Culture courses

Bob Brandes knew how to teach. The St. Clair College professor had just spent three years as a curriculum consultant, written a research paper and chaired a task force—all analysing how using different technologies affects teaching. He’d studied the shift of a teacher’s role from educator to that of a coach. He knew the focus wasn’t getting information to students, but in helping them apply it.
Brandes just hadn’t been teaching. But given a chance to construct a new course for St. Clair, a college in Windsor, Ontario, Brandes looked to combine Web technology with a topic to which students could relate. Thus, “Celebrating Cultural Diversity” was born. “It’s the hardest course I teach,” Brandes says. But after six years and about 3,000 students, he can think of only three, maybe four students who have dropped the class. “It’s the most rewarding course I teach.”

International rewards
“The key word for Canadian universities … is ‘internationalisation,’” writes Simon Fraser University’s Jan Walls. Director of the Asia-Canada program and David Lam Centre for International Communication at Simon Fraser in Burnaby, British Columbia, Walls writes that “several, and maybe even most, Canadian universities have a published policy regarding ‘internationalisation’ of their university. … By putting the focus on ‘internationalisation,’ we may simultaneously deal with the economic realities and requirements of the global marketplace and the multi-ethnic, multicultural diversification of our own neighbourhoods.” Internationalisation, or cultural diversity, is a priority at many Canadian colleges and universities. Historically inhabited—and influenced—by the French and the British, Canada started becoming home to other European immigrants in the 19th century. By the time Asians, Africans and Latin Americans became more mainstream during and after the 1970s, the country was a hodgepodge of various ethnicities.

Multiculturalism becomes law, class
As ethnicities mixed, cultures stewed and the result bubbled over enough to prompt Parliament to approve the Canadian Multiculturalism Act on July 12, 1988. The law signifies the nation’s commitment to “a policy of multiculturalism designed to preserve and enhance the multicultural heritage of Canadians.” For some schools, that means offering courses that allow students to study their own ethnicities or other historical cultures. For others, it’s a chance to prepare students for graduation into an increasingly global world.
Brandes’ course has satisfied interested students as far away as Singapore and Mexico through a Web site and mailing list to which all assignments are posted. “We are increasingly interacting with people from other countries, backgrounds and cultures at all levels,” Brandes wrote on the class home page. “Increased awareness of cultural diversity can translate into more tolerance, respect, and appreciation for the uniqueness of all people and cultures.”

Class requirements
To begin each semester, Brandes makes his students identify their heritage. If necessary, students must trace their ethnicity back generations to identify the birth culture of great-grandparents or other ancestors.
Then, students partner up with a classmate who has an unfamiliar background. The students, as partners, go on six outings—three from each partner’s culture. Past topics have included everything from baptisms and bar mitzvahs, art and cuisine to sculpture or music. Visiting Web sites counts because they often provide cultural background information, Brandes says. But partners must do it together—trading notes or calling each other won’t cut it.
Along with an oral presentation and another project, students have to write three journal entries detailing what they taught and what they learned from each event. All entries are posted to the mailing list and spur class discussion. “My students very much represent a broad spectrum of cultures,” Brandes says. Because everyone reads each assignment, students get exposure to many cultures. “I tell them not to assume that I, or their classmates, know anything about their culture,” Brandes says. “They have to teach us and let us kind of experience, through their eyes, what they’re doing.”

What most Canadians are doing
According to a survey released by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada in March 2000, 94 percent of senior university leaders agreed that making “university education more international should be a priority.”
“Our campuses are becoming more international in outlook,” AUCC President Robert Giroux said in a statement. “Canadian universities are integrating international and intercultural perspectives into their teaching, research and community service.”
A follow-up to a 1993 survey conducted by the AUCC, the survey showed that 84 percent of schools are incorporating “internationalisation activities” into their plans. Results also showed that 90 percent of university leaders said their main reason for internationalisation is “to ensure graduates will be better prepared for today’s increasingly international and intercultural world.” Increased sensitivity to cultural differences and enhanced job opportunities were also listed among benefits that internationalisation provides to students.

Benefiting you
Along with increased cultural awareness, Brandes has watched his classes develop skills he didn’t even expect. “Writing becomes phenomenal,” he says, and narrative skills in particular are honed. Computer skills are sharpened, and Brandes says students learn to support each other, answering each other’s questions rather than simply seeking his answer.
With no books and no exams, students are graded on the work they create. Having a chance to produce their own content, “they almost become historians,” Brandes says. Previous students’ postings to the class site reflect satisfaction with the course: “I feel that the level of commitment and motivation required far exceeded that of any other class I've ever taken. And I feel that this factor was what made the course so rewarding overall,” one student wrote.
“Teaching someone else about my own culture made me think about my own traditions and beliefs and made me want to be more involved in my culture,” another wrote. From an official standpoint, internationalisation strategies and courses structures may be the result of Canada’s diversity. But for you, the results are growth and awareness. Both are a reward for Brandes. “It helps to break down some of the stereotypes and the barriers,” Brandes says, “and hopefully, some of the prejudice. Hopefully.”

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