Ah ah - and Cultural Backgrounds?

Ah ah - and Cultural Backgrounds?

by Doug Strable -
Number of replies: 13

1. What big question do you have about Liberating Structures as we begin our time together?

"Ah ha" moments that remain with you for a lifetime happen at times when you least expect them. For me, as a recent member of a BCEd (Royal Roads) blended learning graduate cohort, one of these  "ah ha" moments occurred during our 2-week face-to-face classes. I was amazed to see how our cohort members waited and sought out the opinions of everyone in the room before moving on to the next topic. The experience seemed to happen naturally, perhaps because of the cohort's personalities, but now, with my awareness of liberating structures,  I feel some hidden structure was involved. 

My "big question" about Liberating Structures is to look at how the structures work specifically in classes with different cultural backgrounds. I imagine some work better than others and look forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences.

2. What do you hope to get from and give this group this week?

I am curious about the directions the discussions will take this group. I look forward to sharing my experiences of working, training and living in and with different cultures. 


In reply to Doug Strable

Re: Ah ah - and Cultural Backgrounds?

by Asif Devji -

Hi Doug -- interesting question re: how the structures work specifically in classes with different cultural backgrounds.

How would you respond to the idea that each online community creates its own internal culture that participants will instinctively comprehend and adapt themselves to?

In reply to Asif Devji

Re: Ah ah - and Cultural Backgrounds?

by Doug Strable -

Hello Asif,   Yes, I agree with you that each online community has its own culture but I don't see the social aspects developing naturally. Some intervention is needed. Before students will engage, especially from different cultural backgrounds, need to see that the environment is safe and welcoming. I would say creating a safe and friendly environment needs to happen BEFORE LS activities started.  

Here is a video called Creating Fully Online Learning Community about creating the environment I mentioned. 



(Edited by Beth Cougler Blom - original submission Monday, 3 June 2019, 11:42 PM - to link up the video)

In reply to Doug Strable

Re: Ah ah - and Cultural Backgrounds?

by Asif Devji -

Thanks Doug for your response and for the link to the video .

We agree that conscious instructor intervention is required to set up the environmental parameters (safety) and expectations (openness) that learners will adapt themselves to -- the co-creation of a social environment that invites and supports learners in sharing their ideas freely and without fear (1:44 in the video).

My initial response to your post was based on the assumption that you were teaching in Canada to a cohort of learners from multiple ('non-Canadian') cultures -- however after checking out your profile I see that you are actually teaching in Japan to a cohort (I am assuming) of primarily Japanese learners.

For me this changes the dynamic -- as the dominant culture in your case is Japanese (which to me means it is you who will tend to adapt to the environment around you) -- and you seem to be attempting to create a (not-necessarily Japanese?) bubble of safety/openness within that dominant culture. Complex challenge -- you seem to be swimming against the stream. Not sure why, but something in me intuits that if you succeed in this the transformative potential for your learners could be amazing.

In reply to Doug Strable

Re: Ah ah - and Cultural Backgrounds?

by Nancy White -

Doug, I share your cultural context wonderings. One specific issue that I've been wrestling with is the consideration that stringing and using LS in rapid sequence favor people with high verbal ideation skills, for whom slower, turn taking talking listening is not a priority or a variety of other contexts. I have found myself saying during Troika Consulting "don't worry if it feels rude to turn your back on your consultants. Trust me, you will see." All the while I'm disrespecting people's cultural contexts. So there must be a way to do this!!! 

In reply to Nancy White

Re: Ah ah - and Cultural Backgrounds?

by Doug Strable -

Hello Nancy, 

I find it is difficult to keep up with high-speed conversations in Japanese after a while too, so I can understand students who do not have high speed verbal and listening skills will find the "Trioka Consulting"  challenging.  There are a lot of LS so there should be others you can try. That's what I'm looking at as well. 

In reply to Nancy White

Re: Ah ah - and Cultural Backgrounds?

by Meg Walker -

Hi Nancy,

I'm interested in hearing how the resistance to back-turning was expressed in the situations you're describing - was it verbalized or expressed through body language? 

In reply to Meg Walker

Re: Ah ah - and Cultural Backgrounds?

by Nancy White -

It was verbalized by a leader in the group who said it violated their cultural norms. You don't turn your back on people speaking to you. Similarly for a colleague working in Laos and Cambodia, when people's bosses or superiors were in the room, both the back turning and the speaking frankly were simply non starters. Power differentials have different cultural manifestations. LS looks to diminish power differentials and distribute control and this can be perceived of as threatening and/or against cultural or institutional norms.  Make sense?

In reply to Nancy White

Re: Ah ah - and Cultural Backgrounds?

by Meg Walker -

Yes, makes a lot of sense - thanks for unpacking those stories about the back-turning and the speaking frankly. I am a non-Indigenous person with a mixture of First Nation, Filipino, and European-heritage students and in many classes we have had a chance to reflect on different understandings about order of speaking - whether or not it is appropriate to speak up or to wait until being asked to speak. So I was curious to know how that information had been communicated to you. It's been really useful for me to learn, from conversations with students, how to ask about and/or present structures of turn-taking that sometimes need to be followed for an activity to take place. 


In reply to Doug Strable

Re: Ah ah - and Cultural Backgrounds?

by Faith Whiting -

I am also interested in this question Doug. It is a deep one! I agree with Asif that all classrooms develop their own cultural communities to some extent (if enough time and support is provided for this to happen). However, last term I taught a communication-focused course to a group that was a mix of international students hailing from India, the Philippines, China and Kenya, alongside local First Nation students from small communities. The cultural differences in the room brought so many interesting topics to light! In general, we talked a lot about the differences in communication styles among individualistic versus collectivist cultures, which I could see playing into LS. We had the benefit of creating a learning community through discussion and naming these differences (owing to course content), but I could certainly see how things could be tricky if an assumption was made that "one size fits all" was going to work with these activities across the board. 

I think about the cultural layer in classrooms often, as I am a non-Indigenous instructor who works with primarily First Nation students. I think it's really healthy to be aware of these things and explore these questions in an effort to increase the cultural competencies in ourselves and our classrooms. I'm glad you raised this question. I like this question.

In reply to Faith Whiting

Re: Ah ah - and Cultural Backgrounds?

by Doug Strable -

Hello Faith,  Thank you for sharing your experiences with your multi-cultural classes. I can imagine the mix of international students in the class provided many different viewpoints.  In my reply to Asif, I mentioned how important I feel it is to create a safe and caring environment before jumping into the course or LS activities. I think you are also emphasizing this point.  That is very important. I look forward to hearing more from you as the week progresses. 

In reply to Doug Strable

Re: Ah ah - and Cultural Backgrounds?

by Beth Cougler Blom -

This is a great question. I'm thinking particularly of the fact that a lot of LS structures are timed. And I have heard/seen that some cultures do not want to be rushed! And understandably so. For example, an indigenous friend of mine and I share and compare experiences sometimes on things like introductions/opening circle activities. In her world, "it takes as long as it takes." In mine (non-indigenous Caucasian woman), I am often watching the clock! ;-)

So can we use LS in both cases? I think so, and I look forward to the ideas that emerge here about how.


In reply to Beth Cougler Blom

Re: Ah ah - and Cultural Backgrounds?

by Doug Strable -

Hello Beth, 

This is a great example too of the importance to think about how different cultures react to the LS activity and need to be balanced. 

The Universal Design for Learning (which helps adapt teaching to more diverse backgrounds) shows how we can balance instruction to engage more learners. https://opened.uoguelph.ca/student-resources/Universal-Instructional-Design

I'll be looking at the 33 LS structures to see which I feel are the most balanced,  and look forward to sharing more stories.