Behaviorism Versus Intercultural Education In The Novel .
Södertörn University Teacher EducationIndependent Project 15 credits Department of English Spring 2013Behaviorism versusIntercultural Education in theNovel Purple HibiscusA Literature Study of Education in Purple Hibiscusfrom a Swedish EFL PerspectiveBy: Seidi TuomaalaSupervisor: Liz Kella
AbstractThe aim of this essay is to analyze two different educational paradigms, which I refer tobroadly as the behavioristic way of learning through imitation versus intercultural education,as these are depicted in the novel Purple Hibiscus by the Nigerian writer Chimamanda NgoziAdichie. The analysis focuses on how the narrator Kambili s learning, identity and personaldevelopment are differently affected by these two contrastive approaches to education. Afterthe analysis, examples of how the novel can be taught in intercultural, communicative EFLclassrooms will be given. In the analysis theories of mimicry and imitation, and identity willbe used as well as understandings of the terms intercultural education and behaviorism. Theanalysis shows that Kambili s father Eugene represents behaviorism in the novel, whereasKambili s aunt Ifeoma symbolizes intercultural education. At home, Kambili learns to imitateher father s behavior and values. In Ifeoma s house on the other hand she encounters a kind ofintercultural education, where critical thinking and questioning are encouraged.The thematization of contrastive educational and developmental paradigms inthe novel is relevant to the comprehensive goals of Swedish upper secondary schools, whichpromote intercultural learning, as well as critical thinking and reflection on learningprocesses. Reading literature in the EFL classroom at this level may promote these broadeducational objectives as well as the achievement of more specific, language- and culturebased learning outcomes. For many Swedish EFL students, Purple Hibiscus may representdifference, and therefore it is a suitable novel to include in intercultural education, as thestudents are encouraged tounderstand and reflect on different perspectives. By discussing thenovel in groups, the education becomes intercultural because everyone becomes activeparticipants and everyone s voices are heard.Keywords:EFL, literature, intercultural education, imitation, behaviorism, learning, identity,personal development, communicative competence2
Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION . 4Aim of the Study and Research Questions . 5Purple Hibiscus in the EFL Classroom . 6THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK . 7Liberal Education and Intercultural Pedagogy . 7Behaviorism and Imitation in Education. 10Identity in the Classroom .12From Behaviorism to Intercultural Communicative Competence in EFL . . 13PREVIOUS RESEARCH . 15Previous Research on Literature in the Swedish EFL Classroom . 15Previous Research on Swedish Inter- and Multicultural Classrooms . 16Previous Criticism on Purple Hibiscus . 18THE NOVEL . 20ANALYSIS OF THE NOVEL . 21Imitation and Behaviorism in the Novel . 22Intercultural Education in the Novel . 27DISCUSSION . 31Teaching Purple Hibiscus in Intercultural, Communicative Classrooms . 31CONCLUSION . 33WORKS CITED. 353
IntroductionThe distance between people and cultures is constantly shrinking in today s world due toglobalization, internet and migration. Sweden today is a heterogeneous society, and inSwedish schools many different cultures meet and interact with each other daily (Lahdenperä11). Therefore it becomes even more important that the teachers competence of interculturalpedagogy is adequate. Intercultural pedagogy is an approach to teaching and cultural meetingsthat emphasizes interaction, equality and social justice (Lahdenperä 15). Teachers have to beable to meet different cultures with an open mind and take advantage of diversity instead ofseeing it as a difficulty. The Swedish educational researcher Ulla Lundgren definesintercultural understanding as the ability to understand that everyone perceives the worlddifferently and one s own perception is only one of many others (Lundgren 13).One way to talk about multiculturalism (i.e. the heterogeneous society) andadopt an intercultural approach in language classrooms is to read literature from differentcultures to create understanding and tolerance towards difference. According to Anna Greek,reading literature meets at least two goals in theEnglish as a Foreign Language (EFL)curriculum in Sweden. Firstly, authentic literary texts give the reader a feeling for the syntaxand vocabulary of the target language. Secondly the learner gains insight into the cultures ofEnglish-speaking countries through literature (Greek 3-4). Bo Lundahl adds that readingliterature as experience provides motivation to further reading (Lundahl 327).This study will analyze the novel Purple Hibiscus by the Nigerian authorChimamanda Ngozi Adichie from an educational perspective and connect it to an interculturalapproach to teaching in Swedish upper secondary EFL classrooms. In the analysis of thenovel behaviorism and imitation as a teaching method will be compared to interculturaleducation.When behaviorism was prevalent in EFL teaching during the 70 s in Sweden,imitation was an important teaching method. The students were supposed to parrot the teacherin order to learn proper pronunciation and vocabulary. Imitation as an educational tool can beoppressive, which can be seen in the novel. Instead the curriculum emphasizes aninternational perspective on education, which emphasizes solidarity and understandingtowards different cultures outside and within Sweden (“Curriculum” 6). This is fundamentalwithin an intercultural education, and even if the curriculum does not use the termintercultural in this context, the interpretation in this essay is that the curriculum promotes4
intercultural education. In the final discussion of the essay, some practical aspects of how towork with Purple Hibiscus interculturally will be highlighted. Group work as an interculturalteaching method will be highlighted as well as reasons for bringing in just Purple Hibiscus tothe intercultural classroom. According to Lundahl, working in groups is an effective methodfor communicative language learning, since everyone has to participate (Lundahl 134). Wheneveryone participates the classroom also becomes democratic and intercultural as everyone svoice is heard (hooks 41). Finally, I will argue that Purple Hibiscus is a suitable novel in theintercultural classroom, because it represents difference in a Swedish context, and also,questions of the “other” can be explored when discussing this novel. This essay argues thatreading literature in EFL classrooms is part of an intercultural education, as studentsencounter different cultures through literature and thus are encouraged to developunderstanding and tolerance towards difference.Aim of the Study and Research QuestionsIn this essay Purple Hibiscus will be analyzed from an educational perspective, focusing ontwo teaching philosophies that are connected to different methods: behaviorism, connected toideas about imitation, and intercultural education, connected to the promotion of criticalthinking and questioning, including questioning of authorities. This contrast exists on athematic level in the novel, and thus facilitates examination and reflection about educationalgoals and methods important to EFL students and teachers. The aim is to explore how thenovel depicts learning, identity and personal development, and to suggest how the novel canbe taught in the intercultural EFL classroom. The teaching methods that are compared are thebehavioristic way of learning through imitation versus intercultural education. The researchquestions are: How does the novel depict learning and pedagogy? How is learning byimitation depicted compared to learning by critical and independent thinking? How doesidentity relate to the two teaching methods? Finally, in a separate section, I will discuss howone can work with Purple Hibiscus in the Swedish upper secondary EFL classroom from anintercultural perspective. This essay argues that behaviorism and imitative education can beoppressive, as opposed to intercultural education which promotes liberal values of tolerance,mutual understanding, equality and social justice (Lahdenperä 15).5
Purple Hibiscus in the EFL classroomIn an intercultural education it is important to create opportunities for the students to getinsight and reflect on different people and cultures, and this can be done through literature(Lahdenperä 24). Reading literature is mentioned in the curriculum as “central content”(centralt innehåll) in both the compulsory EFL courses (English 5 and 6) for upper secondaryschool. In English 5 the students should study “content and form in different kinds of fiction”(”Innehåll och form i olika typer av fiktion”, my translation) and the curriculum also mentionsspecifically “imaginative literature and other fiction” (“skönlitteratur och annan fiktion”, mytranslation) (GY11 54-55). In English 6 the use of literature is a little more sophisticated asthe students should study “themes, motifs, form, and content in film and literature; authorshipand literary epochs” (“Teman, motiv, form och innehåll i film och skönlitteratur; författarskapoch litterära epoker”, my translation) (GY11 60).Hence, working with literature is a natural element in the Swedish EFLclassroom. In my view, Purple Hibiscus is a suitable novel for EFL-learners in uppersecondary school of several reasons. Firstly, the language level is appropriate. The narrator,Kambili, is a 15 year old girl and her vocabulary and grammar as well as her thoughts are onher level. Second, the novel is a bildungsroman, and in its relation of Kambili s developmentit depicts family and relationship issues, matters that are universal and easy for readers torelate to. Even though some Swedish EFL students might feel unfamiliar with the Nigeriancontext and culture, the topics of relationship and family issues should be comprehensible andthus reading this novel also decreases the distance between Sweden and Nigeria, between“us” and “them”. Furthermore, Lahdenperä points out that reading literature should be used inthe intercultural classroom to learn and create respect and understanding towards difference.Through literature the reader also interacts with other people and cultures, which is central inthe intercultural perspective (Lahdenperä 24). Also, one of the goals in the EFL curriculumfor upper secondary school is to develop the ability to “discuss and reflect on livingconditions, social issues and cultural phenomena in different contexts and parts of the worldwhere English is used (“Förmåga att diskutera och reflektera over livsvillkor, samhällsfrågoroch kulturella företeelser i olika sammanhang och delar av världen där engelska används”, mytranslation) (GY11 54). Hence, it is a criterion to include perspectives from different parts ofthe English-speaking world, and literature from Nigeria, where English is one officiallanguage and where literary production has been very high, could be used for this reason.Finally, based on a quick search on Google, it is evident that many universitiesthroughout the world teach Purple Hibiscus. It is harder to find information on what upper6
secondary schools include in their English classes, but the fact that Purple Hibiscus is taughtin universities still prove that it is a novel with depth, suitable for classroom discussions andteaching.However, hooks maintains that it can also be problematic to include texts from“other” cultures. If the teacher ignores the writer s ethnicity or does not discuss issues of race,gender and ethnicity in relation to a black woman writer, reading the text can lead to moreprejudice instead of reducing it (hooks 38). On the other hand, categories of race, ethnicity,class and sexuality should never be taught separately or only in relation to “other” literature,as they would not be an issue in all writing. If these questions are highlighted only in relationto “other” literature, the otherness is emphasized rather than problematized (hooks 38-39).When discussing a novel by a white middle-class male one should nonetheless take intoconsideration how class and ethnicity have affected and facilitated that particular writing. It isthus important to be aware of why one chooses to work with a certain piece of literature anddiscuss the context in which it was produced without labeling the literature entirely dependingon what the writer s background is. As long as the teacher is aware if these possible risks andaccounts for them, Purple Hibiscus should not be a problem but only a resource in a Swedishupper secondary classroom.Theoretical FrameworkThis essay will analyze and compare intercultural education to behaviorism and imitativeeducation. Apart from understandings of these teaching philosophies, theories of mimicry,imitation, and identity will be used as theoretical framework. Finally communicative languagelearning will be explained, since this approach to teaching will be used in the discussion ofhow to teach Purple Hibiscus in the intercultural EFL classroom.Liberal Education and Intercultural PedagogyIntercultural education is a branch of the more comprehensive term liberal education andtherefore both terms will be explained here. In the essay though, the term interculturaleducation will be used, since this term is more common in Sweden.7
Liberal education has its roots in John Dewey s reformist pedagogy. Accordingto the Swedish educational researcher Gunnar Sundgren, Dewey has had a huge influence ontoday s school system in Sweden. The idea that education should originate from the students own experiences and interests so that learning feels meaningful derives from Dewey(Sundgren 79). Group work and teaching that focuses on problem solving are examples ofDewey s practical teaching methods that have been used a lot, and continue to be in Swedishclassrooms (Sundgren 79). As will be shown later, group work works well together withintercultural education, because it is a democratic work model. Dewey also argued thatlearning is an active process that goes on within the student. Students are thus not passiveobjects that the teachers can teach whatever they want, an idea that behaviorism promotes(Phillips 33).In Teaching to Transgress African American studies scholar bell hooksdescribes liberal education as an education where everyone, regardless of background, isinvited and active (hooks 8). In a liberating education opposed to a traditional one, both thestudents and the teacher are responsible for creating a learning environment, a dynamicclassroom where everyone is active and where knowledge is constantly renegotiated (hooks159). Like Dewey, hooks believes that personal experience is important in the classroombecause it enhances learning and includes everyone (hooks 84). It is also vital to the learningprocess that the students can relate to the subject (hooks 87), something that Dewey saidalmost 100 years ago (Phillips 38-39). She maintains that everyone s experiences are uniqueand equally valuable in the classroom (hooks 84) and claims that “the more studentsrecognize their own uniqueness and particularity, the more they listen” (hooks 151).The Brazilian Pedagogue Paulo Freire, by whom hooks is inspired, introducestwo types of education in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed: the “banking concept” oflearning and a “problem-posing” education. The banking concept of learning means that thestudents get a lot of information put into their heads by an omniscient and superior teacherand then they repeat and imitate it later, on tests etc. The students are seen as passive receiversof knowledge, like empty boxes that are to be filled with contents by the teacher (Freire 72).The problem-posing education focuses on communication between the teacher and thestudents (Freire 79). In order for the communication to work, the teacher and the studentshave to be partners and equals (Freire 75). Students have to be viewed as conscious humanbeings, who teach the teacher and each other, as much as they are being taught. The role ofthe teacher is not to be an authoritarian leader, but to present problems and investigate andcreate knowledge together in a dialogue with their students. Like hooks, Dewey and8
Lahdenperä, Freire argues that the education has to have relevance for the students foreffective learning (81). Furthermore, problem-posing education creates critical thinkers,whereas the banking system disables critical thinking (Freire83). Hence, this problem-posingeducation and intercultural education are related as they share the same values and learningobjectives.As early as 1985 the Swedish parliament decided that all education should havean intercultural perspective (Andersson and Reinfetti 5). Pirjo Lahdenperä, a leading scholarin the field of intercultural education in Sweden, maintains that intercultural education is not asubject, but an approach that should be practiced in all subjects (Lahdenperä 11). It is ageneral concept that covers intercultural teaching and learning as well as communication,school development and intercultural pedagogical research (Lahdenperä 13). She refers toYvonne Leeman who points out that the term intercultural indicates that cultures meet andinteract, unlike the term multicultural which instead implies that two cultures live side by sidein a static relationship (13). The prefix inter refers to human interaction, and cultural to thesystems of meaning that supply order and direction to a person s life (Lahdenperä 21).Intercultural learning contains three main aspects, according to Lahdenperä. Thefirst is student activity and teaching based on the students experiences. The second aspect iscalled “culture contrasted perspective” which means that the students (and the teacher) shouldbe confronted with different ways of thinking and different value systems in order to learn tobe more open-minded. The third aspect is linked to the second, as it has to do with emotionalwork with one s own ethnocentrism. The intercultural learner should not use his/hers ownlived experience and upbringing as the norm and the only “truth”, but should understand thateveryone has one s own “truths” (Lahdenperä 24-25). Finally an intercultural learning processultimately intends to develop a critical self-awareness and the ability to revalue and reviseone s own history, culture and values (Lahdenperä 23-24).Interculturality is thus an ongoing process that focuses on tolerance, mutualunderstanding, equality and social justice (Lahdenperä 15). These values are explicitly spelledout in the Swedish National Curriculum. The English shorter version of the NationalCurriculum for upper secondary school states: “Education should impart and establish respectfor human rights and the fundamental democratic values on which Swedish society is based”and “the inviolability of human life, individual freedom and integrity, the equal value of allpeople, equality between women and men, and solidarity between people are the values thatthe education should represent and impart” (“Curriculum” 4). A goal common to all nationalprograms in the upper secondary school is that the students learn to:9
“use their knowledge as a tool to:– formulate, ana
work with Purple Hibiscus interculturally will be highlighted. Group work as an intercultural teaching method will be highlighted as well as reasons for bringing in just Purple Hibiscus to the intercultural classroom. Accor
Rachlin parts with methodological behaviorism and aligns himself with radical behaviorism on two grounds: antidualism and pragmatism. Like any radical behaviorist, he denies the existence of mental fictions, and especially mental causes of behavior (ibid., p. 51); radical behaviorism rejects any form of dualism, including subjective-
In this essay Purple Hibiscus will be analyzed from an educational perspective, focusing on two teaching philosophies that are connected to different methods: behaviorism, connected to ideas about imitation, and intercultural education, connected to the promotion of critical thinking and questioning, including questioning of authorities. .
intercultural communication, adaptation to other cultures, intercultural learning. This concept is defined on the intersection of the concept of culture and competence (Figure 1). Developing Intercultural Competencies using activities with different media 40 Figure 1. Elements, which form the intercultural
Change, Globalization, Informatization, And Intercultural Communication, Communicating in culturally diverse work-place, Gateways to Effective Intercultural Communication. Learning Objectives To define intercultural communication To know the significance of intercultural communication in today's world of globalization.
Intercultural Communication – For Further Study - 23 Intercultural Manners and Etiquette - 24 Information about Specific Cultures - 25 Intercultural Discussion - Activities for Classes and Workshops - 26 . 1 Invisible: Ways of Being & Ways of Thinking DEFINITION OF CULTURE
I. Frequently asked questions 88 J. UNESCO evaluation form 93 Index 99. Figures 0.1 UNESCO Intercultural Competencies Tree xiv 2.1 Intercultural competence model 59 Tables 1.1 Pros and cons of intercultural trainings tools 8 2.1 Foundation of Story Circles 17 Photos 2.1 Story Circles pilot in Bangkok, Thailand 18 .
The term "Intercultural Communication" was first used in Edward T. Hall‟s book. The Silent Language. in 1959. Most researchers think that intercultural communication is the interpersonal communication between people from different cultures [3]. Gudykunst and Kim [4] define intercultural communication as 'a transactional,
Academic writing is cautious, because many things are uncertain. When we put forward an argument, point of view or claim, we know that it can probably be contested and that not everybody would necessarily agree with it. We use words and phrases that express lack of certainty, such as: Appears to Tends to Seems to May indicate Might In some .
