Teaching in the Global Business Classroom

Citation

(2009), "Teaching in the Global Business Classroom", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 17 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid.2009.04417eae.001

Teaching in the Global Business Classroom

Article Type: Suggested reading From: Human Resource Management International Digest, Volume 17, Issue 5

Carol Dalgish and , Peter Evans,Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008

With today’s student pool a complex mix of cultural and ethical diversity, teachers face unique challenges arising from language and cultural differences in understanding. Teaching in the Global Business Classroom comes at a most opportune time for teachers grappling with the day-to-day challenges of international education.

The book offers an insight into the issues faced when dealing with an intercultural classroom and suggests how to deal with them. The authors, very perceptively, achieve this ambitious aim by dividing the book into two parts. The first part, further divided into five chapters, explores the “what” and “why” of teaching and the challenges faced by teachers and the taught in the global business classroom. The second part, presented in seven chapters, addresses the “how” by providing tools for teachers through suggestions for innovative curriculum design, lecture techniques, group work and participation activities, as well as the use of case studies and assessment methods.

A lesser work might have been content with providing an educational framework to the challenges of a global business classroom. Dalgish and Evans, however, not only enhance teachers’ understanding of the issues to be addressed in the global classroom but also provide practical strategies that will help to enhance the learning of all students, regardless of the culture they belong to and the culture they are studying in. The authors also succinctly attempt to help teachers to overcome their “frustrations with such a complex work environment”. The book makes a logical progression from issues to remedies.

The authors, in the introductory and the second chapters, identify some dimensions of culture so as to develop an understanding of the different assumptions that affect the ways in which “different people from different cultures interpret the world”. Drawing upon the five dimensions of culture, which affect the nature of the student-teacher relationship, the authors develop an effective conceptual model of learning, reflecting the different elements of learning experiences.

David Killick, in the next two chapters, focuses, with theoretical support, on the need for more inclusive learning, teaching and assessment strategies so as to develop the intercultural competencies of students and on another very important aspect of cross-cultural capability – effective communication. Killick analyses some major blocks to effective communication, such as language, non-verbal communication and misattribution.

In the chapter on Learning, Dalgish and Evans explore learning, adult learning and related issues and effectively integrate all this in the context of multi-cultural classrooms.

The issues explored and a framework established, the authors now make a momentous shift by attempting to integrate these challenges with practical suggestions. In each chapter here, Dalgish and Evans grab our attention with global-classroom issues taken straight from real life, giving us a flavour of those issues combined with practical suggestions. Each chapter here follows a neat pattern: it talks about the issue per se, addresses the issue, provides examples and brings out a checklist. The authors remind us how a well designed and a well developed curriculum allows students to more adequately synthesize the knowledge gained; how the method of lecturing, though generally weak as a way of supporting and assisting students, can be used to advantage; and how, by encouraging participation, working in groups and using the case method of teaching, the relevance of lectures can be enhanced.

In her consideration of online teaching, Kate Whiteley deliberates upon certain pertinent pedagogical problems that arise, both from the instructors’ and students’ points-of-view. The author trains us in such innovative practices as outside-in, online diary and the buddy system.

Dalgish and Evans then take up the sensitive issue of assessment. It is especially sensitive because, with the increasing diversity of students, and with diverse expectations and learning experiences, assessment becomes a more complex phenomenon. The authors bring a host of effective assessment techniques like case studies, oral assessment and applied projects.

Teaching in the Global Business Classroom is a must-read for instructors wishing to excel in today’s multicultural university environment. The book exhibits sheer expertise and in-depth understanding – though it does contain a few typing and grammatical errors.

Teaching in the Global Business Classroom is an innovative work, representing an impressive and timely contribution to an area of contemporary significance. The book, a distillation of research, experience and insight, is an indispensable contribution to literature. Perceptive, logical and well organized, the book works well to introduce a gamut of possibilities when dealing with a global business classroom.

Reviewed by Dr Shailja Agarwal, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow, India.

A longer version of this review was originally published in Training & Management Development Methods, Vol. 23 No. 4, 2009.