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Minett, A. J., Dietrich, S., & Ekici, D. (2022). Person to Person Peacebuilding and Intercultural Competence: Lessons and Voices from an Online Service-Learning Project. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.
This book maps the discursive terrain and potential of person to person peacebuilding as it intersects with, and is embedded in, intercultural communication. It foregrounds the voices and discourses of participants who came together in the virtual intercultural borderlands of online exchange through a service-learning project with a non-profit organization which focused on peace through education in Afghanistan, primarily through English language tutoring. By analyzing the voices and perspectives of US-based tutors who are pre-service teachers of English as an Additional Language, in equal measure with the voices and perspectives of adult English learners in Afghanistan, the authors examine how intercultural interactants begin to work as peacebuilders. The participants describe the profound transformations they undergo throughout their intercultural tutoring journeys, transformations which evidence three dimensions of person to person peacebuilding: the personal, relational and structural. Inspired by these voices, the book further explores ways teachers and teacher educators of language and intercultural communication can more deliberately leverage the affordance of peacebuilding, whether face to face or in the virtual intercultural borderlands of online exchange.
Minett, A. J., Dietrich, S., & Ekici, D. (2021). Discourse Analysis of an Online Intercultural Service Learning Project. In I. Chiluwa (Ed.), Discourse and Conflict: Analyzing Text and Talk of Conflict, Hate and Peacebuilding (pp. 355-380). Palgrave Macmillan.
Editor's note
Editor's note
"Another interesting story by Amy Jo Minett, Sarah Dietrich and Didem Ekici in Chap. 13 highlights "person to person peace-building through intercultural communication" and illustrates this process by analysing discursive indicators of peace-building between two intercultural interactants. Through the analysis of metonymy in its various forms, the study exemplifies how person-to-person interaction might produce some positive assumption of others and how this may enhance peaceful co-existence in a divided world" (Chiluwa, 2021)
Ekici, D. (2018). Developing intercultural competence through online English language teaching (Doctoral Dissertation). University of San Francisco, San Francisco.
With an increasing number of refugees and immigrants in European and American classrooms, teachers need to be prepared to meet their varied and complex needs. In particular, to help these diverse students succeed, teachers need to be interculturally competent, which is a combination of many skills including attitude, linguistic and cultural awareness, empathy, and flexibility. However, developing these skills not only takes theoretical knowledge but also hands-on training and practice. While many programs in school of education provide experiential practicum projects and online collaborations with diverse students, they have not expanded to the population in war zones. Moreover, a review of literature revealed a gap in research on how online tutoring might impact the intercultural competence development of preservice ESL teachers. This study attempted to fill that gap by exploring how teaching English online to students in Afghanistan for six weeks impacted the intercultural competence of preservice ESL teachers.
UPCOMING PUBLICATIONS (In press)
UPCOMING PUBLICATIONS (In press)
Dietrich, S., & Ekici, D. (in press). eService-Learning for Transformational Change. In J.R. Strait (Ed.), Taking eService-Learning to the Next Level: Addressing Social Problems in Communities in Times of Crisis (pp. xx-xx). Stylus.
Kelly, K., Ekici, D., & Stark, I. (under review). Closing the Gaps with Online Equity Rubric. In B. Wuetherick (Ed.), Online Learning, Open Education and Equity in the Age of COVID-19 (pp. xx-xx).
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