Teacher-parent consultation — a case study of intercultural conversation in a primary school setting

Abstract

It is a widespread belief that intercultural communication can be improved by gaining knowledge about other cultures. Books containing ‘cultural recipes’ are still published and courses in intercultural communication are still taught which tell students what to do or not in their contact with people from other cultures, mainly based on aspects of the other culture. Such approaches are essentially based on a static and deterministic perspective on culture and a linear view on the process of communication, the so-called sender-receiver model. In our opinion, such an approach contradicts reality and can result in a generalizing and stereotypical way of ‘us vs. them thinking’, which may worsen the interaction between members of different cultures.