Conceptualising a Liquid Interculturality for Foreign Language Teaching: A Case Study of Higher Education Teachers in China

Abstract

Recent researchers and educators have suggested a renewed understanding for "culture" in order to transcend the essentialist perceptions that are deeply entrenched in intercultural education. This study adopted a critical, realistic liquid framework of interculturality to investigate how a group of foreign language teachers perceive and practise the content of culture and interculturality in a Chinese university. The study was conducted in a narrative inquiry style, in which interviews and journal entries were employed to collect data, and thematic and discourse analysis were combined to examine them. The data show that teachers’ understandings of cultures can be contradictory and manipulative, oscillating between simple and complex stances; despite some shortcomings, teachers are able to build a reflexivity in intercultural education classrooms, reflecting on issues related to diversity, equality and justice and taking actions in a socially responsible way. These results affirm the value of liquid interculturality as a framework for researchers to better examine teachers’ understandings in intercultural classrooms, and offer some feasible suggestions for educators to develop a critical awareness of cultural diversity and promote reflexive practices in the future.