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“Nested Interculturality”: Dispositions and Practices for Navigating Tensions in Immersion Experiences

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Book cover Redefining Teaching Competence through Immersive Programs

Abstract

This chapter explores the model of “nested interculturality” (Avineri, 2015), a collective of dispositions and practices for ethical intercultural engagement that can be used to navigate tensions often experienced in cultural and linguistic immersion experiences. The conceptualization of “nests” foregrounds an ecological and dynamic view of interculturality in which both cultivation/growth and precariousness/risk are negotiated simultaneously in partnership with others. The chapter explores interculturality as an individual-in-context learning process and an “oppositional practice” (Kramsch & Nolden, 1994) negotiated through interactions across spaces, temporalities, and narratives. Ultimately, this chapter is both theoretical and model-building as well as pedagogical and practice-oriented, highlighting how interculturally-minded and relationally-oriented educators can mobilize their professional practice for societal change.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In workshops and courses in which I introduce “nested interculturality” I first ask the students/participants to share their associations with the word “nest”, which invites them to consider both the positive and negative aspects of the term. I also show a short video in which a bird is sitting on branches and there is a second bird struggling underneath the branches. Though at first they are not able to see the second bird, eventually they are able to. I then highlight how interculturality is about “seeing the second bird” (i.e., noticing and acknowledging what may be at first be invisible or marginalized, and thoughtfully engaging with it).

  2. 2.

    http://www.servicelearning.umn.edu/crimson/dependancies/multimedia/reflection1.pdf.

  3. 3.

    http://www.servicelearning.umn.edu/info/reflection.html.

  4. 4.

    http://servicelearning.duke.edu/uploads/media_items/dealreflection-questions.original.pdf.

  5. 5.

    This needs assessment tool is adapted from Peter Shaw’s Curriculum Design needs assessment tool.

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  1. Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Monterey, CA, USA

    Netta Avineri

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  1. Pennsylvania State University, Brandywine, Media, PA, USA

    Daniela Martin

  2. Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Elizabeth Smolcic

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Avineri, N. (2019). “Nested Interculturality”: Dispositions and Practices for Navigating Tensions in Immersion Experiences. In: Martin, D., Smolcic, E. (eds) Redefining Teaching Competence through Immersive Programs. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24788-1_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24788-1_2

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