Cultural models – Integration and Implementation Insights

Four lessons for operating in a different cultural environment

December 8, 2020December 8, 2020

By Nithya Ramachandran

author_nithya-ramachandran — Nithya Ramachandran (biography)

What does it take to operate successfully in a university located in a different culture?

I am an Indian academician working in the Middle-East, specifically in the Sultanate of Oman and share four lessons about teaching and working in a different cultural context. Although the specifics will vary depending on the culture, the general lessons are likely to be more widely applicable.

The four general lessons are:

Make the most of mentoring
Be open and responsive to feedback
Reinforce positive aspects of student behaviours and find ways to counteract the negative
Enjoy the diversity.

Why participatory models need to include cultural models

August 24, 2022March 4, 2016

By Michael Paolisso

Participatory modeling has at its heart the goal of engaging and involving community stakeholders. It aims to connect academic environments and the communities we want to understand and/or help. Participatory modelling approaches include: use facilitators, provide hands-on experiences, allow open conversation, open up the modeling “black box,” look for areas of consensus, and “engage stakeholders” for their input.

One approach that has not been used to help translate and disseminate participatory models to non-modelers and non-scientists is something psychologists and anthropologists call “cultural models.” Cultural models are presupposed, taken-for-granted understandings of the world that are shared by a group of people.