Teacher Acculturation: From Platform Theatre to Improvised Theatre and Learning Dynamic Choreography
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-24-1905
Abstract
This research, using ethnographic methods, focuses on the acculturation process experienced by a group of teachers who moved from India to the US. I looked at the phenomenon from the eyes of the teachers as they struggled to describe, explain and understand the new setting in which they were working and their new roles. Their teaching skills were culturally rooted and ineffective. The reworking of their identity i.e. feeling of being self-efficacious, occurred through a process of learning, which occurred while being engaged with the students and based on improvisation to the actual emergent situations in class. A mediating element of this trial and error process was the formal and informal networks with colleagues, mentors, and superiors. The study identifies various coping choices that were available to the teachers. The teachers differed in their attitudes towards the approach to adapt to the situation, choices of coping options exercised and in the approach to obtaining feedback. Some teachers adapted better and were using a wider spectrum of strategies to adapt. The research seems to suggest an agenda for future research in correlating different situations with degree of individual embedded-ness and adaptive efficacy. Acculturation can be seen as a process of identity reconstruction that involves cognitive and behavioral changes. The study has managerial implications for enabling entry of executives into organizations.
Keywords
acculturation
Rights
© The Author(s). Kelvin Smith Library provides access for non-commercial, personal, or research use only. All other use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly reproductions, redistribution, publication or transmission, whether by electronic means or otherwise, without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.
Department/Center
Design & Innovation
Recommended Citation
Nakra, Manoj, "Teacher Acculturation: From Platform Theatre to Improvised Theatre and Learning Dynamic Choreography" (1905). Student Scholarship. 419.
https://commons.case.edu/studentworks/419