On the myth of a general national culture: Making specific cultural characteristics of learners in...

Institut für Informatik und Wirtschaftsinformatik (ICB)

On the Myth of a General National Culture CATaC 2012, Aarhus Thomas Richter

Heimo H. Adelsberger

Picture: Winding-tower, Essen

Pictures: University of Duisburg Essen

On the Myth of a General National Culture: Making Visible Specific Characteristics of Learners in Different Educational Contexts in Germany

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Open Discovery Space: European project as example for specific research situation n  started April 2012, http://www.opendiscoveryspace.eu/ n  51 partners, 20 European countries, 14,3 Mio € budget

n  Objective: Build up a Meta-OER-Portal for European Schools o  transparently connecting 1.5 Mio open learning resources

o  penetrate > 1% of all European schools

o  motivate teachers and students to use the resources in their daily school work

o  & support building local and international communities

How to overcome cultural barriers?

n  Idea: Define cultural contexts through Meta-Tags and provide

instructions for possible cultural adaptation needs: o  maybe we can use what we already have?

o  There are national culture models and national values available (most prominent example: Hofstede)2

n  Culture = majority criterion (“common believes and attitudes within a cultural context”)

1 Hofstede G (1980) Culture's Consequences – International Differences in Work Related Values. Newbury Park, London.


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The concept of (value-based) general national culture: Cultural example aspect: “role of the lecturer”

Does national culture actually also reflect specific

(sub-)cultures within a national context?

If collecting data on learning culture from students in the university context, are those also valid for learners in the context of professional

education?

Herein used example: “role of the lecturer”

(relationship to authorities commonly agreed being culturally biased1,2,3,4

1 Carkhuff RR (1969) The communication of respect in interpersonal processes: A scale for measurement. In: Carkhuff RR (Ed.), Helping and human relations (Vol. 1), Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York. 2 Ruben BD (1976) Assessing communication competency for intercultural adaptation. Group and Organization Studies, 3(1), S 335-354. 3 Hofstede G (1980) Culture's Consequences – International Differences in Work Related Values. Newbury Park, London. 4 Schwartz SH (1999) A theory of cultural values and some implications for work. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 48(1), S 23-47.


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study setting

n  questionnaire-based, 102 items, educational context (focus HE) o  investigate specific cultural attitudes and expectations of university students

n  Germany & South Korea (in national language) o  more or less language-homogenous

o  similar technological development

o  similar economic status, and relationship rich/poor

n  Research concept: 1.  Emic: internal perspective – deep context-related understanding 2.  Etic: external perspective – contrasting (what seems to be comparable)1

n  Germany: in-depth study, 1800+ sample elements from 3 universities o  analysing faculty-culture and university culture

n  South Korea: broad study, 280+ sample elements from 39 universities o  here: analysing specific learning culture from 9 universities (n>8)

Question: Are results transferable to other educational contexts?

n  study expansion for scope-determination: vocational training o  6 German DAX-noted enterprises (low sample size but results actually sound)

1 Triandis HC, Marín G (1983) Etic plus Emic versus Pseudoetic. A Test of a Basis Assumption of Contemporary Cross-Cultural Psychology. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 14(4), S 489-500.


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Findings on faculty level: spectrum of different answers; similar answer patterns

Analysing learning culture on faculty level in Germany: 3 German universities

Displayed here: % positive answers

4P Likert scale results binarised


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Spectrum could be understood as level of acceptance of situation different to known

Question: Are the found patterns specific for a certain national culture?

Contrasting German university culture


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Contrasting university culture on South Korean national level

again: spectrum of answers but also similar patterns

Question: Is pattern different from German pattern?


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Question: How does pattern of professional training in German enterprises look like?

Contrasting national German university results with those from South Korea


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Question: How does the pattern of German enterprises in the context of professional training contrasts to the one from the German universities?

Adult Education in German DAX-noted enterprises


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German educational HE learning culture != German educational AE learning culture

Contrasting average German adult education with German university average result


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Conclusions

n  nationally specific HE-culture pattern exists1 n  HE-culture patterns different to AE-culture patterns

General National Culture has academic interest but not helpful and even potentially misleading in design-oriented

research

1statement limited to language homogenous countries


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Are there any questions?

(Also feel free to contact me via e-Mail or discuss with me after the session)

contact: [email protected]


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In Case: Contrasting of the nat. HE contexts Bulgaria, Germany, Turkey, South Korea and Ukraine

On the myth of a general national culture: Making specific cultural characteristics of learners in...

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