'We Are So Over Pharaohs and Pyramids!' Re-Presenting the Othered Lives with Young People through An International Studies Program

Source: International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Volume 23, Issue 6 (November 2010), pages 737 – 754.

The current article focuses the international presenters' interpretation of and reaction to the program through their interaction with the students.
The article is based on a year-long implementation of an international studies program in a rural middle school using videoconferencing technology.

The author emphasizes the ways that the presenters' assumptions and beliefs affect their (re)construction of their own cultures.

The presenters provided the following suggestions for improving the program implementation in rural learning environments:
(1) teach students about the misrepresentation and cultural stereotypes in the US media;
(2) provide analogies between the program presentations and the corresponding aspects of the US culture; and
(3) teach them the constructs with which the various cultures are viewed and evaluated.