Investigating a Blended Approach to Cross-Cultural Human Ecology Education - An exploratory study pairing university institutions in Australia and the Philippines

Abstract

Global sustainability challenges, such as climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, transcend national borders. Human ecology education aims to equip students with the skills to tackle complex problems such as these, and to imagine and work towards a more sustainable future. A key approach used in human ecology education is sending students on immersive cross-cultural field trips, which give them first-hand experience of alternative ways of living. Such experiences may help students uncover their own cultural paradigms, providing them with the opportunity to question the underlying value-sets that drive human-environment interactions. However, as access to cross-cultural field trips is limited, blended (partially-online) learning was explored in the current study as an alternative. A blended approach is defined in this thesis as students interacting with international peers over the internet in addition to face-to-face contact with their local cohort and a facilitator. This study explored a blended approach to cross-cultural exposure for human ecology education. It investigated the potential for, and factors affecting, student learning in this medium. To investigate this, students from the Australian National University and the University of the Philippines Los Baños participated in a custom-designed module, in which they completed parallel activities in their home countries. They also interacted online before and during a facilitated video-conference, in which a Filipino facilitator assisted the Australian cohort, and vice versa. Research design drew on Adaptive Theory and human ecology pedagogy. Data on student learning, and the factors affecting it, were collected through mixed methods (questionnaires, interviews, observations and written reflections) and a thematic analysis was conducted. Students reported both new learning and the reiteration of prior learning. Participants noted that although the learning experience was different to that gained on immersive field trips, it complemented, and extended, their classroom-based learning of human ecology concepts. Factors affecting student learning were found to form three main categories: pragmatic considerations; elements contributing to communication, connection and contextualisation; and reflective dialogue. Key factors which contributed to this learning were: video-conferencing; competence in a common language; students with past cross-cultural experience acting as mentors; a sense of equality amongst participants; and exchanging staff members from the partnered universities to act as facilitators. The results of this study suggest two main implications for human ecology education. First, using a blended approach could expand access to experience of different cultural contexts, with its associated benefits for human ecology education. Second, a blended approach was an equalising factor between participating nations with different access to resources, and provides a mutually beneficial platform for educational outreach and engagement. Further research is required into the advantages and disadvantages of this approach, and robust, repeated trials within a number of different cross-cultural contexts are recommended to validate the study’s findings. Show more