Culture, salience and learning about other cultures

During each interview the participants were asked to define what culture meant for them. Furthermore, they were asked to tell about their own cultural identity and what it meant for them. This was done to gain understanding of how they viewed culture whilst also to see how salient their cultural identity was.

The definitions of culture varied for each participant. Culture was defined by words such as “all the behaviours, beliefs and customs that a certain group of people share”

(Participant 4) and “behaviours and skills and knowledge that we embody” (Participant 9).

Many of the participants emphasised that teaching a multicultural class had made them think about culture more regularly and the experience of culture had become more important since teaching a multicultural class.

9 of the 10 participants described their cultural identity as Finnish, with the only exception being the participant with a dual nationality who described herself as Finnish-Turkish. Some used heritage and geographical connections to explain their cultural identity further, such as:

I am quite strongly a traditional Finn, my family does not have anyone from elsewhere. I am from Carelia and I maybe especially in my age I have started to emphasise my Carelian roots” (participant 3)

“I am from southern Ostrhrobothnia.(...) I still do not feel like a Northern Finn rather than I am still a southern Osthrobothnian, (...) even though I have lived (here) most of my life. (Participant 5).

Furthermore, few participants described their cultural identity through international interests rather than their heritage. One participant emphasised the importance of international

encounters as follows: “I am not very patriotic, (...) rather than a Finn who has travelled a lot (and) whose parents have moved from the countryside to the city” (Participant 6). The emphasis on dividing patriotism and international Finnishness is interesting and arose in few answers. The impact of international or intercultural experiences seemed to have affected these participants cultural identity. One participant explained her cultural identity the following way:

(I base) my behaviour strongly on, maybe like, those Finnish traditions and maybe those include, those, those, influences from other cultures. I don’t think I am a

globally oriented or I have never really felt the need to travel, or things like that, but I am really interested in how people experience their own culture (...) but I am not interested in, like, sweeping the world and (...) seeing it myself but I want to hear everything. (Participant 9)

The openness to other cultures can improve intercultural communication competence (Ting-Toomey, 2005a). Interestingly the ones who described their culture as Finnish through region were more likely to deem their cultural identity as very important when compared with the ones who explained it through their interest to see the world or meet other cultures. For example a Participant 2 described the importance of her cultural identity as follows: “It really is (important). Especially now that there have been changes to my living environment, I have realised that it is actually not easy to react to those changes and get used to (the changes) has been challenging. Like you (...) do (need) a certain base, that if, you are removed from (that environment) completely it is a big change”. This can be compared with a participant who described her identity through ‘curious attitude towards cultures’ who stated that: “Well, I don’t really have a very emotional attachment to (my cultural identity) but, like, it is not negative either” (Participant 4).

Later in the interview the participants were asked whether they familiarised

themselves to the cultures within their classrooms. This was due to Ting-Toomey’s (2005a) belief that knowledge of cultures improves person’s intercultural communication

competence. The teachers were very divided in their responses. Curiously, there were connections between how teachers felt about their cultural identity and then consequently how they felt about learning about other cultures. Some of the participants with strong cultural identity did not see learning about other cultures as important. This may be due to lack of experience as these participants had little previous experience with intercultural communication encounters. The participants, whose Finnish cultural identity was less salient, all deemed learning about other culture’s as helpful or important. The participant whose identity was divided between Finnish and Turkish explained the importance of increased knowledge on certain cultures as follows:

Yes, it does affect, especially with students, especially now that I have this inner knowledge about islam and the islamic culture and, well, Turkish culture, so I feel that I can, like, understand and comprehend the students who come from said family backgrounds better than before, and well, like, maybe I myself have a broader views towards cultures now and I have seen other cultures and been allowed to know more (of them). (Participant 9).

Participant 8 also emphasised the importance culture has on behaviour and how important it is to understand the cultures impact on students behaviours. Majority of the participants who deemed learning about other cultures important defined their cultural identity international interests, therefore their positive attitudes towards other cultures and learning about them could be expected.

One of the participants stated that they do not learn about the cultures, but instantly continued to tell a story of how they received previous training on cultures in university.

Another participant stated that “it would be an insane richness to learn,(...) but there just is not enough time. (...) Anyway it feels that there is no time for the conversations that we really would need. We just have to carry on (touhottaa eteenpäin)” (Participant 1).

There were only two participants who spoke against learning about cultures in their classrooms. One participant stated: “(I do) not learn them (and) I do not see it needed. I do not get to know anyone else’s backgrounds either” (participant 3). The other participant experienced negative identity validation during her work days which may have affected her opinions. She described her experiences as follows:

For me, my Finnishness is sometimes highlighted in a negative light during my days.

(...)As there are so many children with migrant background, then they say things about Finnish people, like Finnish people cannot speak English and Finnish are like

this and if you are Finnish you are, like, somehow worse in my school world.

(Participant 2)

According to Ting-Toomey’s (2005a) assumption 5 when someone feels that their identity is not validated they can feel outgrouped and experience less positive attitudes towards the others. As Ting-Toomey (2005a) explains, ones cultural identity salience affects their communication. Participant 2 felt her identity negatively validated during her work, therefore her cultural identity would affect her communication and experience negatively at times. Finnish culture’s effects on communication are discussed further in the following section.