| Learning objectives |
To achieve the grade 12, students should meet the
following learning objectives with no or only minor mistakes or
errors:
- Define and compare the theories and perspectives on cultural
difference presented in the course material and readings, and be
able to evaluate their strengths and limitations for explaining a
chosen cultural issue.
- Apply appropriate readings, theories and concepts taught during
the course to analyse the assumptions and observations presented in
the student exchange logbook or their experiences ‘at home’.
- Reflect critically on his/her own cultural assumptions and
situatedness, with a point of departure in analysis of experiences
with a familiar or unfamiliar culture.
|
| Examination |
|
Cultural
Analysis:
|
| Exam
ECTS |
7,5 |
| Examination form |
Home assignment - written product |
| Individual or group exam |
Individual exam |
| Size of written product |
Max. 10 pages |
|
The course concludes with an essay based on a
theme that students select themselves. |
| Assignment type |
Written assignment |
| Duration |
Written product to be submitted on specified date
and time. |
| Grading scale |
7-step scale |
| Examiner(s) |
One internal examiner |
| Exam period |
Summer |
| Make-up exam/re-exam |
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
|
Description of the exam
procedure
The essay should take its point of departure in one of the main
course themes – i.e. analyzing a familiar or an unfamiliar culture
- and discuss it in the light of the theoretical perspectives and
concepts taught during the course.
Students will organize in self-selected groups of 3-5 at the start
of the course. Each group will sign up to a theme (e.g.
‘politeness’ ‘culture shock’) and will develop an idea for the exam
essay during the course. A group supervision session will assist
students in choosing and refining their ideas. At the end of the
course, a workshop will be held where students present their essay
ideas and receive feedback from an opponent group and from the
teacher. Students may develop and expand the group idea
individually for the exam; they are, however also free to choose a
completely new topic if they wish.
Cultural Analysis is designed to integrate with the 3rd Year
Project.
|
|
| Course content and structure |
|
Today’s BLC graduates are likely to be employed in multicultural
organisations in Denmark and/or abroad. The ability to work
effectively with people from a wide range of backgrounds is
therefore increasingly crucial, both when in a foreign environment,
and when ‘at home’. Awareness of one’s own cultural situatedness
and assumptions, and those of one’s organization and work context,
are important elements in enabling this.
“Cultural Analysis” is designed to foster and train these
abilities. The aim of the course is to encourage critical
reflexivity concerning students’ own cultural situatedness, and the
ways in which they apprehend and negotiate difference both in a
foreign context and at ‘home’. This is achieved in two ways in this
course. During the first half of the course we will follow up on
students’ experiences from their semester abroad in the lectures,
using cases drawn from the ‘exchange log book’, an electronic media
platform accessible only to the class and teacher, which students
are required to post on during their exchange. We will use the
posts as data and discuss them in the light of the course theories
and concepts. Students will be introduced to different approaches
to culture, identity and difference (e.g. functionalist,
interpretive, post-modern). During the second part of the course,
students will be introduced to theories and concepts that will
enable them to carry out a cultural analysis of a familiar
environment, e.g. a Danish organization or institution (such as
CBS, a workplace, sports club or family context). Students will
thus be expected to draw on the perspectives and concepts taught
during the course in explaining and reflecting on their experiences
both abroad and at home. The cultural analysis techniques students
learn during the course are also intended to equip students with
conceptual and methodological tools that they can deploy when
writing their 3rd Year Project.
Guidelines for the exchange log book will be distributed at the end
of the 4th semester before the students leave for their semester
abroad.
|
| Teaching methods |
| The semester is organised as lectures, as well as
a group supervision session and a workshop involving presentations,
and opponent and teacher feedback. These different learning
situations will equip students to apply the conceptual tools they
have been taught in order to analyse their experiences with
familiar and unfamiliar cultures. Data about exchange experiences
will be generated by the students themselves, who are required to
post on a virtual platform whilst on exchange, regarding their
experiences, anecdotes, interviews, images, music, newspaper
articles, film clips, etc. that they found thought-provoking,
interesting, shocking, surprising, etc. |
| Feedback during the teaching period |
| The students receive feedback twice during the
course. The first feedback session takes the form of a 30 minute
supervision meeting, where the students, organized in groups of 3-5
members, receive detailed feedback on their ideas for their exam
assignment, contained in a 2-page WIP document which they submit to
their supervision teacher prior to the supervision session. The
second feedback session takes the form of a 4 hour workshop where
the groups present a 5-page practice assignment (which represents
the further development of the 2-page WIP supervision document)
prior to the workshop, and receive feedback on it at the workshop
both from an opponent group and from their workshop
teacher. |
| Student workload |
| Lectures |
20 hours |
| Workshop |
8 hours |
| Preparation and exams |
178 hours |
| Total |
206 hours |
|
| Expected literature |
|
To be announced on Learn
|
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