A narrative inquiry into foreign teachers’ perplexes in mixed-cultural classes

oleh: Yuqin Zhao

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Taylor & Francis Group 2016-12-01

Deskripsi

Mixed-cultural classes, a foreign teacher teaching Chinese students, are common now in China. These mixed-cultural classes provide an educational context where there are chances of direct intercultural contact and deeper understandings of the cultural other, and also misunderstandings and even conflicts between teachers and students from different cultures. This study conducted a research by narrative inquiry on what perplexes some foreign teachers experienced while teaching Chinese students. Semi-structured interviews were used among several teachers at Harbin Institute of Technology, whose account of their experienced perplexes were categorized through thematic analysis. Some perplexes were generalized as “the silence of students in class”, “problem of punctuality”, “not complaining to foreign teachers directly”, “no respect from Chinese students,” and “plagiarism”, which might cause misunderstandings of the foreign teachers toward Chinese students, some of them leading to conflicts of a certain degree. Different educational perceptions might be the causes of these conflicts in mixed-cultural classes. Teachers should understand their own teaching styles, adjust their teaching styles to accommodate the diverse teaching styles of their students in order to create a more viable educational environment.