Absolutely Intercultural

How comfortable are we in our own clothes; whether it is in a sari or jeans? It is easy to express the comfort feeling or the discomfort feeling by a woman but does the same feeling happen to a man who is asked to wear a sari or jeans. Difficult to say as there may be mixed expressions. We are in a society and an era where there is a cultural change in our ethos, morals, views, opinions, etc. We are able to openly express and accept views or opinions on sexuality, asexuality, transgender, inclusiveness, gay or lesbian partnership, unwed mother/father, begetting children from surrogacy, mensuration, puberty, etc. The list is endlessly showing the diverse absolute intercultural changes. There is a flip side to the changes observed. It may be weird or just different for many of us.

Let us take an example of a red colour, what comes to your mind? Maybe some of you may think of blood groups, relations, blood, mensuration, virginity, vermillion on a married woman’s forehead, a red spot of Japan’s flag, etc. Here again, we understand that expressions are due to the influence of culture; so it is an absolutely intercultural expression.

We are celebrating the differences and it’s awesome to be different or to be cool. But my objective here is are we schools ready to sensitize our learners to differentiate these differences.

The recent example is the pandemic that taught us to adapt & adopt the new change, the new normal. Online teaching is the inn thing for both generations and everyone has tried to accept the cultural change. In spite of the adversities of the network, scarcity of resource persons or resource materials, our learners and facilitators have not stopped their enthusiasm for learning & teaching. Schools have adopted the offline & online modes of intercommunication &educational exchange programs. There is low attendance, the dropping of year,  boredom, distractions, monotony, etc. for the learners. It is time our facilitators adopted collaborative &cooperative methodologies to invigorate and ignite the minds of the learners to enhance their thinking skills and problem-solving abilities.

Absolute intercultural change can be promoted when our learners will embrace agility, be open-minded, facilitate communication, and become culturally self –aware.

By,
Mrs. Richa Kumar

Mrs Richa Kumar: Mrs Richa Kumar is the Principal of Rahul International School, Boisar, Maharashtra. As a learner and an educator from past 20 plus years in training, teaching, curriculum designing, content development, administration, counselling, workshops for parents, students and teachers. She has set up and designed academic sessions for student development program and promoting inclusive education in schools. She has designed curriculum for multiple publication houses and even has a Copyright for her design on ‘Perpetual Motor Skill Development Program for Preschool students.’ Mrs Kumar has many accolades with her name ranging from Education World to Edustar (THT Platform)

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