSSE Annual Report)
Connecting Context Diversity to Teaching
and Learning

Faculty of color and women are more likely
than their counterparts to value and use
integrative learning activities and create
active and collaborative learning
experiences.
(findings from the 2004 NSSE and FSSE - Liberal Education, Fall 2004.)
Experiential Learning Theory
Kolb’s Learning Cycle
Ibarra’s Multicontextual Model
HIGH CONTEXT
Concrete
Experience
(do it)
Action
Reflective
Experimentation
Observation
(take a lesson)
(watch it)
LOW CONTEXT
Abstract
Conceptualization
(go to a lecture/read a book)
High Context Education and Civic Learning
“We know, for instance, that students can be
engaged in a range of effective practices and still
not be learning with understanding; we know that
students can be learning with understanding and
still not be acquiring the knowledge, skills, and
dispositions that are related to effective
citizenship.”
(National Survey of Student Engagement, 2002).
High Context Education and Civic Learning
From the Michigan Journal of Community Service
Learning, Service Learning Course Design Workbook
(2001): “We conceive of ‘civic learning’ as any learning
that contributes to student preparation for community
or public involvement in a diverse democratic society.
A loose interpretation of civic learning would lead one
to believe that education in general prepares one for
citizenship in our democracy. And it certainly does.
However, we have in mind here a strict interpretation
of civic learning – knowledge, skills and values that
make an explicitly direct and purposeful contribution to
the preparation of students for active civic
participation.”
Civic Learning
Knowledge
historical, political, and civic knowledge that arises from both academic and
community sources.
Skills








critical thinking skills
communication skills
public problem solving
civic judgment
civic imagination and creativity
collective action
coalition building
organizational analysis
Values
Values specifically as they relate to democracy: justice, inclusion, and
participation.
Designing High Context Educational
Experiences
An educational experience infused with high context
characteristics might include the following elements:












Relational learning – interpersonal interactions.
Problem solving – exploring questions through
experience.
Collaborative learning.
Develop understanding with partners.
Short-term interpersonal feedback.
Interrelationship of affective and cognitive development.
Resolving conflict and dealing with contention.
Participating in long-term relationships with formal
obligations.
Process is as important as product.
Knowledge is created (not consumed).
Knowledge is interdisciplinary.
Research is applied.
Designing a High Context Educational
Experience

Consider a course (or program) that you are
currently teaching - Does it reflect high
context or low context teaching and
learning? What alterations/adaptations
could you make that would make it more of
a high context educational experience?
Why High Context Education?
(A realignment or balance.)





Engaged learning (motivation, retention, persistence, life-long
learning)
Connects with the multiple learning styles of students.
Addresses the cognitive preferences of underrepresented ethnic and
gender populations in higher education associated with high-context
cultures.
High-context values of collaboration, inclusiveness, community
involvement, and comprehensive/systems thinking are the foundations
of civic engagement in a diverse democracy.
Implications for which students thrive in higher education, who
pursues careers in academia, and the kind of scholarship that faculty
undertake.
IMPLEMENTATING
MULTICONTEXTUALITY
at the University of New
Mexico
A COGNITIVE/
CURRICULAR MODEL
Phases—
Learning Cycle
3
Pattern
1.
Experiential Ground; base of
knowledge, skill, experience;
current context—the present here
and now
2.
Abstraction from experience,
attending, foregrounding; induction
3.
Conceptualization; organization of
concepts; representation
4.
Application; testing conceptual
knowledge in the real world;
deduction; doing
Abstraction
2
4
Experience
Matrix
1
LOWCONTEXT
3
Pattern
Abstraction
2
4
Experience
Matrix
1
HIGH CONTEXT
HIGH V. LOW CONTEXT
LOW CONTEXT
HIGH CONTEXT






Dualities are contradictory
Knowledge is
abstract
Process is linear
Knowledge exists for its own
sake
Typical of university courses,
especially in lower division




Dualities are complementary
Knowledge emerges from
concrete experience
Process is cyclical
Knowledge has purpose
Found in some graduate, upper
division or honors courses
PLANNING FOR
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
1.



2.


Starting Point
Academic Discipline
Intriguing Question
Real-world Situation
Development of Starting Point
Exploration and Expansion
Focus
What is “Experiential” about
Experiential Learning?

experiential learning is learning that takes place
within and through a complex, real-life context
 experiential knowledge is both abstractly patterned
and experientially grounded
 knowledge achieved in experiential learning has
purpose
 experiential learning emerges from a real-life context;
therefore experiential learning
– tends to be multidisciplinary
– embraces surprise
– seeks to make sense of a range of perspectives
Robert A. Ibarra
Beyond Affirmative Action: Reframing
the Context of Higher Education
University of Wisconsin Press, 2001