2019-10-01 / VLE PAGES

ACTIVITY 2: Critical incidents in your professional experience

Along with reflecting on the critical incidents provided here, it could be valuable to think about the ‘bumpy moments’ you have experienced as a professional dealing with children and/or families from a diverse linguistic/cultural background.

In this section you can keep track of those moments and, if you want, share them with your colleagues and discuss them together.

To organize the description of the critical incidents that you experienced, you can use the following probes (adapted from Guo, Arthur & Lund, 2009):

  • Thinking about your experience with children and/or families from a diverse linguistic/cultural background, describe a situation in which a misunderstanding, problem, or conflict arose from cultural differences or assumptions. Describe the event in a narrative form providing:
  1. a detailed reconstruction of the situation in which the cross-cultural misunderstanding occurred;
  2. the protagonists/actors and their different roles;
  3. the solutions envisaged;
  4. the outcomes.
  • What was the significance of this experience?
  • What were the main issues related to cultural diversity?
  • What values, issues, misinterpretations or cultural conflicts were evident in this scenario?
  • How were the issues resolved or not resolved?
  • How did this experience impact your thinking?
  • What is the relevance of this experience for your role and responsibilities as a professional?
  • What did you learn from this scenario?
  • What questions or issues about cultural diversity remain unresolved for you?
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