Intercultural Ambassadors Programme Developing cultural awareness to support internationalisation...

Intercultural Ambassadors Programme

Developing cultural awareness to support internationalisation

Learning and Teaching Conference 7/1/11


Katy Manns, International Student OfficeProject Leader, Training Development, Facilitator

Joanne Shiel, Language CentreTraining Development, Facilitator

Overview

• Strategy and aims and objectives of this annual programme

• Ambassador recruitment and training

• Supporting ambassadors intercultural project development

• Evaluating the programme

• Interspersed with sample cultural awareness activities

University of Leeds Internationalisation Strategy

• ‘Our students have the benefit of experiencing an educational and social environment that is internationally and culturally diverse. This creates value for them in their endeavours beyond Leeds by helping them to be successful and achieve their full potential in an increasingly globalised world.’

• ‘… internationalising our existing activities and procedures and developing a culture and feel of the University as a genuine international community – ‘internationalisation at home’ as well as overseas.’

Intercultural Ambassadors Programme Aims

• To enable UK and international students to gain greater benefit from being part of a multicultural campus community

• To increase the amount and quality of interaction between UK and international students from different cultural backgrounds

• To increase the quantity, range and uptake of intercultural projects and activities on campus

• To increase students’ cultural awareness and cross-cultural skills

Intercultural Ambassadors Programme Objectives

•To recruit, train and support 40 student ambassadors to be key influencers and organisers of intercultural activity

•To facilitate the creation of new intercultural projects, and enhancements to existing activities which will increase their intercultural impact

•To develop systems for managing and promoting the Intercultural Ambassadors projects

•To enable good practice from the Intercultural Ambassadors Programme to be used by staff and students across the University and externally

•To secure external financial and in kind support to facilitate enhancements to the programme


What’s in a name?

Activity - Groups of 4 – British MammalsBadger 1 - Fox 2 - Mole 3 - Squirrel 4 - Beaver 5 - Stoat 6 - Otter 7 – Hedgehog - 8 Bat - 9 - Dormouse10

Tell your group about your name

Each person in the group can talk for 2 minutes

• What’s your name?

• How do you say it? (Teach everyone)

• Why are you called this?/What does your name mean?

• How do you feel about your name?

Adapted from “Discussing Difference, Discovering Similarities”.

Free downloadable toolkit of cultural awareness activities

http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/about/material_media/pubs_crosscultural.php

© UKCISA used with permission (UK Council for International Student Affairs)


Recruiting the ambassadors

Volunteer as an Intercultural Ambassador !

• Would you like to … ?

• increase your skills in cultural awareness and intercultural communication

• learn tips for working successfully with people from different backgrounds

• volunteer on a project as part of a multicultural team• gain valuable teamwork, project and activity management experience• make new friends • help other students to get more out of their time at University• make yourself more attractive to employers

Recruitment

• Online promotion – Portal, Leeds for life website, mailing lists

• Online applications and short-listing

• 150 applicants, 60 shortlisted

• Speed interviews (5 mins)

• 41 selected

• Profile of ambassadors

• 21 International, 20 UK 14 M, 27 F 30 UG,10 TPG, 1 RPG

• Range of ages and years of study Almost all faculties represented


Training the ambassadors

Training

• 5 X 3-hour sessions plus observation/preparation tasks between sessions (4 sessions taken place so far)

• Intercultural and project development skills

• Interactive activities with frequent group changing

• VLE used for materials and group communication

• Training to develop skills and motivation for ambassadors to

undertake individual actions and group projects

• Built-in reflection on how learning and skills will be useful

Training sessions• Session 1 – Intercultural Awareness - “Glasses”

• Skills Focus: Interpersonal and Cultural Awareness

• Session 2 – Intercultural Interactions - “Rules” and “Networks”• Skills Focus: Interpersonal, Cultural Awareness and Networking

• Session 3 – Intercultural Groups - “ Magnetic forces”• Skills Focus: Interpersonal, Cultural Awareness and Groupworking

• Session 4 – Intercultural Influencing - “ Inclusive messages”• Skills Focus: Interpersonal, Cultural Awareness, Communication

• Session 5 – Intercultural Projects – “Plans” and “Actions”• Skills Focus: Project Planning, Risk Management


Ground rules

Activity - Groups of 5 – ShapesTriangle 1 – Square 2 – Circle 3 – Diamond 4 – Star 5 – Pentagon 6 – Heart 7 – Cross 8

Ground rules for multicultural group work

• You have 5 minutes with your group to agree 5 ground rules that will help make sure that every member of the group gets the most out of working in a multicultural team

• To feed back your ideas, write each ground rule in large writing on a separate landscape A4 sheet

• Give one ground rule sheet to each member of your team

• Potential problem areas?

More on ground rules and ideas for addressing dominance of one cultural group in “Discussing Difference, Discovering Similarities” http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/about/material_media/pubs_crosscultural.php


Supporting ambassadors’ project development

Project development

• Project ideas start at application stage

• Project ideas exchanged during training sessions

• Project teams formed during and after training

• 3-part project plan template: framework for proposal, detailed planning,

project funding bids, monitoring and evaluation

• Mentor support for risk assessment, project development and evaluation

• Projects to be showcased in June celebration event

• Projects made available to continue or repeat

Projects• Opportunities to enhance existing activity as well as create new projects

• LUU International Cultural Festival• Global Café development (Putting the UK into Global)

• Some project ideas• Carnival – dance and food festival• Football Tournament• Creative writing workshop and competition• Collages of intercultural experience • Food guides• Travel website

• Elevator pitches – tried out on a UK student and an international student with English as a second language

Travel Website Project

Food Guides Project

Dance Project

Where we are now

• 4 Project proposals submitted for January and February projects

• Final training session (project management and risk assessment) 26/1/11

• Proposals for March – May projects due in February

• Mentors being identified, briefed and assigned

• Project teams working on detailed project plans

• 3 projects taking place during LUU’s International Cultural Festival

7 – 11 February 2011 - Put it in your diaries!


What’s stopping us?

• ‘I studied for three years at the University of Leeds but I almost never spoke to anyone on campus from the UK.’

Fahad (international student)

• ‘The University of Leeds has a very large international student base, but I

never seem to talk anyone from outside of the UK.’

Joyce (home student)



• 1. What forces in their academic and social life might push Fahad and Joyce away from other students from different cultures?

• 2. What can students and staff do to reduce the ‘away’ forces and encourage ‘towards’ factors to increase successful intercultural mixing on campus?

• 3. Think of some “Dos and Don’ts” of behaviour that could help Fahad and Joyce interact successfully with students from different cultures.

Adapted from “Discussing Difference, Discovering Similarities”


© UKCISA used with permission

Dos and Don’ts for successful intercultural interaction

• Do:• Learn all you can about other cultures – but don’t assume surface

meaning• Learn to accept differences without judging• Observe-listen-describe, rather than evaluate• Be tolerant of yourself and others• Work at understanding your own cultural orientations

• Don’t:• Assume we are all the same• Keep comparing the other culture with your own• Deny that you can be ethnocentric


Evaluating the programme and projects

Programme Evaluation

• How beneficial was the training, support and project experience to the ambassadors and what do we change for next year?

• How much impact have ambassadors had on other students’ intercultural experience?

• Programme team observations• Ambassador postcard feedback - quick to do, instant feedback facilitating

changes mid training• Ambassador training survey• Ambassador project evaluations and ambassador achievement records

- crucial for evaluation of the whole programme• Conference sessions feedback

Programme team observations• Participants were very keen to find out more about each other

• Worth creating random and selected groups for group work during training - curbs natural drift to comfort zones which reduces learning opportunities

• Participants enjoyed changing groups frequently and gained confidence from working with people outside their comfort zone

• Participants wanted to pursue project ideas earlier on, not after the training

• VLE initially didn’t work that well as a vehicle for recruiting project team members and progressing projects. Could be better to create project teams from the outset based on compatible areas of interest and skills

• Interesting group-work experience for the training team in developing and delivering the course

Postcard feedback from participants

• Interesting, challenging, thought provoking, new• Sharing opinions with people from different backgrounds and hearing

about their experiences. Empathising with others’ points of view and their challenges

• How strange it feels when social norms are challenged and the different ways people adapt in this situation

• What we can do as individuals to prevent others from being excluded• Not keeping quiet for fear of offending people from other cultures• Thinking quickly on a topic and speaking in front of an unknown

audience• The term “international” can be a barrier in itself • Why the University sometimes separates UK and international

students – welcome and accommodation

Postcard feedback from participants

• Useful for projects or employment • Using ice-breakers to start building relationships and using cards to

mix up teams of people

• Using ground rules for team work

• Ability to work spontaneously in a team of people you don’t know

• Understanding that every individual from different cultures has different ways of doing things then coming to a universal agreement of how to work out tasks

• Communications skills for carefully working around any communication problems


Credits

Materials

• “Discussing Difference, Discovering Similarities”

Free downloadable cultural awareness activities from UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA)


• Grouping cardsContact Anna Seabourne in Skills@Library

The Intercultural Ambassadors Programme is brought to you by …

Katy Manns and Emmeline Beazley – International Student Office

Haynes Collins and Joanne Shiel – Language Centre

Julia Braham and Anna Seabourne – Skills@Library

Debbie Powell – Careers Service

With LeedsforLife funding and support from colleagues in LUU Activities and

Volunteering; Access and Community Engagement Volunteering; University

Health and Safety Services, Equality Service, the Project Office, the

International Teams and Susan Daniels, Faculty International Leader, PVAC


Any Questions?

Ask now or fill in your Feedback Postcards


Contact:Katy Manns, International Student Office

Tel: 0113 343 3933Email: [email protected]

Intercultural Ambassadors Programme Developing cultural awareness to support internationalisation...

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