Module 3 – The impact of culture on Vocational Education and Training (VET)

Particularly in Europe society has changed over the last two decades. Societies within the EU have become culturally more heterogenous due to people moving from one EU country to another, and from a non-EU country to a country within the EU (for immigration rates see https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Migration_and_migrant_population_statistics ). This means that many (young) adults start living and working in a country whose language they may not yet speak, and whose institutions they are not yet familiar with. Integrating into the new societies requires being able to respond to new circumstances, and this holds for both the newcomers and the receiving societies. EU societies have to be adaptive at all levels, including political, institutional, economical, individual; the society, its organizations and individuals need to be able to constructively respond to these changes and modify their structures to new challenges.In this light, life-long learning has grown in importance to ensure the development of society, as well as for personal self-development (https://www.km-bw.de/,Lde,W-2/Startseite/Kultur_Weiterbildung/Lebenslanges_lernen ). Already in 1995, proclaiming the year 1996 as the ‘European year of lifelong learning’, the European Union stated: “The role of lifelong learning is becoming fundamental in order to secure personal fulfilment, imparting to the individuals concerned such values as solidarity and tolerance and furthering participation in democratic decision-making processes” (95/431/EC: Decision No 2493/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 1995 establishing 1996 as the ‘European year of lifelong learning’, http://data.europa.eu/eli/dec/1995/2493/oj ).

Solidarity and tolerance, as emphasized in the above statement, are two values a culturally heterogeneous, changing society needs to constantly foster at all levels – also on an individual one. In this context, lifelong learning implicitly puts the focus on intercultural aspects as a part of personal development and adaptation in order to be able to cope better with the changes in society and in working life.

By the end of this module you will know

• about the interdependency of cultural background and learning habits,
• about certain elements that are characteristic for certain learning cultures,
• how to identify stumbling blocks in cross-cultural communication and learning settings.

Just imagine you are a VET trainer used to training adult participants using interactive, non-frontal teaching methods. Your participants, however, expect a teacher focused lecture with you as an unapproachable teaching authority. How in your experience might they respond to highly engaging, interactive exercises?Culture has an effect on learning and communication preferences as well as on the setting of the learning environment. This means that the personal cultural background is recognisable on both sides: on the trainers’ side in the way trainings are delivered and on the participants’ side in the way they expect a training to be.

As a consequence of cultural changes in a more diverse society of the recent years, learning settings in Vocational Education and Training are also becoming more heterogeneous. Not only can the trainers have another cultural background than their target group, but also the learning group itself can be multicultural. This creates new challenges for the trainers as well as for the learners.

As explained in an EPALE-Podcast (https://ec.europa.eu/epale/de/blog/intercultural-learning-adult-education //) learners used to more formal learning settings may be hesitant in engaging for example in interaction and less hierarchically structured, experiential learning activities like peer-coaching and role plays. It is important as a trainer to modify learning environment and activities according to the target group.

In their recent study on cultural factors and learning styles, Simy Joy and David Kolb conclude that that “culture has the ability to shape the ways in which its members receive, process and act on information and experience, shaping the particular way they learn from experience” (see Joy, Kolb 2009).Cultural dimensions may help to explain preferences for certain learning styles, settings of learning environments and pedagogical methods. In his widely known theory of learning styles, David Kolb (for example the model of experimental learning by Kolb 1985) combines preferences for particular ways of gaining insight (from concrete experience to abstract conceptualization) with particular ways of processing information (from reflective observation to active experimentation).

In their study on learning styles and cultural differences, Joy and Kolb (for example Joy, Kolb 2009) used the cultural dimensions and country clusters proposed in the GLOBE study (https://globeproject.com/) to look for systematic links between people’s preferred learning styles and their culture of origin. They did indeed find such links, for example, they found a relation between the cultural dimensions of Uncertainty avoidance and Collectivism/Individualism and preferences for specific learning styles.

Thus, respondents from cultures scoring high on Uncertainty Avoidance, Future Orientation and Performance Orientation (e.g. Germany, Austria and Singapore) preferred grasping knowledge by abstract conceptualization whereas respondents from cultures scoring higher on Accepting Uncertainty (e.g. Italy and Poland) had a preference for grasping knowledge through concrete experience (Joy, Kolb 2009: 31ff.).

Give yourself a moment to reflect: Have you ever assessed your preferred learning style? And do you commonly take learning styles into account when designing your trainings?

Also other studies like Manikutty, Anuradha, Hansen 2007 operate with cultural dimensions in the stricter sense. They describe how cultural dimensions can be recognised in a class-room setting. The following overview shows how teachers/trainers impart lessons and how learners expect them to be and react under certain manifestations of cultural dimensions:

Give yourself a moment to reflect: How can you use the above table to reflect on your expectations and habits and those of your learners? How can you use it to take a fresh look at the selection of exercises and training formats?

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