The Importance Of Cultural Differences In Education

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Every day since I entered KDI School of Public Policy I tell myself: please mind cultural differences when interacting with your fellow students. It is what we’ve been told at our first orientation session and it is what I sometimes forget when I get too carried away while telling jokes and making “funny” comments. Although we are all grown-ups and most of us have some international experience, we may encounter the issues related to diverse cultures, miscommunication, misunderstanding and differences in behavioral norms. Even with standardized educational process some students may face challenges when they get into new environment. Thus, certain actions which are perceived as normal within one cultural group might not be acceptable in another. There is the …show more content…

These dramatic changes made educators ponder of new approaches in preparation of young people for the future. Particularly, OECD is about to start testing children’s soft skills. Along with testing pupils’ fundamental knowledge such as mathematics, reading and science, it will measure their ability to interact with other people in terms of cultural differences (Schleicher, 2016). Similar to the theory of evolution, according to which organisms undergo changes to adapt to the environment in order to survive and have offspring, our today’s world requires us to adapt to the rapidly changing life. However, when it comes to trends, there are always those who follow them and those who fall behind. In this case, the problem of teaching global competence is mostly discussed in the countries with diverse ethnicity. As Reimers stated, issues related to intercultural interaction can sometimes lead to serious conflicts and undermine economic and political stability within a country (Reimers,

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