Research Report: Proxemics in Multicultural Classrooms in Australia

This report examines the application of proxemics in multicultural classrooms within Australia. It begins by defining proxemics and its significance in understanding the three-dimensional social space between individuals during interactions. The rationale highlights the limited research on proxemics education in multicultural classroom settings, emphasizing the importance of spatial awareness in diverse environments where teachers interact with students from varied cultural backgrounds. The report proposes a descriptive analysis using classroom observations to understand the practical application of proxemics. The research design utilizes a quantitative approach, focusing on observed behaviors of students and teachers to respect proxemic differences, without influencing the subjects. The methodology involves four steps: observation of verbal and non-verbal practices, data recording, description of results, and phenomenon classification. The study aims to answer how proxemics knowledge is applied in multicultural classroom settings in Australia, providing insights into the impact of cultural differences on social interactions within the classroom.

Running head: PROXEMICS IN A MULTICULTURAL CLASSROOM IN AUSTRALIA
PROXEMICS IN A MULTICULTURAL CLASSROOM IN AUSTRALIA
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1PROXEMICS IN A MULTICULTURAL CLASSROOM IN AUSTRALIA
Table of Contents
Title of the project:.....................................................................................................................2
Aims:..........................................................................................................................................2
Rationale:...................................................................................................................................2
Research Design:........................................................................................................................3

2PROXEMICS IN A MULTICULTURAL CLASSROOM IN AUSTRALIA
Title of the project:
The application of proxemics in multi-cultural classrooms of Australia for understanding
aspects of diverse population.
Aims:
The main aim of this project is to understand and investigate the application of proxemics in
the multicultural classrooms of Australia amongst the diverse population.
Rationale:
The language depicting the significance and application of social space represents the
three-dimensional space between people while having an interaction is known as Proxemics.
There has not been enough studies regarding the process of applying proxemics education in
context of multicultural classrooms. The knowledge of ‘space’ in multi-cultural environment
is very crucial, especially in the classrooms where a teacher is dealing with children from
different cultural background. The existent studies on proxemics learnings in classroom
reflects the differences in values and background of the population in perceiving the ‘contact
culture’. The differences in the adaptation of the meaning and measurement of proxemics is
extensively discussed in the existing papers. The studies explains the teachers’ proximity
amongst the students (Mortimer, Pereira & Moro, 2018). Other studies denoted the capability
of teachers in using the knowledge of proxemics for controlling the classroom without the
utilization of verbal communication (Rios-Martinez, Spalanzani & Laugier, 2015). Moreover,
the present studies also signified the things ‘one should not do’, stepping in the ‘space’ of
others may reflect a sign of disrespect and carelessness for others’ emotion. These papers
have only concentrated on the don’ts and differences in proxemics perception, but have not
discussed the application of the concept proxemics in multicultural setting of a classroom.

3PROXEMICS IN A MULTICULTURAL CLASSROOM IN AUSTRALIA
Therefore, I would like to propose descriptive analysis through the implication of observation
in the classroom for understanding the use of the learnings of proxemics in classroom of
Australia.
Research Design:
The research study will be based on quantitative research. The development of the
understanding of how the concept of proxemics is applied in multicultural classrooms of
Australia, a descriptive design is used by depicting existing status of the phenomenon
(Creswell & Creswell, 2017). The hypothesis on the application and employment of the
concept of proxemics in diverse culture will be derived by the collecting data through
focussed observation. The data will be focussed on the behavioural approach of students and
teachers in respecting the differences in the perception of proxemics in classroom setting. The
group of students and the professors will not be influenced by the knowledge of applying
tests. The verbal and non-verbal communication practices in the selected classroom will be
observed without preconceived judgements (McCusker & Gunaydin, 2015). The research
study will aim at answering the ‘what’ of the application, what are the practices regarding the
application of proxemics knowledge in a multicultural classroom setting of Australia. The
research design will be executed in four steps, observation of the verbal and non-verbal
practices, recording the deduced data, describing the assessed results for the application of
proxemics and classifying the phenomenon. The reason for selecting this method is the
motive of executing a study without the knowledge of the ‘subject group’, which is the multi-
cultural classrooms, as it can create a behavioural change in presence of a test or experiment.

4PROXEMICS IN A MULTICULTURAL CLASSROOM IN AUSTRALIA
References:
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and
mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.
McCusker, K., & Gunaydin, S. (2015). Research using qualitative, quantitative or mixed
methods and choice based on the research. Perfusion, 30(7), 537-542.
Mortimer, E. F., Pereira, R. R., & Moro, L. (2018). The use of recurrent gestures to give
cohesion to classroom discourse. Video-based Research in Education: Cross-
disciplinary Perspectives, 176.
Rios-Martinez, J., Spalanzani, A., & Laugier, C. (2015). From proxemics theory to socially-
aware navigation: A survey. International Journal of Social Robotics, 7(2), 137-153.