Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research

My favorite night on TV is Friday–Washington Week in Review, NOW, Bill Moyers…it’s a feast. The Bill Moyers show on June 20 was remarkable. Entitled “America in Black and White,” it looked at race in America in some very interesting ways, starting with a look at a history few of us know about by interviewing Douglas Blackmon who has written “Slavery by Another Name.” Check out www.slaverybyanothername.com to explore more about “neo-slavery” that took place long after the Emancipation Proclamation. It is a depressing and distressing tale and it is true.

You can read the interview at http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06202008/transcript2.html

This was followed by a discussion with Orlando Patterson, Professor of Sociology at Harvard University and Glenn C. Loury, Professor of Economics at Brown University. You can read the transcript of their discussion at http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06202008/transcript3.html

In the midst of this interview, Orlando Patterson said the following:

ORLANDO PATTERSON: Oh, multicultural America is a salad bowl in which everyone does their own thing and couldn’t give a damn about what’s going on elsewhere. Identity politics is almost mean-spirited about, you know, we’ll attend the parade on St. Patrick’s Day but, you know, we don’t want to know you.

And a genuine intercultural America, it knows the other, and is involved with the other.  And in a way, Obama embodies that. And it’s very appealing, especially to a younger generation of America now, there’s a huge divide in terms of age in America. Between people under, say, 45 and people above. And, I mean, it can be it comes out in every poll done. But you see it visibly.

I used to live a block away from a public school which you looked at, Cambridge Rindge and Latin, which is a very diverse multicultural school genuine. And I used to just love walks through that school because you see these young kids, their interaction with each other is like nothing a person over 50 can understand. And the reason for the appeal to younger people is that indeed he represents this intercultural America, I call it ecumenical, because there is a common culture there, a common culture which black Americans contribute to enormously, even as they were excluded. And–

Many of us have talked for years about multicultural being descriptive of an environment, of a society, and intercultural being the interactive/real engagement between people. And here was Patterson saying just that on TV about society in America. So aside from feeling a sense of confirmation, I was excited to hear the word “intercultural” used in a public forum. Listen to or read the entire program….it is fascinated and it also explores the impact of the Obama candidacy.

I write this on a Saturday in June, the very day that senator Hillary Clinton has ended her campaign and endorsed senator Barak Obama as the Democratic candidate for President of the united states. Both have been outstanding candidates who have enhanced the political process and captured the attention of many who have not previously been active in that process and given hope to others. However, the most amazing aspect of this campaign is that the candidates are a woman and a man of color, decidedly, given his parentage, African-American. We need to stop, for at least a few minutes, and marvel that this was possible. If you remember and perhaps were engaged in the civil rights movement and the women’s movement, you realize how extraordinary this is. Forty years ago, this would have been impossible and scornfully laughable. That history is recent and the issues are not fully resolved, but whodda thought? We, in the intercultural field, question our impact on pub- lic life. In fact, that lies behind Andy’s appointment of the Rapid Response Team.

Many who now call themselves interculturalists were part of those earlier movements. We, and they, can now be part of a new movement, the Intercultural movement, that is inter- national, that is domestic, that is directed toward justice for all human-kind. We may find ways to do that work in many arenas, but we can come “home” to refresh, to learn, and to discover new ways to be in the world. Rather than bemoan our lack of impact, we need to savor the accomplishments of our predecessors and move forward committing our- selves to a broader campaign of making the world safe for difference and identifying our efforts as “intercultural.”

Peggy Pusch

Request submitted by Ursula Dudt

We would appreciate if you could help us with referral to find potential cultural trainers:

• Cameroon Expat, Spouse and 2 children (1 day = 8 hours program): French Canadian family moving to Edea, Cameroon (Family is already in Edea and trainer needs to be French-English speaker)
• Leadership Training in Canada - Location: Toronto and Ottawa; Language: English and French Canadian

At this point, it is our assumption that they are asking to have the English speaking sessions at the Toronto location and the French Canadian sessions in Ottawa , however that has not yet been confirmed by our client. This client has requested multiple sessions to teach leadership training to lower level managers on such topics as stress management, time management and coaching. The facilitator is to have 3-5 years of experience of a master’s degree. Also it is preferred if the facilitator is DDI certified. There are to be several of these sessions to occur each month. The client would prefer that we have several trainers for these sessions available, so that they can run one in each location at the same time, or to allow for the unavailability of a particular trainer on a desired date.

• Japan Expat & Spouse - Location: Phoenix, Arizona; Language: American English (1 day = 8 hours program)
• Russia Expat, Spouse and 2 children - Location: St. Petersburg, Russia; Language: American English
• India Expat & Spouse - Location: PITHIVIERS, France OR Pune , India; Language: French
• Switzerland Expat (and family?) - Location: Hudson; Wisconsin; Language: English

If you have any questions please contact me at the email address below.
Thank you very much for your cooperation!

Best regards, Saludos,

Ursula Dudt
Relocation/CCT Coordinator
G L O B A L · L T
1871 Woodslee Dr
Troy, MI 48083
Phone 248-786-0999 ext. 18
Fax 248-786-0985
Ursula@Global-LT.com
www.Global-LT.com

Intercultural training in the military and the emerging role of interculturalists

Sandra Fowler moderated a panel discussion about intercultural work in the military. She began by reminding us of a wide array of classic intercultural training that was originally developed and paid for by the military.

Edward Retta and Cynthia Brink, two rank and file SIETAR-USA members, partnered to create a pilot cross cultural training program for the USAF Air War College and for US Army Psychological Operations Units deploying to Iraq. They do their work through Cross Culture Communications.

Edward talked about being a child of the cold war, attending college at Texas A & M military service academy, where he was exposed to the culture of the military. Creating training for the military has shown him that there is vast learning in the military, on cross cultural issues they are way ahead of private corporations. The military is looking for resources on intercultural communication, yet SIETAR is not on their radar. He reminded us that we have skepticism and negative bias in our ranks in regard to the military. A biased media hasn’t helped. Yet, he has seen that every branch of the military is working on intercultural communication. There is a critical mass of top military who get it.

Cynthia had no prior exposure to the military. She went into the training at the Air War College skeptical of the perspectives she might find in the room. Instead, she found them to be highly educated and open minded. She investigated the resources on their website and found 74 articles on why they should study intercultural communication, and a wide array of other materials. She also found them to be way ahead of every other organization she has seen. They are open, bought in, and willing to listen.

Cynthia was surprised by how many references she heard to how the various branches of the military do not understand each other. She also learned in order to be successful reaching a military audience, you need to have military partners who can speak to how the concepts play out in context. Not everything works. When they tried to use the BARNGA simulation, the response from participants was to just tell us the rules that we will follow, which prevented the learning value from surfacing.

Brain Selmeski resigned his Army commission to pursue a PhD in cultural anthropology. He went to Canada to do his research until the US military began to seek cultural anthropologists a year ago. He will be joining the faculty of the USAF Air War College soon. Here is an overview of what he had to say.

The Air Force is taking a bold move by including cross cultural learning outcomes on their balanced scorecard. Officers all the way to the top are putting their careers on the line. Half of the learning is about us, and half is moving toward culture general learning.

Why? The Marines did training specific to Iraq including language training in Arabic, bringing in Iraqui ex-pats, even putting linguists and scholars on the ships as they shipped out. On route, they were redirected to tsunami relief. They had no knowledge of Indonesia or how to adapt.

Now we know we need to know more culture general. From academic as well as corporate. Need to all work together to build bridges. There is a small group of us who work full time in the military teaching cross-cultural communication. There are many more who teach language and culture through language. We are not in this to help people become better killing machines. They do that, but they also give out water. In each moment, they have the ability to NOT SHOOT. We try to make sure they have the skills to pick that option. They don’t get to chose when they go, but we want violence to be a last resort.

Lieutenant General (retired) David Barno joined us from the National Defense University in Washington DC where he is the director of the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies. He joined the military when he was seventeen; was a ranger in Grenada, in combat in Panama, as well as commanding 20,000 US and Coalition forces in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. He told he not only had a feel for being on the ground being shot at, but also watching Powerpoint with the other generals, as well as having his sons deployed, and the sons and daughters of many of his family and friends. It’s very personal for him and his children.

The best preparation for being the overall commander in Afghanistan was my civilian based education at Georgetown University. I was able to form relationships with others in the State Department. I needed to build political, social, and economic relationships with Americans, UN, other foreigners and Afghanis.

There has been an extraordinary change in the military. Conflict is evolving, it’s not just destroy or kill. It’s shifting to a focus on the populations of the area, helping them to be more successful. Not traditional thinking. My background helped me to see it, to help them have a better future.

I’m the Director of one of three US Defense Department regional centers. We bring in security professionals for month long seminars centered on the issues of the day. So there may be 16 countries from the Middle East learning about the US government. Multinational groups discussing security issues, there may be Israelis with Arabs and Pakistanis. We are providing the venue, there may only be a few Americans. We stay in touch after they go back, and provide access to information from the West. After seven years we have 1400 alumni in the Middle East who we have continual dialogue with. We listen to them and feed their insights into high levels of the military and government to educate policy makers, its a two way conversation.

There is debate in the US Military, raging in the US Defense department. There is a bias toward conventional warfare. The irregular war we have in Iraq has the hooks in it for the intercultural. But there is a call for us to go back to conventional war, those who think our involvement with the conflicts are preventing us from performing our core tasks.

After each person got a chance to talk, audience members asked questions.

Q: If all this great training is happening, why is that not the public perception?

Edward: A recent study showed 2/3 of journalists self-identified as liberal. It’s important to know since it have an impact on what we see. There is an ignorance of purpose and role and we don’t know much about it. Every officer in the Air Force has to have foreign language fluency, you never see that in corporations.

Brian: What is the problem definition? We have stove pipes of excellence, we don’t have total workplace development. Don’t have a road map, we don’t have a framework yet. Cultural learning will affect the whole range of conflict. The current climate of asymmetrical warfare opens the door to the intercultural.

Q: What impact have you seen on our government?

General Barno: We have seen some changes. When the Army created a counter insurgency manual in December 2006, the author took out some verbiage about Islam due to information from the school. We do get feedback from the State Department, and while changing policy is sizable, they are seeing and listening.

Q: What kinds of re-entry training is provided for returning military?

General Barno: The Veterans Administration provides training for vets. Re-entry means a lot. For those military on active duty there are a number of programs. There is training before they return, on the way back, how to re-enter the family, families get training, and how to reestablish a civilian life.

In the last five or six years there has been a lack of terrible incidents, and there seems to be less PTSD. The VA has a range of programs for those who need help with readjustment. It’s one of the best systems the public isn’t conscious of.

Brian: Re-entry is understood differently in the military. It’s not cultural it’s psychological re-entry with a PTSD focus. They don’t know about cultural re-entry. Most on active duty deploy together and come back with that support system.The ones with the most need are the Reservists and Guard. They have the most need and are the furthest away from services.

Q: When the Air Force says it’s goal is ‘every Airman is Ambassador’, does it mean it is transporting US Values?

Brian: There has been concern with that. All look alike from 35,000 feet, but now there are sandbox Airmen patrolling in Baghdad. They are in close contact with locals, and we need to shift from US values to helping them listen. The military are sent for a mission. I would rather them be Ambassadors than imposition. The military are struggling to find the right words.

Last comments?

Edward: Is there an implicit perception of malice? Are we listening for US culture being forced?

Cynthia: I heard that participants wanted to reduce violence.

Brian: The military wants it to be neat and predictive, but it’s messy. It’s a hard shift. We all need to think about ethics first. I don’t ever see an ethical challenge to teach. We do desperately need researchers and assistants.

General Barno: Education is value. It’s better to educate on intercultural, it will make better decision making in the future. We can prevent violence by teaching up and coming leadership. Please continue to engage as the military struggles for the future.

As I wrote this I realized a large part of the experience was being in the powerful presence of Dr Reyes. Which the words don’t fully convey. I hope you can get a sense of this remarkable man and the conversation brought forth by Peggy. Thanks to Esther Louie (SIETAR-USA past president in photo center) for recommending her colleague.

Peggy Pusch (PP) started by asking Dr Reyes (RR) to tell the audience who he is.

RR: I’m a GED to PhD. How do I know that I know who I am? First and foremost my maybe esoteric organizing framework, I am spirit in earth body. My father is from the second Mesa, Hopi nation, sun clan. I’m a father, husband, educator, recovering Catholic. My Mexican Catholic mother is happy that I work between priests.

PP: What drew you into the work?

RR: Being drafted. Birth to death, it’s part of who I am, although I wonder about the spiritual significance of difference. What is ground truth? Why would it take courage? Aliveness, how can it be activated for greater good? It’s never separate.

When I was a kid of 5 or 6 I had a significant experience. Another child had leg braces, he was in the bathroom and other kids were picking on him and pushed him down. I intervened, the teachers came in. I knew it was wrong, and I needed to do something. I got in trouble.

PP: I lived in the segregated south in Baltimore. An African American family moved in and was forced to move out. I asked questions, and was told I would grow up to understand, but I never did. I also had a Japanese friend in elementary school, and my friend was visited every week. I asked why, I didn’t understand, and I still don’t like it.

PP: I understand you had something to do with the conference subtitle?

RR: Ester Louie and I were drinking by the river in Spokane, talking. I like alliteratives. We started playing around with courageous conversations and caring. We talked about Carol Gilligans work on moral development, and how she brought a female perspective in contrast to Kohlberg through stories. The waitress was listening, and she added create. So we had Courageous Conversations Create Caring Communities

We held a 5 C’s speaker series at Gonzaga talking about the naked truth, holding respect and civility to listen to opposing view. At a Jesuit University, it was about sexual orientation. [Read more →]

The 2007 SIETAR-USA conference closed with Brasilcultura sharing with us photographs of the country and the dances from Brazil. Here are some photos and the descriptions of the dances they shared with us.

Axe: From Salvador, Bahia State, one of the carnavals distinct traditions, it’s name means peace be with you, and originates from several African deities honored in Salvador’s Carnaval. It has become the learning national line dance.

Makulele: Often performed with Capoeira, a tribute to the sugar cane cutters in northeast Brasil and their struggle for right, the sticks and machetes are symbolic of their veiled power and creativity.

[Read more →]

by Beth Yoder
It was almost like a magic show. How was he doing this? The presenter, Brant Dykehouse, kept sticking sheets of paper on this cloth that hung on the wall. I didn’t see any tape on the papers. Was it magnetic? Then when he stuck a plastic spoon to it, I had to know what was going on. It was a large piece of nylon (like the stuff parachutes are made of) and he had sprayed it with repositionable adhesive. It was fantastic and worked like magic.

It was kind of like a low-tech power point, but better. I can’t wait to try it.
Beth

phone: 503.381.3715

email: interculturalconsulting@gmail.com

new blog! interculturalconsulting.wordpress.com/

Blogging at conferences is hard. Of course, it may have been complicated by the fact that I was also doing a presentation every day plus exhibiting. I know there are people who can type right into a post while they are in a session (they must be superhuman). First I don’t type fast enough and second I need a bit of reflection to structure the post into something more coherent.

Why did I try?

One of the first questions I get about blogging is how can I find the time. So I figured if I could show you can get something online at an event as busy as a conference, it might demonstrate that it isn’t as hard as it seems at first. [Read more →]

We created this podcast on a cell phone from our room in the Westin. I interview Michele Martin about her first day at SIETAR-USA. A podcast is an audio recording you can listen to on your computer, or on a player like an iPod.

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Add to my PageIf you would like to know more about how we created the podcast, you can read about it on Michele’s Bamboo Project blog.

by Eugene Fertelmeyster

In order to walk the proverbial walk of the blogosphere, I am making my first foray on our SIETAR-USA blog.

It seems to me the issue we face as we look beyond these next couple days—towards the days and months of greater consequence we’ll spend applying and engaging with these concepts we’ve encountered—attention needs to be paid to the state of our culture’s courage. When I speak of our culture, I refer to the culture of interculturalists gathered here at the conference, as well as those colleagues otherwise active in our field that are not with us in person, but join us in purpose. Our culture, our tribe, we “others” that endeavor to reach greater understanding and, subsequently, aspire to make a positive lasting impact on the world.

The courageous conversations that echo through the halls of this meeting ground need not end as we redeem the latter end of our round trip tickets. In fact, as much as possible, we should take the ideas (especially the ones that we can’t help but discuss here, but often minimize in our day to day lives) and pack them in every available carry on bag we have. The only way for this national network to work on a national level is for the strands of communication and the points of entry and strands of collaboration to be ever widening—and what, if not courage, can hold the force and weight of this increasingly important work?

Now, I admit, I’m no expert. I’m just Eugene Fertelmeyster, the kid who came to SIETAR at 12 with his mother, doing tricks with cards. But in the history of intellectual progress, one must never discount the ability of a small group of novices to change the world, because it’s the only thing that really has.

If you have nothing else as you leave here this year, have faith in the strength of courage and continue the conversations and difficult dialogues that will propel us towards promising new paths in our progress as a field and as a family.