Pedagogies of the Home and International Schools: New Models for (Inter) Cultural Education?

Pedagogies of the Home and International Schools: New Models for (Inter) Cultural Education?

Gligorova, Bela

As an educator at an international school located in a pre-dominantly Balkan cultural milieu, I see myself crossing several contact zones (sometimes more than one, simultaneously). While there is a dangerous sense of enjoyment that comes with this sort of ‗cultural ventriloquism‘, on the behalf of said practitioner, I cannot but help and wonder about its long-term effects. Exacted through the medium of the English language, students are encouraged to live out in what seems like a cultural safe-haven: as they are continuously reminded of dominant social paradigms (gender, race and ethnicity, sexuality, religion, to name a few) and their operational value within ‗an imagined international community‘, the cultural identity of their discourse becomes foreign, un-Balkan, yet also un-English (perhaps a quiet cosmopolitan? a delocalized ‗other‘?). They seem to remain dwellers of a cushioned ‗non-place‘, a cultural contact zone within a larger contact area, for the duration of their studies, and even beyond.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2011-05

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