‘We are so over pharaohs and pyramids!’ Re‐presenting the othered lives with young people through an international studies program

摘要

Based on a year‐long implementation of an international studies program in a rural middle school using videoconferencing technology, this paper focuses the international presenters' interpretation of and reaction to the program through their interaction with the students. Attention here is paid to the ways that the presenters' assumptions and beliefs affect their (re)construction of their own cultures. Some contradiction in presenters' re‐presentations can be discussed further using a distinction between the social observer and the social participant, and a categorization of roles taken by the Third‐World individuals. The presenters provided following suggestions for improving the program implementation in rural learning environments: (1) teach students about the misrepresentation and cultural stereotypes in the US media; (2) provide analogies between the program presentations and the corresponding aspects of the US culture; and (3) teach them the constructs with which the various cultures are viewed and evaluated.View full textDownload full textKeywordsinternational studies program, cross‐cultural encounters, social construction of identityRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09518390903362359