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As
mentioned earlier, all children must be able to
see/hear/read what they and their classmates have
produced, as well as communications produced by
other children (those with whom they are twinned
and all the others).
The themes on which the children will base their
initial exchange – at different times and at different
phases of the project as established by the PT –
must be suitable for an intercultural and multimedia
exchange, and avoid any humiliating comparisons.
In particular, teachers of schools of developed
countries should not play on pity nor on the poverty
that many Southern populations may experience, but
they should begin an activity of mutual discovery
based on the knowledge of various cultures, which
are different but not subordinate, nor in competition
with one another. In this sense, ‘my teacher’ would
initially be a better theme than ‘my school’, because
it gives more importance to the people rather than
to the materials, to the ideas rather than to the
things, to the feelings rather than to the environment.
Thus, comparisons must be of subjects that will
not make children of developing countries feel uneasy
because of the poor economic development of their
countries.
The High Intercultural Value
Themes (HIVT)
are those that influence the intercultural growth
and Intercultural Attitudes
and Skills (IAS)
(curiosity, knowledge, surprise, exploration, and
cognitive comparison), ie, all the characteristics
that help develop intercultural sensitivities:
the SENSE of DECENTRALISATION, of CONVENTION and
of UNITY – still within a SENSE of BELONGING – the
CAPACITY to INTERACT and the AWARENESS of DIVERSITY
(see Figure 3 below).
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| Reversing
Figure 3, intercultural sensitivities could help
identify the themes (HIVT) upon which the online
exchange will be based. In traditional intercultural
teaching and learning, the sensitivities are identified
as indicators and are used to select the subjects
that within school programmes allow for the creation
of intercultural links, expansion and growth at
many subject levels. |
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