What is it about?
Little research has been conducted into culturally rooted perceptions and experiences of academics in universities. This paper brings together different perspectives and considers the relevance of 'western' approaches to learning and teaching for educators and students in a Middle Eastern university.
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Why is it important?
There is little evidence of similar, collaborative work being conducted that offers personal insights into the experiences of academics who have been introduced to pedagogical principles from other very different cultures and expected to employ these with their own students. This paper highlights some of the successes and challenges associated with cross-cultural educational initiatives.
Perspectives
As the British facilitator of a programme for educators in a university in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, co-authoring this paper with some of the participants in the programme provided an invaluable opportunity to explore the differences and similarities in our experiences. I hope that sharing our perceptions more widely will encourage others to consider their own practice in similar cross-cultural encounters carefully. Working collaboratively in the writing of this paper has been hugely enjoyable and the benefit to my own practice has been significant.
Helen Goodall
Plymouth Marjon University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Bridging cultures: a programme of academic development in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Studies in Higher Education, January 2019, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2018.1564261.
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