Journal of Research & Scholarly Output 2006 - Grimsby Institute of ...

nature’ that define an individual’s view of the
social world. These assumptions provide the
foundation of behaviour inclining the
individual to see and interpret the world from
one perspective rather than from another”.
How we learn to see and our perspective of
what we learn to see is socially constructed
and is framed in the language and life that
we lead or have led. Consequently, we may
as tutors and lecturers, albeit inadvertently,
have a tendency to view our world as the
world without recognising that the ways of
seeing are constantly being shaped by
numerous hidden forces that make reality
real in a culturally specific way. Individual
perception and our understanding of our
world are developed through the tools
provided by language and other learned
ways of seeing that forms our culture. By
acknowledging that this is the case, it is apt
to question what effect does or could this
have on our teaching style or a students
learning style.
Within the context of developing education,
Fink. (2001) contends that:
“Policy initiators and makers often see
students as mere statistics, whereas the
policy implementers, i.e. the educators,
have to face the reality of promoting and
developing the learning of a specific group
of students with all the associated diversity
and complexity”.
Fink (ibid):
“Each context creates a set of variables with
which the policy implementers (educators)
must contend and about which some policy
initiators seem unaware, unimpressed, or
even uncaring”.
To just assume that programmes can be
delivered in a standard form without
consideration for the formative background
of the students is a flawed strategy. A recent
discussion with some teachers from central
China attending a comprehensive English
training programme at Grimsby Institute of
Further and Higher Education illustrated this
point very clearly. Seeing a detachment of
Ghurkha soldiers on a parade during a
cultural visit to York, they ask where they
came from? When told Nepal and shown
where Nepal is on a world map, they denied
the existence of Nepal. For them this
country does not exist. And, these were
secondary education teachers!
Clearly, as educators it is important to
accept that to develop an understanding of
the culture of a country from a student’s
educational perspective, it is necessary to
have some understanding of the country’s
history and in particular recent history and
transformational events. The fall of the
Berlin wall in 1989 and the end of the
Ceacescue regime in Romania are two
examples of transformational events that led
to major cultural changes. Furthermore,
these events, among others, signalled the
demise of the old world bipolar order and
set the scene for a new world order in which
the internationalisation of education would
come to the fore. The successful delivery
and support of educational programmes it
would seem requires careful consideration
of cultural transferability, generic and
specific applicability and manipulation of
meaning. Recognition of the effect this may
influence how we develop and deliver
education programmes to a diverse cohort
of students. We should also consider
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