Kiddipedia
By Peter Mousaferiadis, founder and CEO of Cultural Infusion
Intercultural Understanding (IU) is an important part of the Australian Curriculum (AC). It is one of the seven general capabilities. Despite being embedded in the AC, what we are hearing from teachers is that the IU curriculum is under-resourced and they don’t know how to deliver it.
Cultural Infusion regularly runs webinars for teachers, and the feedback from them is that the resources and ideas provided during these sessions are sorely needed. Recently, Stacey Harrell from Wingham High School provided this feedback about an Intercultural Learning Pedagogy workshop she attended that was presented by our Education Strategist, Nisha Feik:
“This was such a beneficial webinar and made me think about what I do and how I do it. I loved the capoeira lesson as I have never experienced anything like that and am really interested in trying to adapt my programs to incorporate more cultural inclusion. Thank you. I had a very long day, but it was totally worth my time to participate in your interactive and highly motivating webinar.” During these webinar discussions, Nisha did a lot of troubleshooting for teachers who needed help resourcing their programs.
Last year, Cultural Infusion was involved with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in surveying Australian teachers about Intercultural Understanding in Australian Schools on the occasion of the UNESCO 2021 Forum on Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship: Where do we stand on Target 4.7? (Target 4.7 is Sustainable development and global citizenship.)
One of the key findings was that nearly half of the teachers surveyed did not think their school placed much emphasis on IU as a General Capability in the Australian Curriculum.[1]
So, what can be done to encourage teachers to include IU in their planning and curriculum delivery? Schools need to understand the cultural groups existing within their communities, so that communications, lesson planning and activities are effective.
We can also “ensure a culturally responsive teacher workforce by utilising data-driven mapping platforms such as Cultural Infusion’s Diversity Atlas, which can enable teachers to tailor IU education to the needs of diverse students, and provide a baseline for future development.”[2] Diversity Atlas is a unique diversity data-analysis platform that provides insight into cultural and demographic diversity within schools. It enables them to understand the diverse richness of its teams and to better measure, acknowledge and act on its diversity, inclusion and development strategies.
We should “promote cultural education resources, such as those created by Cultural Infusion (CI)”.[3] Alongside webinars there are many CI cultural presenters providing incursions to schools, which is a direct way for students to understand, and potentially empathise with a diversity of people from outside their own community. Lesson plans support these incursions and provide an in-depth extension when used alongside digital music arranging platform Sound Infusion that features instrument sounds from over 100 countries.
CI has also developed the Intercultural Citizenship Ambassador Program (ICAP), which addresses Intercultural Understanding by reflecting the growing diversity and accelerated cultural shifts now taking place in society. This 16-week sequential program enables students to develop interpersonal skills and cultural empathy, becoming leaders in their community for intercultural understanding.
Peter Mousaferiadis has had an extensive career in the arts as a music director, creative producer and is recognized globally as a champion of culture and diversity as a driver of sustainability, opportunity, peace and innovation. As the founder of Cultural Infusion, Peter has developed award-winning digital platforms including Diversity Atlas, a data-driven tool for measuring and understanding cultural diversity in organisations.
To find out more about intercultural resources, head to:
https://culturalinfusion.org.au/
[1] Stage Two: Teacher Survey on Intercultural Understanding in Australian schools
On the occasion of the UNESCO 2021 Forum on Education for Sustainable Development and Global CitizenshipWhere do we stand on Target 4.7? p17
[2] Ibid, p33
[3] Ibid
