Developing Cosmopolitanism Through Intercultural Mediation Activities: An After-School Digital Storytelling Project in Catalonia

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ikala.352092

Keywords:

digital storytelling, funds of knowledge, cosmopolitanism, intercultural mediation

Abstract

This article analyzes interaction taking place in an after-school digital storytelling project, involving a group of teenagers in Catalonia, Spain, with different lingua-cultural backgrounds. It focuses on intercultural mediation activities carried out in one of the early project sessions in which a young girl of Ghanaian origin mobilizes her previous life experience to mediate, for her local peers in Catalonia, understanding of a video produced by Ugandan youth. The data is transcribed and analyzed using a multimodal conversation analytic perspective. Drawing on the theoretical concepts of intercultural mediation, cosmopolitanism, and funds of knowledge, this article investigates the following: (a) how the girl mobilizes her funds of knowledge to mediate the content of the video and the other audience members and, (b) how cosmopolitanism is developed in intercultural mediation. The article also touches on how intercultural mediation is collaboratively constructed across modes, languages, and material objects. The findings indicate that the young participants’ cosmopolitan stances are enacted and enabled in intercultural mediation, as the youngsters can make sense of cultural concepts that they can not tackle as well on their own. The findings further help to reconceptualize the competences, knowledge, and resources of youth in the superdiverse and interconnected world.

|Abstract
= 255 veces | PDF
= 154 veces| | HTML
= 1 veces| | EPUB (ESPAÑOL (ESPAÑA))
= 19 veces|

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Miaomiao Zhang, Autonomous University of Barcelona

PhD Candidate, Department of Language, Literature and Social Science Education, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain.

References

Appiah, K.A. (2006). Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a world of strangers. W.W. Norton & Co. Inc.

Barrett, M., Byram, M., Lazar, I., Mompoint-Gaillard, P., Philippou, S. (2014). Developing intercultural competence through education. Council of Europe. https://www.academia.edu/3150166/Developing_intercultural_competence_through_education

Birk, T. (2014) Critical cosmopolitan teaching and learning: A new answer to the global imperative. Diversity & Democracy, 17(2), 12–15. https://www.aacu.org/diversitydemocracy/2014/spring/birk

Busch, D. (Ed.). (2022). The Routledge handbook of intercultural mediation. Taylor & Francis.

Byram, M. S. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Multilingual Matters.

Byram, M. S. (2021). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence: Revisited. Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781800410251

Coste, D., & Cavalli, M. (2015). Education, mobility, otherness. The mediation functions of schools. Council of Europe. https://rm.coe.int/education-mobility-otherness-the-mediation-functions-of-schools/16807367ee

Council of Europe (2018). Common European framework of reference for languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. companion volume with new descriptors. Council of Europe. https://rm.coe.int/cefr-companion-volume-with-new-descriptors-2018/1680787989

Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding: An activity theoretical approach to developmental research. Orieta-Konsultit.

Engeström, Y. (1999). Innovative learning in work teams: Analyzing cycles of knowledge creation in practice. In Y. Engeström, R. Miettinen & R.-L. Punamaki (Eds.), Perspectives on activity theory (pp. 377–404). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511812774.025

Erling, E. & Moore, E. (2021). Introduction: Socially just plurilingual education in Europe: Shifting subjectivities through research and action. International Journal of Multilingualism, 18(4). https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2021.1913171

Esteban-Guitart, M. (2016). Funds of identity connecting meaningful learning experiences in and out of school. Cambridge University Press.

Gohard-Radenkovic, A., Lussier, D., Penz, H., & Zarate, G. (2004). Cultural mediation in language tecahing as a process. In G. Zarate, A. Gohard-Radenkovic, D. Lussier & H. Penz (Eds.), Cultural mediation and language teaching (pp. 225–238). Council of Europe Publishing.

González. N., Moll, L. C., & Amanti, C. (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practice in households, communities, and classrooms. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410613462

Hansen, D. T. (2010). Cosmopolitanism and education: a view from the ground. Teachers College Record, 112(1), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811011200104

Hansen, D. T. (2011). The teacher and the world: A study of cosmopolitanism as education. Routledge.

Hansen, D. T. (2014). Cosmopolitanism as cultural creativity: New modes of educational practice in globalizing times. Curriculum Inquiry, 44(1), 1–14. https://doi: 10.1111/curi.12039

Hawkins, M. R. (2014). Ontologies of place, creative meaning making and critical cosmopolitan education. Curriculum Inquiry, 44(1), 90–112. https://doi.org/10.1111/curi.12036

Hawkins, M. R. (2018). Transmodalities and transnational encounters: Fostering critical cosmopolitan relations. Applied Linguistics, 39(1), 55–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/curi.12036

Hawkins, M. R. (2020). Toward critical cosmopolitanism: Transmodal transglobal engagements of youth. In J. Bradley, E. Moore & J. Simpson (Eds.), Translanguaging as transformation: The collaborative construction of new linguistic realities (pp. 23–40). Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781788928052-006

Ho, L., McAvoy, P., Hess, D., & Gibbs, B. (2017). Teaching and learning about controversial issues and topics in the social studies. In M. McGlinn Manfra, & C. Mason Bolick (Eds.), The Wiley Handbook of Social Studies Research (pp. 319–335). John Wiley and Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118768747

Hull, G., & Stornaiuolo, A. (2014). Cosmopolitan literacies, social networks, and “proper distance”: Striving to understand in a global world. Curriculum Inquiry, 44(1), 15–44. https://doi.org/10.1111/curi.12035

Iriskhanova, K., Röcklinsberg, C., Ozolina, O., & Zaharia, I.A. (2004). Empathy as an element of cultural mediation. In G. Zarate, A.Gohard-Radenkovic, D. Lussier & H. Penz (Eds.), Cultural mediation in language learning and teaching (pp. 109–142). Council of Europe Publishing.

Jefferson, G. (2004). Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction. In G. H. Lerner (Ed.), Conversation analysis: Studies from the first generation (pp. 13–23). John Benjamins.

Kleingeld, P., & Brown, E. (2013). Cosmopolitanism. In E. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2014). https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2014/entries/cosmopolitanism/

Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and culture in language teaching. Oxford University Press.

Kromidas, M. (2011). Elementary forms of cosmopolitanism: Blood, birth, and bodies in immigrant New York City. Harvard Educational Review 81, 581–606. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.81.3.n36gtv7061560v53

Li, W. (2014). Negotiating funds of knowledge and symbolic competence in the complementary school classrooms. Language and Education, 28(2), 161–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2013.800549

Liddicoat, A. J. (2016). Intercultural mediation, intercultural communication and translation. Perspectives, 24(3), 354–364. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676x.2014.980279

Liddicoat, A. J., & Derivry-Plard, M. (2021). Intercultural mediation in language and culture teaching and learning and the CEFR companion volume. Recherches en Didactique des langues et des Cultures, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.4000/rdlc.8648

Liddicoat, A. J., & Scarino, A. (2013). Intercultural language teaching and learning. John Wiley & Sons.

Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory Into Practice, 31(2), 132–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405849209543534

Moore, E. & Vallejo, C. (2021). Learning English out of school: An inclusive approach to research and action. Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/b18699

Moore, E., Hawkins, M., Llompart, J., & Vallejo, C. (2023). Semiosis and ethicality in youth transnational digital storytelling. In U. Schröder, E. Adami & J. Dailey-O’Cain (Eds.), Multimodal communication in intercultural interaction. Multilingual Matters.

Noda, C., & Zhu, H. (2022). Conversation for co-learning in the eikaiwa classroom. System, 106, Article 102756. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2022.102756

Noddings, N., & Brooks, L. (2017). Teaching controversial issues: The case for critical thinking and moral commitment in the classroom. Teachers College Press.

North, B., & Piccardo, E. (2016). Developing illustrative descriptors of aspects of mediation for the Common European Framework of Reference (CFR). Language Teaching, 49(3), 455–459. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444816000100

Nussbaum, M. C. (1994). Patriotism and cosmopolitanism. Boston Review, XIX(5), 3–16.

Rizvi, F. (2009). Toward cosmopolitan learning. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 30(3), 253–268.

Robbins, B., & Horta, P. L. (Eds.). Cosmopolitanisms. New York University Press.

Sobre-Denton, M. (2015). Virtual intercultural bridgework: Social media, virtual cosmopolitanism, and activist community-building. New Media & Society, 18(8). https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814567988

Stathopoulou, M. (2015). Cross-language mediation in foreign language teaching and testing. Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783094127

Stornaiuolo, A. (2016). Teaching in global collaborations: Navigating challenging conversations through cosmopolitan activity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2016.07.001

Vallejo, C., Moore, E., Llompart, J., & Hawkins, M. (2020). Semiosis y cosmopolitismo crítico: un análisis transmodal de un dilema ético en comunicación transnacional entre jóvenes. Profesorado, Revista de Currículum y Formación del Profesorado 24(1), 304–325. https://doi.org/10.30827/profesorado.v24i1.9130

Vasudevan, L., Kerr, K. R., Hibbert, M., Fernandez, E., & Park, A. (2014). Cosmopolitan literacies of belonging in an after-school program with court-involved youths. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57(7), 538–548. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.288

Victoria, C. (2018, November 8–9). Educating the language learner as a cultural mediator in the English classroom [Conference session]. Proceedings of the 11th Innovation in Language Learning International Conference (pp. 305–308). Florence, Italy.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes (Edited by M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman). Harvard University Press.

Zarate, G. (2004). Cultural mediation in language learning and teaching. Council of Europe.

Zhang, M. & Llompart, J. (2021). Participant roles in linguistic mediation activities in a digital storytelling project. In E. Moore & C. Vallejo (Eds.), Learning English out of school: An inclusive approach to research and action (pp. 99–118). Peter Lang. https://www.peterlang.com/document/1159549

Published

2023-09-13

How to Cite

Zhang, M. (2023). Developing Cosmopolitanism Through Intercultural Mediation Activities: An After-School Digital Storytelling Project in Catalonia. Íkala, Revista De Lenguaje Y Cultura, 28(3), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ikala.352092