Best Practices Conference in June, 2001

Participants:

• Joe Hatcher
• Dominique Poncelet
• Marguerite Parks

Project Title: Teaching the basic principles of intercultural experience using "home-grown" exercises

Project Description:

Our college contains a large number of students with little or no prior exposure to different cultures. In some students, though not all, this leads to a lack of understanding of the importance of understanding other cultures, and in some cases to an aversion to such topics. We are looking for ways to introduce students to the principles and practices of cross-cultural experience, and are beginning our efforts with "home-grown" exercises such as our workshop presentation on the "Family Culture Scale," which can capitalize on experiences that all students have already had to help them understand both the importance and the basic principles of intercultural experience. We are scheduled to conduct our exercise with a majority of first year students next fall, and hope to link up with various off-campus study programs in a way that would piggyback on the family culture example used in our workshop. Hopefully, this will help demystify off-campus experiences and help our students be better prepared for intercultural interaction. We also hope to collect other useful ideas from the workshops at your conference.

Participants:

Name: Joe Hatcher

Title: Professor of Psychology

E-mail: hatcherj@ripon.edu

Presentation: Family Culture Scale: Teaching Students Intercultural Principles Using the Family as First Culture

Biographical Information: Joe Hatcher received his B.A. degree from Dartmouth College, spent several years studying in Leuven, Belgium, and finished his Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University. He has been in the Psychology Department of Ripon College since 1986, and served as a visiting professor at Fisk University for one semester. Though a social psychologist at heart, he has taught a variety of courses, including "The Impact of Culture on Everyday Life." He is particularly interested in any way to help students better understand the impact of culture on their everyday lives.

Name: Dominique Poncelet

Title: Visiting Assistant Professor of French

E-mail: ponceletd@ripon.edu

Presentation: Family Culture Scale: Teaching Students Intercultural Principles Using the Family as First Culture

Biographical Information: Dominique Poncelet received her B.A. from the University of Louvain at Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium), and her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At Ripon she has taken full advantage of the College's commitment to multiculturalism and of opportunities to introduce new courses into the curriculum. In courses from intermediate French to advanced literature studies, she introduces students to the diversity of the Francophone world through components covering culture, business French, media, and current events. She also serves as an Advisor for students who wish to spend a semester in France. Her goal at the conference is to find ways to better integrate off-campus study as a regular and valuable part of students' undergraduate experiences.

Name: Marguerite Parks

Title: Associate Professor of Education

E-mail: parksm@ripon.edu

Presentation: Family Culture Scale: Teaching Students Intercultural Principles Using the Family as First Culture

Biographical Information: Marguerite Worth Parks received her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in Curriculum and Supervision with an emphasis in Minority Education and Social Foundations. She was a High School English/Drama/Debate teacher in the Kansas City School District. Her focus is on preparing teachers to work with a diverse student population. In addition to education classes she teachers Human Relations for the Classroom Teacher, which focuses on the culture of the classroom, the students, and the teachers. Her major area of research is culturally diverse adolescent girls in the classroom.