Effective teaching, learning and assessment are foundational to design and delivery of education abroad programs aligned with the Standards of Good Practice and Code of Ethics. If you are seeking to begin or further your journey as a reflective international educator, Forum staff have compiled the following resources to help you get oriented. |
Have a teaching & learning resource to recommend?
|
Increasingly, international educators find themselves party to tense interactions involving students in classrooms, at home and abroad, and in a variety of other learning and engagement settings (e.g., in transit between destinations, fieldwork, internships, excursions, homestays, etc.). If left unaddressed, these encounters can damage relationships and erode trust among educators, local partners, host nationals as well as students. For some, such interactions can serve as triggering events surfacing unresolved experiences, deep held beliefs and/or collective traumas that challenge educators' composure, facilitation and intercultural skills.
As educators, most of us aren't trained as mental health professionals or in conflict resolution. And it is important to recognize the limits of our knowledge and roles as educators when conflicts or tense moments occur. At the same time, there are important roles for educators to play in these situations as coach, mentor and guide. Sometimes tensions and conflict may create opportunities for growth and learning, encouraging students to practice perspective taking and suspend judgement. It is vital that we build our capacities to work with students and partners to shift unteachable moments in to teachable ones. H.O.T. moments may be one approach that can you can use to work with learners to recognize, process and respond to topics that are difficult, perplexing and offensive. |
H.O.T. Moments - The Basics
WHAT IS A HOT Moment?
The acronym HOT refers to moments that are Heated, Offensive, and/or Tense. The term “hot" moments is often used as a catch all term for challenging or difficult interactions. In educational settings involving interactions among students, educators, and host nationals, HOT provides a resource for educators to use to critically appraise a situation and align their responses with the context. Considerations for applying HOT moments in EA
What KIND OF HOT MOMENT IS IT?
Each of the three types of HOT moments are described below. Note that the categories are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, there may be times that they overlap.
KNOW YOURSELF
Part of our role as educators is to create conditions that 1) challenge and support learners in their adjustment to a new culture and, 2) aid them in working toward managing this process on their own (intercultural maturity, self-regulation).
To foster these conditions, we need to prepare ourselves too. Like our students, we can experience strong emotions and/or be the source of a HOT moment.
When preparing for the possibility of HOT moments, it can be helpful to reflect on your past experiences with similar situations:
|
Navigating H.O.T. Moments
AnTICIPATE & PREPARE FOR HOT MOMENTS
In addition to understanding what can set off your own emotional responses. There are other ways you can prepare yourself and learners on your program.
RESPONDING: ACKNOWLEDGE, ASSESS, CLARIFY
Don't ignore the moment. Students will look to you for how to navigate when acrimony erupts. Model what you want to see in students. If you are present when the moment happens (e.g., during a lecture, in transit, during an excursion or fieldwork)
RESPONDING: IDENTIFY, EXPLORE IMPACT, REFRAME
Identify & explore the potential impact on others. Sometimes we don’t understand that what we are saying or doing is problematic. In other cases, the statement or act may take the form of microaggression grounded in one or more stereotypes. Whatever the source, it is necessary to help members of the cohort and individual identify what is problematic.
Illustrative Prompts:
Navigating microaggressions abroad can be especially challenging, even for experienced facilitators skilled in inclusive practice. While systems of inequity and marginalization have been observed globally, the development of stereotypes and biases related to difference are historically, culturally and locally situated. HOT moments can involve both cultural misunderstanding and microaggressions at the same time. For example, when the incident involves individuals that have experienced discrimination/marginalization in their home country/community but are now confronted with behaviors that mirror their past experiences but which in context, may not have the same meaning. During the heat of the moment, it may not be possible to address both. You may need to revisit facets of the issues iteratively throughout the remainder of the program. Acknowledge this. Pause and let the group/individuals affected know when you will come back to it. Follow up separately with the effected individuals. If a student reports a HOT moment that erupts during unsupervised time or involves interactions with onsite staff, homestays, internships, offer to meet with the effected student and schedule time with onsite staff to appraise the situation. If you have worked to develop a plan with onsite staff to anticipate HOT moments, meet with them to address the specifics of the situation and respond.
Change the Energy
RESPONDING: PAUSE, Seek Common Ground, Reflect
Connect to Learning Goals
|
our GOAL is TO CREATE Opportunities for Students to practice vocabulary, concepts and skills that "moves them into Humility, Openness, & Analysis Rather than Certainty, Rebuttal, or Refusal."
Sensoy & DiAngelo (2015)
There are many approaches to dialogue, a few of them are listed below.
Many campuses and community organizations/NGOs in the U.S. and abroad have individuals or offices that lead intra and intergroup dialogues. Check around to see who might be |
The resources below includes tools, facilitation plans and models that are derived from work inside U.S. based understanding of a pluralist democracy. These tools and ideas remain salient for use in education abroad for two reasons.
|
Publications
|
Talking Politics and Polarization:
|
º«¹úÈý¼¶Æ¬is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission as the Standards Development Organization for Education Abroad. º«¹úÈý¼¶Æ¬is hosted by its strategic partner, Dickinson College
© 2024 The Forum on Education Abroad. All Rights Reserved.
P.O. Box 425, Warren, RI 02885 | Phone: (717) 245-1031 |
Search The Forum
Subscribe to Forum News
|