The first five chapters of this thesis provide a historical survey, dealing mainly with West Africa, and primarily concerned with the cultural problems that have occurred from the contact between the traditional African; and our Western culture. The effect of this contact in the areas of Art and Education are examined in some depth since the central hypothesis of this thesis is that Art Education can help to resolve some of the cultural problems that have resulted through the contact and conflict between the two worlds, African and Western. The final chapters provide an example of how the purposes and theory of Art Education in the emerging nations of Africa can be put into practice within a specific country--in this case, Ghana. This part of the thesis is a result of two years of experiment and study done by the author within Ghana itself. This deals with the way natural materials in Ghana (at the present moment woefully ignored in the schools) can be put to good use in the Arts and Crafts programme. It also deals with the way methods and techniques in traditional crafts can be used, adapted and applied within this programme. An examination is made of the way other traditional cultural "materials" such as stories, music and designs can be assimilated and used for motivational purposes in the arts and crafts lesson. Much of this material comes from a controlled experiment, lasting ten weeks, which was directed by the author and carried out by his students with Primary and Middle School children at the Cultural Centre, Kumasi, Ghana. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

Nous vivons dans une ère où les coopérations scientifiques internationales se développent. Face au développement de la coopération médicale franco-laos, les besoins en ressources humaines qualifiées sont en relation ayec les compétences en français des futurs professionnels du secteur médical laotien : nous menons donc cette recherche pour améliorer la qualité de l'enseignement du français à l'université de médecine à Vientiane, en contexte laotien. Cette recherche propose une rencontre de la sociolinguistique, de l'approche interculturelle et de la didactique des langues. Le questionnement porte sur les liens de cohérence entre la situation sociolinguistique au Laos, les politiques linguistiques, la force des habitudes culturelles et l'utilisation du français professionnel. La mise en relation de ces différents modes de réflexion mettent en évidence certains besoins spécifiques de l'enseignement du français au Laos, dans une démarche ethnographique et comparative. Cette recherche questionne spécifiquement la place de la dimension interculturelle dans l'entretien médical au Laos et en France. et débouche sur une sociodidactique du français médical pour un public laotien. L"étude des pratiques et représentations des langues et cultures en présence a fait l'objet d'une enquête de terrain, empirique et qualitative, menée dans les services de l'hôpital Mahosot. à l'Institut de la Fracophonie pour la Médecine Tropicale de l'Uniyersité des Sciences de la Santé au Laos. / In the present times, the international cooperation is increasing, specially the cooperation franco-lao. The need of quality in human resource also asking for french skill. This research proposes an approach across sociolinguistics, socio-cultural and foreign language teaching to explore the french medical lesson, in the lao context. This work aims to understand global issues on the importance of the cultural aspect in Laos while relying on a case study located in Vientiane capital of Laos. The questioning retained examines the relationship existing coherence between lao sociolinguistic policy, language education state and the use of french in the medical field in Laos. Linking the different levels of analysis takes place through a process of concept to find the specific needs of the teaching french in Laos. This research specially questions the role of the intercultural dimension in medical conversation in Laos and in France and it questions a french medical socio-didactic for lao learner. The study of practices and representation on french has been a field survey at many departments of Mahosot hospital, at Institut de la Francophonie pour la medicine Tropicale and at University of Health Sciences of Laos. The reflection les some perspectives leads to better knowledge of the use of foreign languages in professional work and take importance the use of french in the social and medical environment.

Through the partnership of standpoint theory and photovoice method, the present study looked at how teenagers, attending a multicultural education camp, define diversity, as well as what the participants considered to be the benefits and limitations of diversity. Standpoint theory gives the theoretical perspective to understand the marginalized voice of teenagers, while photovoice provides the tools to better capture and understand their marginalized voice. This study was situated in a professionally-developed camp, Camp CommUNITY, that emphasizes multicultural awareness amongst teens. Nine participants and 46 pictures were analyzed. Resulting from open coding, 11 categories and 6 themes were identified. Each theme and definitions of diversity are approached with a dialectical perspective, yielding to the model of dialectical dimensions of diversity. To answer Research Question 2, participants identified both benefits and limitations for photovoice method. Additional theoretical, practical, and methodological implications, limitations, and directions for future research are addressed.

This dissertation explores what it means to belong in Berlin and Germany following a significant change in the citizenship laws in 2000, which legally reoriented the law away from a “German” legal identity rooted in blood-descent belonging to a more territorially-based conception. The primary goal is to understand attempts at performing inclusive belonging by the state and other actors, with mostly those of “foreign heritage” at the center, and these attempts’ pitfalls, opportunities, challenges, and strange encounters. It presents qualitative case studies to draw attention to interculturality and its related concepts as they manifest in a variety of contexts. This study presents a performance analysis of a ceremony at a major national museum project and utilizes a discursive analysis of the national and international media surrounding a unique controversy about soccer and Islam. The study moves to a peripheral neighborhood in Berlin and a marginal subject, a migration background Gymnasium student, who featured prominently in an expose about failing schools, using interviews and a text analysis to present competing narratives. Finally it examines the intimate, local view of a self-described “intercultural” after-school center aimed at migration-background girls, drawing extensively on ethnographic interviews and media generated by the girls.These qualitative encounters help illuminate how an abstract and often vague set of concepts within the intercultural paradigm becomes tactile when encountering those for whom it was intended.

Over the past five decades, scholars of intercultural communication have attempted to define, describe, and otherwise operationalize the concept of competency in an intercultural interaction. This study constructed a comprehensive theory of intercultural communication competence (ICC) grounded in the extant literature and the practical or everyday understanding of the concept. Using classroom data that was validated by a metasynthesis of existing qualitative or ethnographic studies describing ICC, the academic definitions and lay descriptions were each explored and then compared to find points of convergence and points of divergence. The comparative analysis provided the foundation for the development of tenets: ICC is an outcome; ICC is externally perceived and measured; and ICC is bound by the cultural context in which it takes place, conditions regarding interaction goals and power roles of the interactants, and culture specific elements for the holistic ICC theory proposed by this study. An examination of the implications of the newly constructed ICC theory and its future application and implications were explored.

This study takes an integrative approach to intercultural adaptation by looking at the role of values (i.e. social norms) in the acculturation of Canadian expatriates living in Vietnam. By viewing intercultural adaptation as a process by which expats and host-members “establish (or re-establish) and maintain relatively stable, reciprocal, and functional relationships” (Kim, 2001, p. 3) with their environment, this study focuses on moments of apparent ambiguity, misunderstanding or malaise experienced by expats in their host-community. This emphasis will enable us to better understand how expatriates make sense of their values and social norms during these instances. This research not only sheds light on the ways in which expats make sense of their values, but also how their narratives and stories participate in creating, constituting, and cultivating certain figures during their intercultural adaptation process. The data gathered reveals that the ways in which expats make sense of their values during moments of malaise with their host-community varies quite meaningfully depending on various situational, institutional and personal factors at play during each interaction, as well as what matters most to expats during those moments. Thus, these findings assist in showcasing that misunderstandings experienced in the host-community are complex, as expats consider many factors in order to make sense of, respond to, and adapt to each individual situation.

The purpose of this literature study is to take a closer look at whether and how the intercultural approach can contribute to an inclusive classroom environment and how the intercultural approach affects multilingual students. In order to be able to answer these questions, we analyzed six different international articles that deal with intercultural learning from different perspectives. The research has been conducted in Australia, USA, Ecuador, Turkey and Norway. The results show that the intercultural approach has a strong positive impact in multicultural classrooms, as it can strengthen the community and thus create a more inclusive classroom environment. Research shows that empathy is an important part of intercultural awareness, along with mutual curiosity and respect. The literature shows that language and identity are strongly connected. The intercultural perspective sees multilingualism as an asset, and therefore this mindset can strengthen the students´ linguistic self-esteem, and give them a higher status in a linguistic varied environment in a society where a monolingualism norm prevails.

In diesem Arbeitspapier wird das breite Wissenschaftsfeld rund um das Metakonzept ‚Interkulturalität‘ im Hinblick auf Invektivität sondiert mit dem übergeordneten Ziel, konzeptionelle, theoretische und methodische Anschlusspunkte und für die einzelnen Teilprojekte des SFB zu markieren. Das Arbeitspapier lädt demnach dazu ein, sich dem Wissenschaftsfeld zur ‚Interkulturalität‘ zu nähern, es in Verbindung mit Invektivität zu denken und (neue) Impulse, Perspektiven und theoretische Ideen für die eigene Arbeit im Teilprojekt und darüber hinaus zu bekommen. Hierfür wurde ein zweistufiger Aufbau gewählt. In Teil I werden zunächst einige konzeptionelle Überlegungen zu den (Meta-)Konzepten ‚Interkulturalität‘ und ‚Invektivität‘ sowie den Verbindungspotentialen zwischen diesen beiden dargestellt. Dieser Teil dient auch dazu, das nahezu unüberschaubare Wissenschaftsfeld rund um das Metakonzept 'Interkulturalität' zu systematisieren und damit die Struktur für die in Teil II folgende kommentierte Bibliographie zu entwerfen. In Teil II erfolgt dann die Fortführung der interessengeleiteten Sammlung, Sichtung und Verdichtung von Untersuchungen rund um das Themenfeld ‚Interkulturalität‘ in Form einer kommentierten Bibliographie von Untersuchungen aus den Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften, der Psychologie, Soziologie und Pädagogik.:Vorbemerkung Teil I: Konzeptionelle Überlegungen I. Interkulturalität II. Invektivität Teil II: Annotierte Bibliographie I. Kulturkontrastive Ansätze II. Kulturkonstruktivistisch-interaktionstheoretische Ansätze III. Thematische Schwerpunkte

The California-Nevada Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church exhibits a faster rate of decline than the already declining Protestant church in the United States. American consumerism and the professionalization of the church reveal a broken ecclesiology and missiology. Yet immigrant congregations display a set of apostolic practices that often correspond with growth and multiplication and an effective Wesleyan missional ecclesiology. Using Positive Deviance Theory, this thesis builds a robust 18-month process of generous impartation and contextual adoption between Fijian congregations, representing one particular immigrant group, and another partner congregation. The congregations will share their unique apostolic practices in intentional gatherings over time, shaped by intercultural theology and a vibrant Wesleyan missiology and enacted in incarnational relationships. The projected result is contextualized apostolic practices in both congregations that contribute to their growth and vitality.

Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Communication Science University of Zululand, 2011. / The rapid increase in business globalisation has brought with it an increased need for effective international working. As a result, businesses demand a global mindset from their workforce in order for the organisation to efficiently reach their goals (Chaney & Martin, 2011:4). This study aims to assist international organisations and their employees, by providing guidelines for conducting business specifically in Japan and South Africa. It focuses on existing models and theories regarding intercultural communication and compares cultures in South Africa and Japan with a special focus on the work practice. It examines areas of culture, communication, globalisation and cultural transformations in today‟s society. Social customs and business etiquette are also outlined and some specialties for each country are specified. This study also explores how advanced technology and the media are vital components of intercultural communication, used to influence communication across cultures and across geographical locations (Steinberg, 2007:15). The findings of this study aim to improve intercultural competence in both national and international organisations. Hence, management within these organisations should examine the limitations pointed out in this research study and change their policies and procedures to promote and encapsulate a more intercultural and global environment.