Teaching across cultures

It is the same every semester, whether it be undergrad or postgrad. A class where the majority of students are not Australian is a challenge. Their expectations of teacher presence is different, amongst other things....

I have been working with French and other international (e.g. Spain, Italy, Canada, US, Singapore, China, Vietnam, Argentina, Nepal....it goes on) students, mostly at the post grad level for around 14 years - 11 in France and the rest in Australia. These past 12 months at the undergrad level, has been a new new experience for me in France, but not Australia.

It is often a struggle.

Here in France it has been a unique experience as it it not my culture, hell I have only just lived here a while and become Australian-French, yet the the journey is the same, look to a bell curve for a diagram - easy beginning, then mid session for a couple of weeks, the tension rises astronomically (highest point of the bell curve), the students struggle and want what they know, not what they have - in France, the authoritarian presence, top down learning without any student autonomy and the fear of negative marking, all things that I am not and do not engage.

As they realise their complaints are heard, attended to, reflective questions asked of them, and my presence remains unchanged, we continue and begin the downward slide off the heights of that bell curve, to a nice groove as the tension decreases to take us through the last third of the semester.

At times you question - what the hell do I do this for? .... there are other ways to earn an income that do not require such stamina.

Then the gifts arrive and you think, well that may just have been worth it.

Here I share some of the thoughts from the students from this past semester. And yes I had thought to give it up.

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This class was marked by a creative activity using Lego.? At first a little skeptical, I quickly got into the game and this teaching session was my favorite of the semester. Indeed, I was able to realize how much the playful aspect can be a motivation to learn...

I found this class interesting because with my classmates we worked on reflecting on what flavors our motivation, our desires; how we place the cursor between the stress factors and our resources. To do this, we used a support [create and deliver a wellbeing skit] provided by our teacher and I found this principle quite playful.

I really like pushing myself out of my comfort zone. This was not too intense, but it is always a little daunting to go in front of the class and essentially do theater. The little skits were really fun and we had a good laugh. But they were also really good tools to use.

I really really enjoyed?passing out gratitude notes. I loved it, actually. It made everyone happy and it was so new and fresh. I received some that I would not have expected and I just thought it was such a good exercise and I would love to do it more. ... it is very unconventional in France and some people actually are very surprised to receive nice comments said without any reason, but it is always positive. I wanted to write you a note too, to say thank you for challenging us and bringing us your point of view this year and sticking to your convictions.?

Other words that mean a lot to me (WAS)..

Our teacher is challenging us a lot, she makes us play games, experiencing, they are layered and have meaning, she brings an energy....... very interactive.... asks for a lot of participation... we have group work... most important, we have a lot of autonomy, expressive freedom of the students, the reflective exercises at first seem superficial, but in the end we truly are working on ourselves, we grew and became independent, challenges us to think outside the box, tries to make the students part of the course...

She focuses on strengths and positive things about her students, like asking them what makes them unique, what motivates them, reminds us we are not here to just pass an exam but to learn and grow, challenges us to adapt to her way of teaching and we grow from that experience, inclusive, creative, dynamic, open our thinking and to a new way of psychology, we learn in a way that increases our curiosity, makes the class a conversation, rather than the classic 'lecture',

Sometimes it could be very intimate and I have never experienced that with a teacher - we get to be close to her (what this means is they get to know me - which is unusual), get to know her as a whole person - French people are very private,.

These are all a win in my books ....

thank you .....

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An example of expected class of participation, the students provide feedback to their peers. They must complete the following sentences.......

• What I appreciated about your presentation was........................
• I would have liked to know more about.....................................

The rest I attend to.....