Cross Cultural Awareness in Online Learning
If you have a tutoring job in any major centre you will surely be aware of issues of cross-culturalism in contemporary education. With globalisation, schools and other educational institutions have a student body comprising learners from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. In many tutoring jobs, understanding different cultural expectations of and attitudes to learning is a key requirement for delivering effective learning.
In online tutoring jobs this issue can be magnified. Depending on the subject in which you offer tuition or tutoring, you can attract students from almost anywhere in the world. For some people, this is one of the bonuses of online tutoring jobs. Interacting with learners from other cultural backgrounds can stretch teachers’ abilities and have rewarding outcomes. On the one hand, teachers can have the satisfaction of providing help to learners who might have restricted educational access in their own countries and cultures. On the other hand, it gives teachers the opportunity to broaden their own horizons.
Some Cross-cultural Issues in Online Learning
Before you take on online tutoring jobs offering tuition to students from other countries and backgrounds, it’s worth asking yourself if you have the necessary skills and whether you understand the issues around cross-cultural communication and education. Some issues to consider include:
- Language. This is the most obvious potential obstacle to effective online teaching. Of course some foreign students have an excellent grasp of English (or whatever language you teach in) but teaching second language English speakers may require additional expertise. Prior experience or training in teaching people whose first language is not the language of instruction will be very useful.
- Cross-cultural differences in expectations. Your teaching style will be informed by your own educational experiences and training. However, students from other cultural backgrounds may have very different experiences and hence expectations. For example, some learners are accustomed to tuition that is strongly instructor-led rather than interactive. You will need to establish what the expectations of international students are and tailor your tuition accordingly, where suitable.
- Student-teacher interaction. This may also vary cross-culturally. Some may hesitate to ask questions. Others may find it difficult to ‘disagree’ with a teacher, as a matter of respect for elders. These students may have to be introduced to learning by means of debate and argument and ‘given permission’ to interact in less formal ways than those to which they are accustomed.
- Motivation to learn. The work ethic and the imperative to learn and achieve is also cross-culturally variable. For people who have worked in tutoring jobs with relatively privileged learners who take education for granted (for example in the UK and US), the strong work ethic and self-discipline of many international students can be a delight. In your online tutoring jobs you will need to appreciate the reasons for this. Some students have a strong desire to learn in order to benefit their communities (as doctors, lawyers and similar). Others may have more narrowly individual educational goals. Understanding motivational differences that are culturally rooted can help you maximize the efficiency of your teaching.
Whether dealing with international students or learners who share your cultural background, your role in your online tutoring job will be to personalize your tuition. That involves appreciating the different needs, preferences and expectations of your students, including those that may be rooted in different cross-cultural backgrounds.
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