Introduction
The modern society is increasingly becoming multi-cultural in nature. Currently, the concept of cultural competence is core to ensure maximum performance in all aspect of life including teaching. According to statistical evidence, in the US different communities are characteristically multicultural with an increased presence of different cultures across the state. A recent survey of the composition of the America indicates that 61 % of the population is white, 17 % of Latin Hispanic Americans and an estimated 15 % of African American. Undeniably, the figures point to an increase of the phenomenon of a multicultural society. 1 To ensure the hegemony and co-existence of these difference cultures, it is therefore important for all aspects of life to embrace cultural competency as a core principle. This paper explores the importance of teaching cross-culturally in education as a way of enhancing the quality of transmission of education to students. More importantly, incorporate the biblical point of view to decipher the role of teachers in the pursuit of adopting culturally competent practices in the day to day work. The choice of the topic was informed by the need to embrace a new perceptual understanding of the cross-cultural awareness among teachers in their role as the transmitters of knowledge to society. More so, the paradigm of teaching cross-culturally is becoming a necessary undertaking as the society continues to transform into a more multi-cultural social entity. Therefore, by integrating a biblical point of view about cultural competency it helps to build on the existence knowledge of cultural competency and it applicability in the contemporary society.
Overview of Cross-Cultural Teaching Processes
Teaching cross-culturally or rather incorporating principles that enhance cultural competency in the contemporary education spheres is very central to the success of the education system. As mentioned earlier, the composition of the modern societies in America includes different cultures embodied in the America culture. While the concept of Americanization is applied in all aspects of the modern society, there still remain distinct cultural beliefs and practices that differentiate different ethnic and racial populations in the American society. Therefore, for teachers, when dealing with children from the different cultural background it becomes of great importance to ensure that teachers apply cultural competency principle to ensure the effective delivery of their services to students 2 . More so, it helps to make the learning experience beneficial to the students without compromising the quality of education that they receive. In the absence of the knowledge and skills of cultural competency, the process of learning experiences comprise whereby only the students from a certain cultural background reaps the benefit of the process 3 . However, by teaching cross-cultural it ensures that all the students acquire the necessary learning experiences without creating conflicts with their cultural values and beliefs.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The incorporation of cultural competency in the teaching process also helps to create hegemony between learners 4 . Arguably, learners embrace their diversity of the culture in their learning institutions and the teachers have an easier time transmitting knowledge to the students 5 . For the most part according different theorists it helps to trigger an overall improvement in the whole education system. In more precise terms, despite the different cultural representation in their society, teachers become well-versed with handling the students and increasing their ability to deal with students of different cultural backgrounds 6 (Lai et al., 2016). These perspectives have now created a new spectrum of understanding the value of teaching cross-culturally. For example, there emerges an increase in the overall efficiency in the delivery process of the learning processes among teachers. More so, the teachers experience a renewed form of understanding about the significance of cultural competency and the value that it adds to their daily life.
Inevitably, the phenomenon of teaching cross-culturally has introduced a new competency-based proficiency among teachers. As such, it helps to improve their ability to embrace the idea that it becomes an essential tool in helping to allow them offer more learner-centered lessons that adds value to the learners . In summation, the diversity of the multicultural society therefore becomes better understood to the teachers towards offering the learners valuable education that helps them to integrate in the society. In light of these facts, it is accurate to hypothesize that teaching cross-culturally offers teachers, learners and society in general the chance to embrace their diversity and accommodate the unique values in each of these cultures. The beauty of it is that it makes learning an enjoyable experience for the teachers and enhances the ability to cope with the needs of different learners.
Biblical Worldview of Cross-Cultural Teaching Practices
From a biblical point of view teaching cross culturally fulfill the Christian obligation of adopting such practices that help to understand and appreciate the uniqueness of our societal cultural diversity 7 . In the realm of education, embracing cross-cultural competency is very important because it helps to advance their knowledge on the needs of the learners. However, for Christians and especially those in the teaching profession, it goes beyond this because through embracing cross-cultural principles in teaching, one fulfills the Christian obligation of being culturally competent. The implications of cross cultural teaching from a biblical point of view is that it helps to ensure that people co-exist in harmony and express the love for each other and their unique cultural beliefs.
In John 13:34, Jesus calls upon Christians to love one another and in doing so he implies that we must embrace our differences and respect each other’s unique beliefs. In more precise terms, we are called upon to live a life of service to others through love 8 . In the context of teaching cross culturally, the modern Christians in the teaching professions manifest their faith through the application of the cross cultural competencies. Fundamentally, the ability of everybody to progress the ideological beliefs of a well defined society without cross cultural conflicts and differences relies upon the education system. And, from a biblical point of view, heading the call to advancing knowledge of different forms of cultural competency strategies in teaching that make applicability of the concept possible.
A careful analysis of the Jesus teaching on the need for cultural competency and the role that it plays shows indicate a huge similarity to cross-cultural teaching principles. For example, He commands that Christians must learn to love each other by learning about each other and most importantly listening to what we have to say about each other 9 . Similarly, the core attributes teaching cross-culturally demands that teachers must learn about the different cultures of the students and find ways to integrates their unique values and beliefs to their process of learning.
In the context of the Biblical viewpoint, this refers to a particular way that the teachers learn about the dynamic attributes of the different cultural phenomena and the appreciation of the different unique aspects. In the reference of Jesus he was calling upon the Believers to reach out deep to their neighbors and each other and find a way to appreciate the beauty of their diversity. More importantly, allow for an understanding and a form of appreciation of the uniqueness of our beliefs which in the modern context is our culture. In retrospect, the Biblical principles of cross-cultural competencies are highly relevant to the teaching practices because they call for a deep sense of appreciation of the different cultures within the community. More importantly, it offers the particular ways to attain the form of cultural competency necessary for teacher to rise above the differences in the cultural identities of students and instead design strategies and competency-based learning processes that allows them to devise key strategies to connect with the students from different cultural backgrounds.
Elements of Cross-Cultural Teaching for Improved Teacher-Learner Engagement
Based on the different perspectives expressed therein on the different elements of cross-cultural teaching, various areas of improvement emerge to enhance the continuous improvement of the learning process. In retrospect, while the concept of teaching cross-culturally is very broad, undeniably, there are some of the key areas that require precedence to build on the capacity of the teachers to deliver cross-cultural learning experiences competently 10 . First the paradigm of content integration and adaptive delivery procedural frameworks emerge as an important area of interests towards improved cross-cultural engagement in the education sector. These two concepts are inseparable because teaching cross-culturally as the above studies show require that the processes of learning embraces the unique needs of students from different cultures. Therefore, through the customization of learning content and the strategies of learning, teachers significantly improve their connection to students and enhance their understanding.
Second intense learning processes of the cultural sensitivity attributes is essential for teachers to learn ways to embrace the unique cultural attributes of their students in a multicultural learning environment. As seen in the biblical viewpoints of cultural competency, it is evident that elimination of prejudice against certain cultures based on their beliefs and practices holds the key to acquiring cultural competency 11 . Arguably, prejudice against any particular culture prevents individuals from overcoming the perceptual bias that may affect their effective adoption of cultural competency.
Therefore, improving cross-cultural engagement between teachers and learners from different cultures must begin with the total elimination of the any preconceived notions against certain cultural identities. Lastly, the concept of cross-cultural competency based learning processes requires that there is a cultural shift in the learning environment towards multiculturalism 12 . In retrospect, the education sector must embrace a new form of school culture that accommodates the multicultural identities of learners because in doing it create a conducive environment where cross-cultural learning may thrive and evolve as society become more and more culturally diverse towards the future.
Conclusion
From both a scholarly and biblical point of view, cross-cultural competence offers different aspect of society such as education an opportunity to evolve and become more accommodative of the differences of cultures in the modern society. In the context of teaching cross-culturally, there is need for understanding in depth its true meaning to the whole education system in its role as custodians of knowledge and values of society. Teachers play a pivotal role in shaping society and transmitting the necessary beliefs that help to shape the modern society. In retrospect, the findings of this paper are critical to furtherance of the ideal approaches to cross-cultural competency in the education sector. Intrinsically, attaining maximum performance in the education sector cultural competence must become a core aspect of the new contemporary society. Not only does embracing this paradigm increase the performance of all the sectors in society but also minimize conflicts between these different cultures.
By ensuring that the modern society embraces a new form of understanding on the importance of cross-cultural competencies in practice, there is a general improvement of the social, economic and cultural interactions. Irrevocably, as society continues on the path to becoming increasingly multicultural, there is a need to ensure that teaching cross-culturally keeps pace with the shifts in composition of our learning institutions and by extension society in general. Thus, education system and more importantly the teachers’ cultural competencies frameworks must ensure that there is a change in the perceptual understanding of how effective strategies are conceptualized to advance cross-cultural learning processes.
Bibliography
Han, J., and Y. Han. "Cultural concepts as powerful theoretical tools: Chinese teachers’ perceptions of their relationship with students in a cross-cultural context." International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 13, no. 1 (2019). doi:10.20429/ijsotl.2019.130108.
Lai, C., Z. Li, and Y. Gong. "Teacher agency and professional learning in cross-cultural teaching contexts: Accounts of Chinese teachers from international schools in Hong Kong." Teaching and Teacher Education 54 (2016), 12-21. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2015.11.007.
Lomas, T. "The flavours of love: A cross-cultural lexical analysis." Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 48, no. 1 (2018), 134-152. doi:10.1111/jtsb.12158.
Lopes-Murphy, S., and C. Murphy. "The influence of cross-cultural experiences & location on teachers’ perceptions of cultural competence." Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 16, no. 3 (2016), 57-71. doi:10.14434/josotl.v16i3.19331.
Ramsey, J. R., and M. P. Lorenz. "Exploring the impact of cross-cultural management education on cultural intelligence, student satisfaction, and commitment." Academy of Management Learning & Education 15, no. 1 (2016), 79-99. doi:10.5465/amle.2014.0124.
Santoro, N. "Developing globally aware and socially just teachers through an international experience." Encyclopedia of Teacher Education , 2019, 1-6. doi:10.1007/978-981-13-1179-6_196-1.
"U.S. Population: Ethnic Groups in America 2016 and 2060." Statista. Accessed October 17, 2020. https://www.statista.com/statistics/270272/percentage-of-us-population-by-ethnicities/.
1 "U.S. Population: Ethnic Groups in America 2016 and 2060," Statista, accessed October 17, 2020, https://www.statista.com/statistics/270272/percentage-of-us-population-by-ethnicities/.
2 J. Han and Y. Han, "Cultural concepts as powerful theoretical tools: Chinese teachers’ perceptions of their relationship with students in a cross-cultural context," International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 13, no. 1 (2019): xx, doi:10.20429/ijsotl.2019.130108.
3 Ibid
4 S. Lopes-Murphy and C. Murphy, "The influence of cross-cultural experiences & location on teachers’ perceptions of cultural competence," Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 16, no. 3 (2016): xx, doi:10.14434/josotl.v16i3.19331
5 Ibid
6 C. Lai, Z. Li, and Y. Gong, "Teacher agency and professional learning in cross-cultural teaching contexts: Accounts of Chinese teachers from international schools in Hong Kong," Teaching and Teacher Education 54 (2016): xx, doi:10.1016/j.tate.2015.11.007.
7 T. Lomas, "The flavours of love: A cross-cultural lexical analysis," Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 48, no. 1 (2018): xx, doi:10.1111/jtsb.12158.
8 Ibid
9 Ibid
10 N. Santoro, "Developing globally aware and socially just teachers through an international experience," Encyclopedia of Teacher Education, 2019, xx, doi:10.1007/978-981-13-1179-6_196-1.
11 Lomas, "Love one another,"
12 Han and Han, "Tools of Cultural Competency,"
