A Taxonomy for Cultural Adaptation: The Stories of Two Academics When Teaching Indigenous Student Sojourners

• Main Authors: Jayne Pitard, Meghan Kelly
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: German; English; Spanish
• Published: FQS 2020
• Subjects: cultural adaptation; academics; indigenous students; cultural fluency; structured vignette analysis; short term student sojourners; Social sciences (General); H1-99; Greenland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-21.2.3327; https://doaj.org/article/b037c23b54404d9a80faf1d7284e09a6

Difficult cultural encounters can impact both student sojourners and academics. In this article we present vignettes of separate experiences of an unforeseen cultural encounter in each of two groups of short-term adult student sojourners and we who taught them: One Indigenous group from Timor Leste entering Australia for a 12-week period, and one Indigenous group from Australia traveling to Greenland for a two-week period. We use a structured vignette analysis (PITARD, 2016) of each critical incident to present specific details of how these intense, unanticipated cultural experiences impacted us, the academics. Within our vignettes we see at work a process for cultural adaptation, which we have developed into a taxonomy to assist other teachers in their experiences with difficult cultural encounters to better understand what is happening as a means for stepping outside their own cultural boundaries.