Culture and Diversity in St. Joseph’s College Community
The main aim of this assignment is to highlight the various factor related to the cultural, linguistic diversity and religious within the school community. St. Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace will be taken into consideration for the purpose of defining the importance of the human and physical resources within the school. St. Joseph’s College is a catholic day school for young men from 5 to 12 years old. It is founded by the Christian Brothers in 1875. It is considered as one of the well-known college all over Queensland and is among the oldest. The resources of school and community will be demonstrated in order to identify possibilities for teaching and learning with respect to Intercultural Understanding within the Australian Curriculum.
The members of St Joseph’s College community are introduced by the Christian Brothers to give an education for the improvement of the whole person. The school is celebrating the diversity and work together in order to develop a healthy environment where every person is respected. The community gives preference to the culture and diversity in the school for the purpose of providing equal opportunity to any kind of students. The main motive of the community is to provide education to all kind of children in same kind manner so that the discrimination cannot take place within the school.
The culture of the school is quite good in which the community of the school encourage student to show “faith in action” by a kind of service and solidarity initiatives. For instance, the Big Brekky program overviews year 11 students give one time meal and an effective place for friendly meeting for people in Fortitude Valley while year 10 students cook meal and socialise with people who come for walk in local caravan park which is the part of the Big BBQ (St Joseph College, 2017). It shows the culture of the school and both activities are occurred every Tuesday of the year, covering school holidays. The school permit their students to roll and allocate Street Swags which give comfort and warmth for people in need and spend time with children. The students are prepared and educated to raise your hand in giving help to others in their education for which they visit local aged care homes in order to spend vital social times.
In the context of religious, it has been found that the community of the school is focused towards providing equal reference to all kind of religious that is why it is the belief of the school that religious education keeps significant value in the formation of the student. For this, the school take initiative to involve the student of 5 to 9 age with Brisbane Catholic Education Religious Education framework in their daily studies work for the purpose of accomplishing the program in study of religion which involves to students achieving participation in the Religion and Ethics Program if accomplishing a Vocational Education Pathway (St Joseph College, 2017).
Human and Physical Resources for Intercultural Understanding
St Joseph’s College is magnificently diverse surroundings. The students come from different background with different linguistic diversity. The students of the school learn at various rates and keep different interest on different levels of readiness in the form of they approach and confronted by new learning chances. It shows the school as the best educational institution that it is effective to make balance educational theory with the flexible requirements of the modern learning.
There are broad communities beyond the school that play a role in amplifying intercultural understanding. There are many activities which can be helpful for the people to understand regarding intercultural understanding. The human and physical resources are mentioned below in the context of providing intercultural understanding.
Human resources
The role of the human resource in bringing change in the perception of the children towards different culture has significant value (Chen & Yang, 2014). There is a Multicultural Queensland Advisory Council that advice on barriers and opportunities facing people from linguistically and cultural diverse backgrounds. The contribution of multicultural communities in intercultural understanding is huge as it has been found that the Queensland Government Initiative was rejoiced in 2016 for the first time. Along with that this community provide the opportunity for companies to publicise their festivals and events by their events calendar. The reason behind conducting event is to strengthen the sense of belongings for the people of Queensland regarding race, cultural background and religions. It helps in supporting education and mentoring for people from culturally diverse backgrounds entailing tertiary education expos.
Physical resources
There is a library in the surrounding of the school which helps in increasing knowledge of the student regarding intercultural understanding. The student can access over there by showing their identity card given by the school which helps them to get more knowledge on different topic. There is a stadium in which the students of the school can play after school or school can connect with stadium to make nation better. There is a Queensland Multicultural Resource Directory that gives an effective knowledge listing around 900 key organizations with multicultural community focus in Queensland by focusing community, schools, and multicultural media outlets.
Intercultural understanding is vital component of living with others in the diverse world of the 21st century. It helps student to become responsible global citizens by their education for working and living together in an interlinked world (Walton, Priest & Paradies, 2013).
Activities for Increasing Intercultural Understanding
Role play
Role play is an effective activity for the school to increase interest of students in intercultural understanding within the Australian Curriculum (Australian curriculum, 2018). There is a certain step which needs to be followed by the teacher in the context off making role play within the classroom. A situation for a role plays design, linguistic preparation and factual preparation. It is covered under intercultural understanding within Australian Curriculum; students generate intercultural understanding as they learn to value their own culture through role play. They would be benefitted to get better understanding regarding how personal group are shaped (Marx & Moss, 2011).
Group activity
It is another activity in which the students will understand the communication style of other people in the class. This activity will be Communication exercise: “Associations” in which the group size will be student and time for this activity will be 10–15 minutes. With the help of this activity, the student can convey their message with each other for the purpose of increasing the intercultural communication in an effective manner. In this activity, the facilitator would ask some questions and they store the very first thought associated with it. For example, if a class is a colour, it is________?, if a class is a building, it is__________? Facilitators then bring out the survey to gauge reactions to record answers (Michael, 2016).
Group discussion
The group discussion would be effective approach in the form of the activity by which the school can get interacted with another people of the community who belongs from different kind of culture (Walton, Paradies, Priest, Wertheim & Freeman, 2015). The school and broader community can get connected in an effective manner if they get chance to discuss on some changes by taking consideration of thought of every person (Australian Government, 2009). The topic will be covered on the multicultural affairs in order to develop results for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The time for this will be 1 hour in a week which will be conducted in the community hall of Queensland. The school community and the councillors will be involved in it and the code of conduct sets out the standards of expected behaviour of counsellors and mayors at the time of playing their roles as elected head of the community (Local Government Reform, 2019).
Workshop
The workshop is an effective activity which can be implemented in order to educate a large number of people about intercultural aspects. There are three keys to intercultural competencies such as cognitive complexity, empathy and curiosity. There can be activity of photo voice in which there is a commitment to hear from those who often are not heard or seen. It can be effective to engage learners in intercultural team projects (Bennett, 2016).
Teacher’s Role in Intercultural Understanding
Knowledge about intercultural understanding
The intercultural understanding capability focus on facilitating students to increase their behaviour and attitudes in order to enable them to respect other from various communities and cultures (Signorini, Wiesemes, & Murphy, 2009). It is etiquette to treat others with respect without considering position and according to me it is general which carry by all teachers. The nature of the teacher reflects their understanding regarding intercultural understanding which can be easily found out (Martin & Nakayama, 2013). There are various theories which can be taken into consideration to fix the understanding if the teacher in the context of the intercultural understanding. These theories can be socio-cultural theory and learning, a time for telling, Metacognitive processes and learning.
Professional development
Professional development is the need for all teachers. There are so many schools that set the needed number of professional development hours for each year. Professional development can be considered as the form of the education for teachers that can increase better understanding regarding their classroom environment (Jones, 2010). There are many resources in the context of human resources and physical resources such as library, buses, huge campus, and cafeteria and with respect to human resources; it has good resources of teachers, community and administration.
Needed resources
It has been found from above discussion that the school has number of resources but there should be proper training session for the teachers in order to increase intercultural understanding so that the interaction between people of school can be made (Corbett, 2010). Group discussion is another approach for professional development by which one can increases their understanding regarding another subject. It can expand an expertise area of one teacher with the help of others which would be effective in amplifying the co-ordination (Walton, Priest & Paradies, 2013). There should be digital approach by which the teachers get knowledge such as online education program and there can be workshop in order to amplify the professional development of the teacher. It is necessary for the school to keep focus on the activity of the teacher and develop program for the purpose of bringing change in their capabilities in a positive manner.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from above discussion that the role of the intercultural understanding in the school keeps significant value. The discussion has been made on the same by taking consideration of the St. Joseph’s College. An overview has been reflected under the assignment by involving the insight of cultural, linguistic and religious diversity within the community. An overview of the human and physical resources has been presented within the broader community and relevant to the school community under the assignment for the purpose of elaborating the important resources of the company. Intercultural understanding by taking reference of Australian curriculum has been defined in the term of classroom activities and other activities for the teachers and the community.
References
Australian curriculum. (2018). Intercultural understanding. Retrieved from: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/intercultural-understanding/
Australian Government. (2009). Teaching for Intercultural Understanding. Professional learning program. Retrieved from: https://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/Values_PLP_intro.pdf .
Benett, J. M. (2016). Interactive Methods for Teaching About Cultural Differences. Retrieved from: https://prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu/sites/18/2016/03/Bennett.Janet_.2016.pdf
Chen, J. J., & Yang, S. C. (2014). Fostering foreign language learning through technology-enhanced intercultural projects.
Corbett, J. (2010). Explore, reflect and discuss: intercultural activities for the language classroom. Retrived from: https://learning.educatetogether.ie/pluginfile.php/12853/mod_resource/content/2/Intercultural%20Learning%20Through%20Language.pdf.
Jones, P. M. (2010). Developing social capital: A role for music education and community music in fostering civic engagement and intercultural understanding. International Journal of Community Music, 3(2), 291-302.
Local Government Reform, (2019). Queesland Government. Retrieved from: https://www.dlgrma.qld.gov.au/local-government-reform.html
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2013). Intercultural communication in contexts. New York: NY: McGraw-Hill.
Marx, H., & Moss, D. M. (2011). Please mind the culture gap: Intercultural development during a teacher education study abroad program. Journal of Teacher Education, 62(1), 35-47.
Michael, 2016. Two Quick and Easy Games For Cross Cultural Team Building. Retrived from: https://www.ventureteambuilding.co.uk/two-quick-games-cross-cultural-team-building/
Perry, L. B., & Southwell, L. (2011). Developing intercultural understanding and skills: Models and approaches. Intercultural Education, 22(6), 453-466.
Signorini, P., Wiesemes, R., & Murphy, R. (2009). Developing alternative frameworks for exploring intercultural learning: a critique of Hofstede’s cultural difference model. Teaching in Higher Education, 14(3), 253-264.
St Joseph College. (2017). About Us. Retrieved from: https://www.terrace.qld.edu.au/teaching-and-learning/library.
St Joseph College. (2017). Dean of Studies. Retrieved from: https://www.terrace.qld.edu.au/teaching-and-learning/dean-of-studies.
Walton, J., Paradies, Y., Priest, N., Wertheim, E. H., & Freeman, E. (2015). Fostering intercultural understanding through secondary school experiences of cultural immersion. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 28(2), 216-237.
Walton, J., Priest, N., & Paradies, Y. (2013). Identifying and developing effective approaches to foster intercultural understanding in schools. Intercultural education, 24(3), 181-194.
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