Sociology 433

‘Too Asian’  by S. Findlay & N. Kohle

1.      Do you feel that there is a cultural clash at UBC? If so, what, if anything, should be done about it?

2.      Why is there low Asian involvement in extracurriculars like student govt or campus newspapers? E.g. At UBC, less than 20% of the 47 student councillors are Asian, compared to 43% of Asians in the student body.

3.      The article has undeniably caused much backlash. Do you believe that, in Canada, racial issues can be discussed in a rational and objective manner? For example, in the last 5 years, UBC has dramatically relaxed its English requirements for entrance. Allegedly this is because international Asian students were failing the old requirements. Could this development be discussed rationally?

4.       The article focuses heavily on racial averages. I.e. most Asians do this and don’t do that, most whites are like this and aren’t like that. Though such statements may be true —it is possible to prove that 70% of X race does Y—how useful is it to focus on the qualities of a racial group as a whole, given the exceptions?

‘Promoting Intercultural Understanding’  by Stephen J. Toope

1.      Do you think what the author is suggesting as guidelines can really be helpful? To what extend and what would you add to that list? What do you think of the paper?

2.      If you were the person in charge of facilitating a program to address issues of race and ethnicity, how would you run it? What would be your guideline? How do we deal with issues of race when it is so complicated? What could be your primary concerns?

3.       If you were to hire someone (form outside of Canada) to become a university professor and you are worried about how he/she might react to the cultural diversity of this university, how would you ask your interview questions? How do you evaluate their answers?

Summary (provided by: Sara Baghbannezhad Shishvan)

This paper focuses on the idea of promoting intercultural understanding of different racial and ethnic groups in universities in order to create a better and more suitable environment for learning and education. The author draws attention to the reality of cultural diversity and the complex patterns of societal relations that has occurred in the past half of century in Vancouver and is being reflected in the environments such as UBC. He acknowledges that both the students and the staff are to take necessary steps of gaining better understanding of our today’s society. He represents this idea with an attempt to look at cultural diversity as a challenge which he offers several solutions and guidelines to address:

1.        By encouraging engagement and putting students in positions and situations where they have to interact with cultures outside of their own. ( learn about cross perceptions and different cultural diversities)

2.        Taking a course from departments such as Anthropology, First Nations studies, History, sociology… that UBC offers that are dedicated to addressing and explaining cultural diversity. We must learn from these researches and the works of others as well as experiencing it firsthand.

3.        Not just limiting cultural diversity to UBC, but also see a more generalized and broader picture of both our province and also our country. University is somehow a reflection of our society with its institutions and communities. Still, university environment is a smaller place where we can practice and actually come to terms with issues of diversity and we must use that to our advantage.

4.        Respecting other cultures is somehow respecting our own. There is a value and inherited importance to cultural diversity that tells us even though we are different; we are also the same in many ways.

5.        Being exposed to other cultures opens new doors to look at the world and in terms of education; it gives us new methods to do research, to learn and to think.

6.        Still, understanding and embracing cultural diversity must be more than just few words and on a surface level. It is not an easy task to actually come to accept and understand cultural and racial diversity.

7.        To understand the idea of “cultural equality” we must first, come in terms with the idea of “cultural identity and unity”

8.        Engage in conversations and groups that talk about cultural diversity in class. (get involved)

9.        Take a look at the statistics (WE ARE DIVERSE, EVERYONE IS FROM SOMEWHRE)

– He then offers practical ways to improve the situation in UBC:

Offer more courses related to race and diversity issues, promote interactions that mix students from different backgrounds more, engage students with more language education, promote studying outside of Canada and promote “GO GLOBAL” education more, open up more opportunities for students to get involved locally as well, persuade and push for more research done on cultural diversity, put more effort of hiring faculty members who understand and appreciate cultural diversity and they themselves, can be a good role model for students to follow .