Documentation:Cultural Issues in Teaching Online/Examples in Practice: Case Studies
Examples in Practice: Case Studies
Case Study One
Consider the following Ghanaian poem, which expresses a common sentiment about ‘friendship’ in West Africa:
Beware of friends.
Some are snakes under grass;
Some are lions in sheep’s clothing;
Some are jealousies behind their faáades of praises;
Some are just no good;
Beware of friends.
(Kyei & Schreckenbach, 1975, p. 59 as reproduced in Heine, 2008, p. 475)
Reflection
Although friendship is universal, the nature of friendship is not.
- How might this apparently puzzling poem be explained?
- How might the attitudes towards friendship expressed in the poem be manifest in online discourse?
- How might a learner’s cultural background (collectivist or individualistic; independent or interdependent) affect the nature of the online relationships that s/he forms over the term of a course?
- How might this affect group participation in an assignment? How might it affect online discussion?
- What sorts of miscommunication might arise from differing cultural views on concepts such as friendship?
- What assumptions about culture and friendship have been made by including this poem in this resource?