How can Intercultural Diversity be understood? The Lecturers' Response

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62695/SLYD5543

Keywords:

Teaching pedagogy, Race, Culture, Power and influence, Student-centred teaching, Curriculum-centred teaching, Interculturalism, Multiculturalism

Abstract

Education set-ups across different age cohorts and countries often pride themselves on having students from various nations. The objective of this paper is to understand how, within a Maltese context, lecturers at sixth form level understand and consider intercultural diversity when implementing the curriculum. It also studies how lecturers’ personal experiences with race and culture inform their thinking on a meta-reflective level. Previous research has shown the importance of the use of reflection in teacher education (Davis 2006) and the use of portfolios for learning and assessment (Chetcuti et al. 2006) but little research has been carried out on teachers’ perspectives of teaching intercultural classes at a sixth form level. The study aims to fill in this lacuna in the literature by exploring what lecturers believe influences their ideas and practices of intercultural education in the classes they teach. There are clear implications of this study for policy, particularly showing that good will and having the best of intentions need to be augmented by a curriculum that is flexible enough to accommodate for students from different cultural groups if student learning is to be optimised across the board.

Author Biographies

Damian Spiteri, University of Malta

Dr Damian Spiteri has been active in the education field for the past 25 years and has worked as a school social worker, teacher, guidance teacher, and lecturer. He is a senior lecturer in Health and Social Care at MCAST and has also lectured in Social Work at the University of Malta, University of Strathclyde and the University of York. He has a keen interest in the area of multicultural education and has presented widely on the topic in various university settings in Europe, America and Asia. He is also the author of a book on multicultural education that was published by Palgrave Macmillan and is now working on his second book on Migrant Education that will be published later this year. 

Anita Seguna, Institute for Education

Dr Anita Seguna currently works both as Manager Student Affairs and as Lecturer with the Institute for Education. She has worked in the educational field since 1993 performing various roles: Teacher, Head of School, Head of Curriculum Design and Professional Learning, Mentor, Tutor and Lecturer. She is also a part-time lecturer at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nurnberg and the University of Malta. She believes in the importance of andragogy and a hands-on approach in the professional development of teachers. She is also the author of several books in Maltese for children and teenagers. Anita Seguna holds a Ph.D. from Friedrich- Alexander University of Erlangen-Nurnberg. In her Ph.D. thesis, she investigated internationalisation in secondary schools in Malta. She ascertains that internationalisation is a process that integrates a global perspective into the schools’ development.

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Published

16-09-2020

How to Cite

Spiteri, D., & Seguna, A. (2020). How can Intercultural Diversity be understood? The Lecturers’ Response. Malta Journal of Education, 1(1), 208–225. https://doi.org/10.62695/SLYD5543

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