ABSTRACT

The growing number of international students studying at Canadian universities has exacerbated the need to address identity, cultural aspects of teaching, and the commonalities of different cultures through a transcultural lens. To explore these concepts, researchers conducted a qualitative study using a workshop format at a large university in western Canada with graduate students, postdoctoral students, and faculty members from multiethnic backgrounds (N = 9). Two questions were posed to precipitate the research: 1) What does being transcultural mean to you? 2) Have you experienced cultural dissonance as part of your professional life? In a series of three activities, participants explored how to use identity texts (written, spoken, visual, musical, or multimodal sociocultural artefacts produced by participants) as an intervention to foster transculturalism and reduce tension and dissonance in a cross-cultural educational setting. Results indicated that using identity texts increased self-awareness, built trust, enhanced belonging, and revealed common humanity, thus creating opportunities to develop a successful professional identity in a multiethnic milieu.

摘要

越来越多的国际学生在加拿大大学学习，这加剧了通过跨文化视角来解决身份认同、教学的文化方面以及不同文化的共性的需求。为了探索这些概念，研究人员在加拿大西部的一所大型大学以研讨会形式对来自多民族背景的研究生、博士后和教职员工进行了定性研究（N= 9)。提出了两个问题来促成这项研究：1）跨文化对你意味着什么？2) 您在职业生涯中是否经历过文化失调？在一系列三项活动中，参与者探索了如何使用身份文本（参与者产生的书面、口头、视觉、音乐或多模态社会文化人工制品）作为干预措施，以促进跨文化主义并减少跨文化教育环境中的紧张和不和谐。结果表明，使用身份文本可以提高自我意识、建立信任、增强归属感并揭示共同的人性，从而为在多民族环境中发展成功的专业身份创造机会。