Chapter Overview

In no other social setting in society does such a diverse gathering of people come together for a prolonged period of time than in the school. Thus, the potential for a wide range of intercultural interactions between students and teachers is great. This chapter introduces the eighteen-theme culture-general framework for understanding intercultural interactions between people, regardless of their cultural backgrounds, who they are interacting with, or the role that they adopt. Such a framework provides an opportunity for people to better understand their emotional reactions to intercultural situations, the knowledge base that people bring with them as a result of being socialized within any given culture, and the manner in which people's cultural identity may be reformed. Such a framework also provides a vocabulary and categories with which people can discuss cross-cultural issues with others.