The impact of teachers’ communication approach on children’s co-cultural adaptation

Abstract

Classrooms, where power, class, and/or cultural differentiations exist among children and their teachers, offer a rewarding setting for intercultural communication research. This case study (1) investigates how teachers in an urban elementary school, use “positive communication” to bring about hope amidst chaos in both the classroom literally and in the lives of inner city children fundamentally and (2) explores the impact of the selected classroom-communication strategies in terms of students’ co-cultural adaptation. The study findings prompt us to consider how teachers can facilitate healthy co-cultural adaptation among children, who are seldom the focus of intercultural communication research.