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Title: |
Different cultures, different paradigms: How lasting are our educational influence for good as our educational ideas spread their influence out side the context of our own culture? |
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Authors & affiliations: |
Rev Je Kan Adler-Collins, Fukuoka Prefectural University, Faculty of Nursing, Mental Health Japan. |
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Abstract: |
Context Communication and the transfer of ideas and values
across cultures is now an every day occurrence with the World Wide Web
linking humanity in a Global network of exchange and inter-connectedness. The
classroom practitioner of today is presented with a complex array of choices
concerning educational theories, insights, methodologies and paradigms.
Practitioners have become competent in negotiating and accepting
responsibility for their own influence in educational terms with in the
context of the classroom. The complex nature of knowledge and its legitimacy
set within any cultural context reflects the issues raised by the truth of
power and the power of truth (Foucault, 1980). Navigation of these issues
places moral responsibilities on the educator. Such responsibilities are
embedded within a culture of ever shifting political issues as the power
stakeholders within education seek to assert their agendas and decide the
shape and form of education and what constitutes knowledge (Bernstein, 2000).
Focus on Enquiry As practitioner researchers we create our own living
educational theories and we do so with the intention of improving our
practice as educators. This paper examines the questions and dilemmas that
arise when our models or theories are no longer bounded by the context of our
classroom and are exported to other cultures by way of publication, or
integration by others into an educational context or curriculum. Such a
change of context gives rise to questions of the nature: "What are the
ramifications of importing bodies of knowledge into different cultures?" and "What
moral or ethical responsibilities do the carriers of such ideas share in the
impact their thinking may have on the culture it is introduced to?" This
author asks these questions from the positional stance and lens of a White,
Male Nurse educator in Japan where he introduced the first healing nurse
curriculum in a Japanese university.(Adler-Collins, 2005). Data Collection The Global reach of knowledge impacts directly on
the practitioner in the classroom where classroom practitioners are
influenced by those with the position or ability to present or control
change. The author had to find his own way of coming to terms with difficult
choices where the lines of morality and commitment are not so clearly
defined. (Freire, 1970, Wink, 2005). This paper reflects on the data
collected from a pilot cohort of Japanese Nursing Undergraduates students in
their freshman year using new data collection Instruments which were
unfamiliar to Japanese students and the social formation. These Instruments
were; web based student assessments of the teaching, portfolios and
Reflective journals. Theoretical and analytic frameworks The research frame work for this paper was grounded
in heuristic living action research paradigm and uses several different forms
of data representation both qualitative and quantitative. Contributions to Knowledge. This papers contribution to knowledge is its focus
on highlighting the need to look closely at imported educational paradigms
and how they can impact on and in the culture they are introduced. Suggesting
that knowledge is not directly transferable and needs to be bounded and
modified to cultural context ADLER-COLLINS, J. (2005) Pedagogising a Living
Educational Theory Curriculum for the Healing Nurse. Exeter, British
Educational Index.
BERNSTEIN, B. (2000) Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and
Identity, New York, Rowman & Littlefield. FREIRE, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the oppressed, New
York, Seabury Press.
Foucault, M. (1980), in Gordon, C. (Ed.), Power
Knowledge. London; Harvester. WINK, J. (2005) Critical Pedagogy: notes from the real world, New York, Allyn & Bacon. |