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‘Silence is Golden’: Cultural Collision in the Classroom

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Managing Culture

Part of the book series: Sociology of the Arts ((SOA))

Abstract

It is widely reported that international student cohorts present pedagogical challenges. This chapter tells the story of a research project undertaken at a leading British university to investigate how ‘cultural diversity’ was understood and experienced by staff and students on a creative industries programme. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with students and staff, and the data revealed a range of tensions around cultural difference, social integration and cultural adaptation, particularly in relation to the Chinese students, which comprised almost half of the cohort. A variety of social and cultural factors collided in the classroom, creating misunderstandings, causing resentment and highlighting a general lack of intercultural awareness and competence. Cultural diversity was recognised and positively encouraged, yet its inherent complexities were not fully understood. This chapter calls for the development of a collective intercultural competence, better recognition of the teaching and learning challenges that result from internationalisation, and institutional support.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Intersectionality refers to the relationship and interaction between various social and cultural categories that inevitably and unavoidably impact on each other such as gender, sexuality and social class.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks go to the Faculty of Arts & Humanities and the Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King’s College London for providing the budget for this project. Thank you to the anonymous colleagues and students who participated as interviewees in this study, as well as the students that assisted me with this research: Rashmi Dhanwani, Sebastien Donnadieu, Linh Huynh (Zeo), Lara Longo and Ruiyan Zhu. Final thanks go to Victoria Durrer and Raphaela Henze for their invitation to join the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded international network, Brokering Intercultural Exchange (www.manaingculture.net), which explores the role of pedagogy within intercultural understanding and for their editorial work on this chapter.

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  1. King’s College London, London, UK

    Melissa Nisbett

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  1. Melissa Nisbett
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Correspondence to Melissa Nisbett .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

    Victoria Durrer

  2. Heilbronn University, Künzelsau, Germany

    Raphaela Henze

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Nisbett, M. (2020). ‘Silence is Golden’: Cultural Collision in the Classroom. In: Durrer, V., Henze, R. (eds) Managing Culture. Sociology of the Arts. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24646-4_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24646-4_10

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-24645-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-24646-4

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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