Peer mentoring and intercultural understanding: Support for refugee-background and immigrant students beginning university study
| Autor: | Katina Zammit, Florence E McCarthy, Margaret H. Vickers |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
ComputingMilieux_THECOMPUTINGPROFESSION
Sociology and Political Science Social Psychology Higher education business.industry Refugee media_common.quotation_subject Learning community 05 social sciences 050301 education 050109 social psychology Collaborative learning Friendship Intercultural relations Cultural diversity Peer mentoring Pedagogy ComputingMilieux_COMPUTERSANDEDUCATION 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Business and International Management Psychology business 0503 education media_common |
| Zdroj: | International Journal of Intercultural Relations. 60:198-209 |
| ISSN: | 0147-1767 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2017.04.015 |
| Popis: | This study explored the effects of the Equity Buddies Program, an intercultural cross-level mentoring course designed to link more advanced university students, as mentors, with first year refugee-background or immigrant students. It was designed to address the needs of refugee-background and immigrant students as they transitioned into university culture. The data included mentors’ written reflections, log books, and a brief demographic survey. Through the processes adopted in the course, it was found that cross-cultural pairing influenced mentors’ intercultural understandings, enabled cross-cultural relationships to develop and provided opportunities for students to interact with people of other cultures and religions. Mentors changed their views of others – of immigrants, of refugees, and also of Anglo-Australians. They experienced increased personalised understanding or gained a widened perspective of their mentees who were of cultures different from their own. Mentors stated that over time their interactions evolved into either a mutually rewarding friendship or a comfortable relationship within a learning community that valued collective learning. It is proposed that increased intercultural understanding emerges from an increased emphasis on the creation of meaningful, transactional relationships among culturally diverse students within a supportive academic environment. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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