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40 The Learning Professional | www.learningforward.org February 2021 | Vol. 42 No. 1
FOCUS LOOKING AHEAD
T
he events of 2020 highlighted many longstanding truths about teaching and learning, truths that can help us move toward a more just and equitable future if we act on them. One such truth is that culture matters for learning, especially for transfer of learning from abstract knowledge into practical application. Because this holds for adults’ learning as well as students’, it can and should have an impact on professional learning. Learning leaders should consider culture in their planning, implementation, and follow-up with educators. Making professional learning more culturally relevant could help ensure effectiveness and decrease the trend of school systems spending money on professional learning that yields few results (Hess, 2013). In turn, this would contribute to better academic, social, and emotional outcomes for all educators and students, regardless of
BY CORINNE BRION
Culture impacts learning
— and not just for
students
February 2021 | Vol. 42 No. 1 www.learningforward.org | The Learning Professional 41 race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, language, abilities, and cultural backgrounds. Culture plays a central role in everyone’s personal and professional lives, but it can be more or less visible to us based on our experiences and cultural location. As a native of France who resides and works in the United States, and as a second language learner and speaker, I find the impact of culture on learning and teaching to be highly salient, and it is an area of great interest to me. I know what it’s like to experience cultural mismatch. When I was principal of a new charter school in Oregon, I heard people ask, “What is she doing here, when she is not even from here?” It became very clear that to relate to and learn from one another, my stakeholders and I needed to better understand each other’s cultures. Based on my experiences as a former pre-K-12 teacher and administrator and a professional learning leader, I aim to bring a culturally responsive lens to other educators through professional learning. My work has taken me to many diverse places in Europe, the U.S., and Africa. In each place, I have learned important lessons about the impact of culture on educators’ learning and transfer of learning into practice. Many of those lessons were learned during six years of working in five African countries to strengthen the capacity of school leaders in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Liberia, Rwanda, and Ethiopia. My colleagues and I conducted professional learning events, trained local trainers, and conducted extensive longitudinal research projects (Brion, 2020, 2018; Brion & Cordeiro, 2020) in Burkina Faso and Ghana. We examined whether and how school leaders in those two countries implemented newly acquired knowledge after engaging in professional learning. These various experiences across cultures resulted in the development of a research-based and culturally grounded framework that I refer to as the multidimensional model of learning transfer. The model aims to help leaders and professional learning organizers plan, deliver, and assess their professional learning to assist teachers as they implement new knowledge. Another goal is to improve student learning outcomes and well-being while also supporting a better return on schools’ investments. The model can be applied across cultures and contexts. If you are thinking the model does not apply to you because it is based largely on my experiences in Africa, I invite you to continue reading because the lessons related to learning transfer are applicable to all districts and schools. THE ROLE OF CULTURE IN LEARNING TRANSFER Lindsey et al. (2018) define culture as “everything you believe and everything you do that enables you to identify with people who are like you and that distinguishes you from people who differ from you” (p. 29). Culture is therefore pervasive in how we interact, how we learn, and whether we transfer, or apply, what we learn. Learning is a social endeavor and knowledge is contextual. Culture affects learning transfer specifically because if cultural barriers prevent people from engaging in various aspects of the learning process, they will not be able to apply new knowledge to their jobs (Caffarella & Daffron, 2013; Closson, 2013; Sarkar-Barney, 2004; Silver, 2000; Yang et al., 2009). For example, if the content and materials of the learning experience are not culturally relevant, or if a participant does not see her culture reflected in the facilitators and other participants, the learning experience will be less likely to lead to changes in practice (Caffarella & Daffron, 2013). In my research in Africa, I have observed many examples of ways that culture affects learning transfer from professional learning. What follows are some of these examples. THE NOTION OF TIME In all five countries, the notion of time was lived differently. In Burkina Faso and Liberia, participants arrived one hour early to the professional learning, and the event started on time, whereas in Rwanda and Ethiopia, participants were slightly late. In Ghana, it was common for the professional learning to start two to three hours after the scheduled time.
Culture matters for learning, especially for transfer of learning from abstract
knowledge into practical application. Because this holds for adults’ learning as
well as students’, it can and should have an impact on professional learning.
February 2021 | Vol. 42 No. 1 www.learningforward.org | The Learning Professional 43 follow-up intervention (Brion, 2018) to provide further opportunities for peer learning. In Ethiopia, participants used Viber to accomplish a similar community of practice. Collectivism also raised some challenges. In West Africa, it seemed to hinder participants and local facilitators from reflecting on one’s own learning and from giving feedback to others — key components of adult learning. The collectivistic culture seemed to have created a norm of making nice and maintaining politeness rather than offering criticism. I observed this numerous times in the debriefing sessions with local facilitators. The Westerners often had to ask for feedback on their teaching, and the response was usually the same: “It was good.” A MODEL FOR LEARNING Based on learning experiences like these, I developed the multidimensional model of learning transfer to promote cultural awareness when planning, organizing, conducting, and evaluating professional learning. In this model, I propose that culture is the overarching factor that affects all other dimensions of learning transfer. The multidimensional model of learning transfer is inspired by the seminal work of Broad and Newstrom (1992), who identified six key factors that promote or inhibit learning transfer, but it is unique in considering culture as the main enhancer or inhibitor to transfer. In the multidimensional model of learning transfer, I define culture as individual, sectional, departmental, organizational, regional, and national cultures as well as cultures related to a continent. Culture also incorporates the differential effects of age, gender, race, ethnicity, social class, religion, sexual orientation, and abilities, among others. Culture affects all stages of the professional learning and learning transfer processes, including two stages that were not included in previous models such as Broad and Newstrom’s and that convey the importance of making professional learning ongoing and sustained: pretraining and follow-up. Pretraining includes the preparation and orientation of facilitators and other key stakeholders so that they can support the professional learning once it has begun, and follow-up includes structures for ongoing application such as coaching and professional learning communities to create a culture where learning and its application is valued. Culture also affects all aspects of professional learning, including content, materials, and context in which the learning and larger work of teaching occur, and all stakeholders including learners and facilitators. By considering how culture pushes on each of these stakeholders, elements, and stages, leaders can come to understand the role culture plays in our learning and integrate cultural awareness as they organize, implement, and evaluate their professional learning while also enhancing learning transfer. A lack of such awareness presents numerous risks, including reinforcing stereotypes, increasing intolerance among groups, raising potential misunderstandings, escalating frustrations and defensiveness, and causing learners and facilitators to withdraw (Williams & Green, 1994). The multidimensional model of learning transfer — and cultural proficiency more generally — can be useful for all schools and districts, especially but not exclusively those that serve a diverse student and staff population. As leaders, we should all understand our own culture and identities, as well as those of our staff, students, and communities, to ensure that learning occurs and transfers into practice. REFERENCES Brion, C. (2020). Low-fee private schools: Case studies from Ghana. International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership, 16 (3). Brion, C. (2018). Keeping the learning going: Using mobile technology to enhance learning transfer. Educational Research for Policy and Practice, 1-16. Brion, C. & Cordeiro, P.A. (2020). Voices of Ghanaian head- teachers working in low-fee private schools. International Journal of Educational Reform, 29 (2), 170-190. Broad, M.L. & Newstrom, J.W. (1992). Transfer of training: Action- packed strategies to ensure high payoff from training investments. Da Capo Press. Caffarella, R.S. & Daffron, S.R. (2013). Planning programs for adult learners: A practical guide. John Wiley & Sons. Closson, R.B. (2013). Racial and cultural factors and learning transfer. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 137, 61-69. Hess, F.M. (2013). Cage-busting leadership. Harvard Education Press. Lindsey, R.B., Nuri-Robins, K., Terrell, R.D., & Lindsey, D.B. (2018). Cultural proficiency: A manual for school leaders (4th ed.). Corwin. Sarkar-Barney, S. (2004). The role of national culture in enhancing training effectiveness: A framework. In M. Kaplan (Ed.), Cultural ergonomics: Advances in human performance and cognitive engineering research (pp.183- 213). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Silver, D. (2000). Songs and storytelling: Bringing health messages to life in Uganda. Education for Health, 14 (1), 51-60. Williams, T. & Green, A. (1994). Dealing with difference: How trainers can take account of cultural diversity. Gower. Yang, B., Wang, Y., & Drewry, A.W. (2009). Does it matter where to conduct training? Accounting for cultural factors. Human Resource Management Review, 19 (4), 324-333.
Corinne Brion (cbrion1@ udayton.edu) is assistant professor in the School of Education and Health Sciences at the University of Dayton in Ohio. ■ Culture impacts learning — and not just for students
