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Diversity is not the Enemy: Promoting Encounters between University Students and Newcomers
[journal article]
Abstract In today's globalized world with dynamic processes of political, social, and societal change (Mergner et al., 2019) the university should be a place of encounter between people with different (cultural) backgrounds. The learning arrangement presented here therefore initiates intercultural exchange a... view more
In today's globalized world with dynamic processes of political, social, and societal change (Mergner et al., 2019) the university should be a place of encounter between people with different (cultural) backgrounds. The learning arrangement presented here therefore initiates intercultural exchange and aims to help students see diversity as an asset rather than a challenge (Roos, 2019). To this end, an intercultural project was initiated at TU Dortmund in Germany in 2017. In the context of different learning environments future teachers were invited to have encounters with young newcomers through a nearly completely self‐managed learning arrangement. The students were prepared for the encounters in focused courses dealing with theoretical backgrounds and didactic concepts. They would then prepare the lessons with the newcomers. In the context of this learning arrangement the following questions were important: What did the university students expect with regard to the encounter with newcomer students from schools? How did they prepare the lessons? What did students and newcomers think about the encounters later? What have they learned? And what do these reflections mean for inclusive and intercultural teacher education at universities? In the project we could observe that the didactic approach supports the students' level of sensitivity towards differences and encourages future teachers to train the education of newcomers in a non‐judgmental framework (Bartz & Bartz, 2018). Based on a selection of qualitative empirical findings (ethnographic approach during six lessons in a period of two years and 147 interviews including the students' and newcomers' points of view about their learning encounters at TU Dortmund), this article discusses opportunities to create more innovative spaces for inclusive practices and cultures under the restricted terms of a mass university.... view less
Keywords
university level of education; intercultural skills; inclusion; university; teacher training; student; refugee; educational training
Classification
Training, Teaching and Studying, Professional Organizations of Demography
Free Keywords
guided encounters; higher education; intercultural studies; newcomers; reflective inclusion; refugees; self‐reflection; teacher education; universal design for learning
Document language
English
Publication Year
2021
Page/Pages
p. 154-162
Journal
Social Inclusion, 9 (2021) 3
Issue topic
Inclusive Universities in a Globalized World
ISSN
2183-2803
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed