Considering Culture in the Selection of Teaching Approaches for Adults. ERIC Digest.

Adult educators are increasingly committed to designing learning that takes into account cultural differences. We are discovering that "valuing" diversity is not enough to enable educators from the dominant culture, particularly European Americans living in the United States, to recognize difference and know how to change instruction so that learners who have felt marginalized feel visible and valued. This Digest examines the different dimensions of culture that are relevant to the adult learning context, speaking primarily to the case of the United States, including both the personal cultures of learners and educators, and the culture of the larger social political environment. It explores how cultural values permeate instruction and looks at several approaches that take culture into account.

WHAT IS CULTURE, ANYWAY?

KEY AREAS OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCE

* Individualism and Collectivism. Individualistic cultures generally value the self-reliance, equality, and autonomy of the individual, whereas collectivist cultures tend to value group effort and harmony and knowing one's place within society. For example, mainstream U.S. workplace cultures are often fragmented over the balance between rewarding individual effort and competition versus recognizing and fostering teamwork and cooperation.

* Monochronic and Polychronic Time. "M-time" is tangible and can be "saved, spent, wasted, lost, made up...and run out" (Hall 1983, p. 43). Personal interaction can be sacrificed to scheduling and efficiency. "P-time," however, stresses involvement of people and completion of transactions rather than preset schedules.

* Egalitarianism versus Hierarchy. Believing in fairness and equal opportunities for everyone is critical in more individualistic cultures that often equate hierarchy with rigidity, even if equality is more of a societal ideal than a reality. Conversely, hierarchy may be valued in more collectivist cultures as a means of acknowledging innate differences and inequalities and of facilitating communication through the recognition of various social levels through titles and roles.

* Action versus "Being" Orientation. U.S. culture generally tends to value action, efficiency, getting to "the bottom line," often downplaying social interactions in the interests of achieving goals. Taking time to discuss and understand complex issues and to appreciate the moment may be more important to people coming from a more holistic cultural orientation than the perception of precipitously moving to action steps.

* Change and Tradition. "Change" has become the mantra of dominant U.S. society, which looks toward the future and resists an historical perspective. Those coming from cultures that value the lessons of history view the past as an important guide to the present and the future.

Certain variables cut across differences in values. Communication style is the expression of various cultural values; power differences stem from the historic position of particular cultures within sociopolitical systems.

* Communication Styles. How we communicate is often as important as what we communicate. Depending partially on cultural variables such as nationality, ethnicity, gender, and race (among others), individuals may have a reference for both sending and receiving messages in styles that are linear or circular, direct or indirect, attached or detached, procedural or personal, and more confrontational in either intellectual or relational terms.

* Power Imbalances. In addition to the differences in values and communication styles that contribute to cultural diversity, cultures are stratified by inequities in terms of access to political and economic power. Thus, a culture's relative advantage or disadvantage depends on its position vis-a-vis other cultural groups.

WHY INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACHES ARE NOT NEUTRAL

Methods and activities that culminate in products, a consequence of the value placed on action and results, also appear regularly in U.S. adult ducation. Learners coming from environments where time is dedicated more to the exploration of ideas rather than a goal,however, may not feel the need to come to closure on learning, especially if such "timely" termination preempts lively learning processes. Hispanic learners, for example, may learn better with nonformal education approaches linked to community life (Jeria 1999), rather than methods embedded in the more rigid temporal dimensions associated with U.S. public schools.

It is important to recognize that, although some concepts of adult education taught in the United States seem at first glance to reify core national values, there may be considerable leeway in how methods associated with these concepts emerge. As an example, self-directed learning is generally described as a process in which people take primary initiative for planning, carrying out, and evaluating their own learning experiences (Merriam and Caffarella 1999). On the surface, such a construct appears thoroughly grounded in individualist cultural values like individual initiative and agency. However, recent theorists elaborating on self-direction have suggested greater roles for mentors and coaches (Grow 1994) and a recognition that autonomy in learning does not preclude a valuing of interdependence, depending on the learning context (Nah 2000). A method born of one culture may be adaptable to another when relevant cultural differences are considered.

APPROACHES THAT ALLOW ALTERNATIVE VOICES

The social construction of knowledge might be fostered through collaborative group learning, which emphasizes the process of listening to and respecting others, understanding alternative views, challenging and questioning others, negotiating ideas, and caring for group participants (Imel and Tisdell 1996). The communicative focus and socially constructed nature of collaborative learning are illustrated through the experiences of African American students, as one example, where self-expression, connection with the instructor, and the need to equalize the learning environment are all valued (Hecht et al. 1993; Imel and Tisdell 1996; Sheared 1999).

Teachers may want to provide structured guidance through learning experiences, a strategy that may be particularly useful for learners from cultures where hierarchy and expertise of the teacher are highly valued. Mentorships may serve as a bridge for culturally different students seeking comfort with dominant-culture teaching methods, especially if the teaching-learning interactions take place outside of class (Carbaugh 1998; Liang and McQueen 2000; Pratt et al. 1998).

The learning of disempowered groups may be better served through an assessment vehicle that allows their concrete stories and cosmologies to be related. Portfolios, collections of extended essays and documentation that describe learning in relation to college-level criteria (Michelson 1997), allow an alternative to learning assessed solely through abstract principles.

Students from other cultures may appreciate computer-assisted learning media, which allow them to share stories around personal and group cultural identities in an environment that may be perceived as more open and relaxed than the face-to-face classroom context (Coombs 1993). The online medium, which serves a variety of different purposes and audiences, is also helpful to non-English speakers seeking privacy and time to prepare away from real-time compressed communication (Liang and McQueen 2000).

Although there are some general categories of difference between cultures, there are many ways that instruction can be designed or redesigned to become more culturally sensitive. Adult educators can start to become more sensitive to cultural difference in the classroom by first examining the cultural values that underlie their preferred methods of teaching. Diversifying teaching methods should be a dynamic, interactive process with learners that enriches all of adult learning.

REFERENCES

Carbaugh, D. "I Can't Do that, But I Can See around Corners: American Indian Students and the Study of Public 'Communication.'" In READINGS IN CULTURAL CONTEXTS, edited by J. N. Martin, T. K. Nakayama, and L. A. Flores. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co., 1998.

Coombs, N. "CMC: The Medium and the Message." JOURNAL OF ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION/REC 3, no. 2 (1993). http://www.cios.org/getfile\COOMBS_V3N293 (members only)

Grow, G. "In Defense of the Staged Self-Directed Learning Model." ADULT EDUCATION QUARTERLY 44, no. 2 (Winter 1994): 109-114.

Hall, E. T. THE DANCE OF LIFE: THE OTHER DIMENSION OF TIME. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1983.

Hecht, M. L.; Collier, M. J.; and Ribeau, S. A. AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNICATION: ETHNIC IDENTITY AND CULTURAL INTERPRETATION. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1993.

Heimlich, J. E., and Norland, E. DEVELOPING TEACHING STYLE IN ADULT EDUCATION. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1994.

Imel, S., and Tisdell, E. "The Relationship between Theories about Groups and Adult Learning Groups." In LEARNING IN GROUPS. NEW DIRECTIONS FOR ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION, no. 71, edited by S. Imel, pp. 15-24. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996.

Jeria, J. "The Quest for Visibility in Adult Education: The Hispanic Experience." In PROVIDING CULTURALLY RELEVANT ADULT EDUCATION. NEW DIRECTIONS FOR ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION, no. 82, edited by T. C. Guy, pp. 49-65. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999.

Liang, A., and McQueen, R. J. "Computer Assisted Adult Interactive Learning in a Multi-Cultural Environment." ADULT LEARNING 11, no. 1 (Fall 1999): 26-29.

Merriam, S. B., and Caffarella, R. S. LEARNING IN ADULTHOOD: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE. 2D ED. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999.

Michelson, E. "Multicultural Approaches to Portfolio Development." In ASSESSING ADULT LEARNING IN DIVERSE SETTINGS:. NEW DIRECTIONS FOR ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION, no. 75, edited by A. Rose and M. Leahy, pp. 41-53. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997.

Nah, Y. "Can a Self-directed Learner Be Independent, Autonomous and Interdependent?: Implications for Practice." ADULT LEARNING 11, no. 1 (Fall 1999): 18-25.

Pratt, D.; Kelly, M.; and Wong, W. "The Social Construction of Chinese Models of Teaching." In PROCEEDINGS OF THE 39TH ANNUAL ADULT EDUCATION RESEARCH CONFERENCE, comp. by J. C. Kimmel San Antonio, TX: University of the Incarnate Word, 1998. (ED 426 247) http://www.edst.educ.ubc.ca/aerc/1998/98pratt.htm

Sheared, V. "Giving Voice: Inclusion of African American Students' Polyrhythmic Realities in Adult Basic Education." In PROVIDING CULTURALLY RELEVANT ADULT EDUCATION. NEW DIRECTIONS FOR ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION, no. 82, edited by T. C. Guy, pp. 33-48. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999.

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