This paper reports a five-year computer-mediated intercultural exchange project between Chinese and American university students that explores the use of various social media tools with WeChat application as the main medium in collaborative intercultural assignments. The study combines quantitative and qualitative approaches by using questionnaires and action research, to investigate how Chinese EFL and American CFL learners increase their intercultural communication competence by assessing their knowledge, awareness, attitudes, and skills of discovery and awareness. The findings reveal their changes and progress in the following variables: knowledge about the variety and subtlety of both the home and target cultures, a different worldview, and cultural study methods; awareness of the importance of differences and similarities between the home and target cultures, their negative reactions to these differences (e.g., fear, ridicule, disgust, feeling of superiority, etc.) and therefore, critical evaluation of the target and home cultures; attitudes from excitement or blind admiration of the target culture to confusion, anxiety or frustration about the cultural differences, later to toleration and appreciation of cultural differences, adaptation to the target culture, and eventually to openness and readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures and belief about one’s own; skills to contrast the target culture with their own, to demonstrate a capacity to interact appropriately in a variety of different social situations in the target culture and resolve cross-cultural conflicts and misunderstandings. This research will serve as a valuable reference for computer-mediated intercultural communication teaching and open up new possibilities to extend classroom teaching by bridging the gap between second-hand knowledge and hands-on experience.
This article presents a case study examining the demise of a high school Mandarin language program in a school district that appeared to offer an exceptionally friendly habitat for its survival. Though members of the school board majority who voted against funding the program offered rational explanations for their decision (e.g., insufficient fiscal and human resources), other case evidence revealed the influence of emerging political polarization. Using policy ecology theory and event ecology analytic lenses, evidence indicated the fundamental cause of program failure to be political climate change within the district ecosystem resulting from years of community conflict over a high school renovation proposal. The climate shift led to the election of a factionalized school board, whose first budgetary action was to cancel funding for the Mandarin program, despite its popularity and established position within district strategic planning. We argue that much present and prior theory on organizational action lacks the dynamic perspective necessary to account for the type of climate and policy changes described in the present case. Our study thus highlights the usefulness of ecological theory in understanding the threats posed to small yet valued policy species by emerging, politically toned policy streams, school board factionalism, and ideological Article at NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY on June 13, 2015 eaq.sagepub.com Downloaded from Educational Administration Quarterly 49 (3) voting patterns. We argue that this phenomenon poses particular risks for local public school governance during times of resource uncertainty.
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