Intercultural Understanding: Cultural, Religious, and Linguistic Diversity

This assignment highlights the importance of intercultural understanding within the Australian Curriculum and explores the cultural, religious, and linguistic diversity in St. Joseph's College. It discusses classroom activities and resources for fostering intercultural understanding.

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Intercultural Understanding

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
An overview of the cultural, religious and linguistic diversity....................................................................3
Overview of the human and physical resources...........................................................................................4
Intercultural Understanding within the Australian Curriculum....................................................................6
References.................................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The main aim of this assignment is to highlight the various factor related to the cultural,
linguistic diversity and religious within the school community. St. Joseph's College, Gregory
Terrace will be taken into consideration for the purpose of defining the importance of the human
and physical resources within the school. St. Joseph's College is a catholic day school for young
men from 5 to 12 years old. It is founded by the Christian Brothers in 1875. It is considered as
one of the well-known college all over Queensland and is among the oldest. The resources of
school and community will be demonstrated in order to identify possibilities for teaching and
learning with respect to Intercultural Understanding within the Australian Curriculum.
An overview of the cultural, religious and linguistic diversity
The members of St Joseph’s College community are introduced by the Christian Brothers
to give an education for the improvement of the whole person. The school is celebrating the
diversity and work together in order to develop a healthy environment where every person is
respected. The community gives preference to the culture and diversity in the school for the
purpose of providing equal opportunity to any kind of students. The main motive of the
community is to provide education to all kind of children in same kind manner so that the
discrimination cannot take place within the school.
The culture of the school is quite good in which the community of the school encourage
student to show “faith in action” by a kind of service and solidarity initiatives. For instance, the
Big Brekky program overviews year 11 students give one time meal and an effective place for
friendly meeting for people in Fortitude Valley while year 10 students cook meal and socialise

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with people who come for walk in local caravan park which is the part of the Big BBQ (St
Joseph College, 2017). It shows the culture of the school and both activities are occurred every
Tuesday of the year, covering school holidays. The school permit their students to roll and
allocate Street Swags which give comfort and warmth for people in need and spend time with
children. The students are prepared and educated to raise your hand in giving help to others in
their education for which they visit local aged care homes in order to spend vital social times.
In the context of religious, it has been found that the community of the school is focused
towards providing equal reference to all kind of religious that is why it is the belief of the school
that religious education keeps significant value in the formation of the student. For this, the
school take initiative to involve the student of 5 to 9 age with Brisbane Catholic Education
Religious Education framework in their daily studies work for the purpose of accomplishing the
program in study of religion which involves to students achieving participation in the Religion
and Ethics Program if accomplishing a Vocational Education Pathway (St Joseph College, 2017).
St Joseph’s College is magnificently diverse surroundings. The students come from
different background with different linguistic diversity. The students of the school learn at
various rates and keep different interest on different levels of readiness in the form of they
approach and confronted by new learning chances. It shows the school as the best educational
institution that it is effective to make balance educational theory with the flexible requirements
of the modern learning.
Overview of the human and physical resources
There are broad communities beyond the school that play a role in amplifying intercultural
understanding. There are many activities which can be helpful for the people to understand

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regarding intercultural understanding. The human and physical resources are mentioned below in
the context of providing intercultural understanding.
Human resources
The role of the human resource in bringing change in the perception of the children
towards different culture has significant value (Chen & Yang, 2014). There is a Multicultural
Queensland Advisory Council that advice on barriers and opportunities facing people from
linguistically and cultural diverse backgrounds. The contribution of multicultural communities
in intercultural understanding is huge as it has been found that the Queensland Government
Initiative was rejoiced in 2016 for the first time. Along with that this community provide the
opportunity for companies to publicise their festivals and events by their events calendar. The
reason behind conducting event is to strengthen the sense of belongings for the people of
Queensland regarding race, cultural background and religions. It helps in supporting education
and mentoring for people from culturally diverse backgrounds entailing tertiary education expos.
Physical resources
There is a library in the surrounding of the school which helps in increasing knowledge of the
student regarding intercultural understanding. The student can access over there by showing their
identity card given by the school which helps them to get more knowledge on different topic.
There is a stadium in which the students of the school can play after school or school can connect
with stadium to make nation better. There is a Queensland Multicultural Resource Directory that
gives an effective knowledge listing around 900 key organizations with multicultural community
focus in Queensland by focusing community, schools, and multicultural media outlets.

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Intercultural Understanding within the Australian Curriculum
Intercultural understanding is vital component of living with others in the diverse world
of the 21st century. It helps student to become responsible global citizens by their education for
working and living together in an interlinked world (Walton, Priest & Paradies, 2013).
Classroom activities
Role play
Role play is an effective activity for the school to increase interest of students in
intercultural understanding within the Australian Curriculum (Australian curriculum, 2018).
There is a certain step which needs to be followed by the teacher in the context off making role
play within the classroom. A situation for a role plays design, linguistic preparation and factual
preparation. It is covered under intercultural understanding within Australian Curriculum;
students generate intercultural understanding as they learn to value their own culture through role
play. They would be benefitted to get better understanding regarding how personal group are
shaped (Marx & Moss, 2011).
Group activity
It is another activity in which the students will understand the communication style of
other people in the class. This activity will be Communication exercise: “Associations” in which
the group size will be student and time for this activity will be 10–15 minutes. With the help of
this activity, the student can convey their message with each other for the purpose of increasing
the intercultural communication in an effective manner. In this activity, the facilitator would ask
some questions and they store the very first thought associated with it. For example, if a class is a

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colour, it is________?, if a class is a building, it is__________? Facilitators then bring out the
survey to gauge reactions to record answers (Michael, 2016).
Activities to foster intercultural understanding
Group discussion
The group discussion would be effective approach in the form of the activity by which
the school can get interacted with another people of the community who belongs from different
kind of culture (Walton, Paradies, Priest, Wertheim & Freeman, 2015). The school and broader
community can get connected in an effective manner if they get chance to discuss on some
changes by taking consideration of thought of every person (Australian Government, 2009). The
topic will be covered on the multicultural affairs in order to develop results for people from
culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The time for this will be 1 hour in a week
which will be conducted in the community hall of Queensland. The school community and the
councillors will be involved in it and the code of conduct sets out the standards of expected
behaviour of counsellors and mayors at the time of playing their roles as elected head of the
community (Local Government Reform, 2019).
Workshop
The workshop is an effective activity which can be implemented in order to educate a
large number of people about intercultural aspects. There are three keys to intercultural
competencies such as cognitive complexity, empathy and curiosity. There can be activity of

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photo voice in which there is a commitment to hear from those who often are not heard or seen.
It can be effective to engage learners in intercultural team projects (Bennett, 2016).
Outline possibilities for supporting teachers’ understanding and professional development
Knowledge about intercultural understanding
The intercultural understanding capability focus on facilitating students to increase their
behaviour and attitudes in order to enable them to respect other from various communities and
cultures (Signorini, Wiesemes, & Murphy, 2009). It is etiquette to treat others with respect
without considering position and according to me it is general which carry by all teachers. The
nature of the teacher reflects their understanding regarding intercultural understanding which can
be easily found out (Martin & Nakayama, 2013). There are various theories which can be taken
into consideration to fix the understanding if the teacher in the context of the intercultural
understanding. These theories can be socio-cultural theory and learning, a time for telling,
Metacognitive processes and learning.
Professional development
Professional development is the need for all teachers. There are so many schools that set
the needed number of professional development hours for each year. Professional development
can be considered as the form of the education for teachers that can increase better understanding
regarding their classroom environment (Jones, 2010). There are many resources in the context of
human resources and physical resources such as library, buses, huge campus, and cafeteria and
with respect to human resources; it has good resources of teachers, community and
administration.

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Needed resources
It has been found from above discussion that the school has number of resources but
there should be proper training session for the teachers in order to increase intercultural
understanding so that the interaction between people of school can be made (Corbett, 2010).
Group discussion is another approach for professional development by which one can increases
their understanding regarding another subject. It can expand an expertise area of one teacher with
the help of others which would be effective in amplifying the co-ordination (Walton, Priest &
Paradies, 2013). There should be digital approach by which the teachers get knowledge such as
online education program and there can be workshop in order to amplify the professional
development of the teacher. It is necessary for the school to keep focus on the activity of the
teacher and develop program for the purpose of bringing change in their capabilities in a positive
manner.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from above discussion that the role of the intercultural understanding
in the school keeps significant value. The discussion has been made on the same by taking
consideration of the St. Joseph's College. An overview has been reflected under the assignment
by involving the insight of cultural, linguistic and religious diversity within the community. An
overview of the human and physical resources has been presented within the broader community
and relevant to the school community under the assignment for the purpose of elaborating the
important resources of the company. Intercultural understanding by taking reference of
Australian curriculum has been defined in the term of classroom activities and other activities for
the teachers and the community.

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References
Australian curriculum. (2018). Intercultural understanding. Retrieved from:
https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/
intercultural-understanding/
Australian Government. (2009). Teaching for Intercultural Understanding. Professional learning
program. Retrieved from:
http://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/Values_PLP_intro.pdf .
Benett, J. M. (2016). Interactive Methods for Teaching About Cultural Differences. Retrieved
from: https://prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu/sites/18/2016/03/Bennett.Janet_.2016.pdf
Chen, J. J., & Yang, S. C. (2014). Fostering foreign language learning through technology-
enhanced intercultural projects.
Corbett, J. (2010). Explore, reflect and discuss: intercultural activities for the language
classroom. Retrived from:
https://learning.educatetogether.ie/pluginfile.php/12853/mod_resource/content/2/
Intercultural%20Learning%20Through%20Language.pdf.
Jones, P. M. (2010). Developing social capital: A role for music education and community music
in fostering civic engagement and intercultural understanding. International Journal of
Community Music, 3(2), 291-302.
Local Government Reform, (2019). Queesland Government. Retrieved from:
http://www.dlgrma.qld.gov.au/local-government-reform.html

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Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2013). Intercultural communication in contexts. New York:
NY: McGraw-Hill.
Marx, H., & Moss, D. M. (2011). Please mind the culture gap: Intercultural development during
a teacher education study abroad program. Journal of Teacher Education, 62(1), 35-47.
Michael, 2016. Two Quick and Easy Games For Cross Cultural Team Building. Retrived
from: http://www.ventureteambuilding.co.uk/two-quick-games-cross-cultural-team-building/
Perry, L. B., & Southwell, L. (2011). Developing intercultural understanding and skills: Models
and approaches. Intercultural Education, 22(6), 453-466.
Signorini, P., Wiesemes, R., & Murphy, R. (2009). Developing alternative frameworks for
exploring intercultural learning: a critique of Hofstede's cultural difference
model. Teaching in Higher Education, 14(3), 253-264.
St Joseph College. (2017). About Us. Retrieved from: https://www.terrace.qld.edu.au/teaching-
and-learning/library.
St Joseph College. (2017). Dean of Studies. Retrieved from:
https://www.terrace.qld.edu.au/teaching-and-learning/dean-of-studies.
Walton, J., Paradies, Y., Priest, N., Wertheim, E. H., & Freeman, E. (2015). Fostering
intercultural understanding through secondary school experiences of cultural
immersion. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 28(2), 216-237.
Walton, J., Priest, N., & Paradies, Y. (2013). Identifying and developing effective approaches to
foster intercultural understanding in schools. Intercultural education, 24(3), 181-194.

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