Content uploaded by Carol M Archer
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Carol M Archer on Sep 08, 2016
Content may be subject to copyright.
Psychology Learning and Teaching
Volume 11 Number 3 2012
www.wwwords.co.uk/PLAT
335 http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/plat.2012.11.3.335
The Role of Culture Bump in Developing
Intercultural Communication Competency and
Internationalizing Psychology Education
CAROL M. ARCHER
University of Houston, USA
STACEY C. NICKSON
Auburn University, USA
ABSTRACT This article describes the Culture Bump Approach to intercultural training across three
separate projects and its impact on the behavior and attitudes of participants in these projects. The
authors analyzed participants’ self-assessments using Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural
Sensitivity and found a higher level of positive response than this model would predict, and they
discuss this result in terms of culture bump theory. In particular, they highlight the Culture Bump
Approach’s inclusion of human commonalities and its micro-cultural approach rather than a macro-
cultural approach. Finally, they explore how the Culture Bump Approach is salient in promoting
integration and connectivity in higher education and its importance in teaching psychology at the
college and university level.
This article describes the results of using the Culture Bump Approach to inter-cultural training for
three separate projects, and its impact on the behavior and attitudes of participants in these
projects. We conducted two projects with international students and American students and one
project with employees in a synthetic rubber plant. We analyzed participants’ self-assessments and
used Bennett’s (1986) Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity to trace each individual
participant’s development of cultural sensitivity. We trained participants using Archer’s (2004)
Toolkit for Culture and Communication, which is a multi-media course for applying the Culture
Bump Approach to helping individuals learn to communicate effectively across cultures. It consists
of modules on (a) cultural perceptions, (b) cultural communication styles, (c) cultural values, (d)
cross-cultural adaptation and emotional intelligence, (e) human commonalities, and (f) culture
bumps.
Culture Bump
Archer (1991) described a culture bump as a phenomenon that occurs when an individual has
expectations about another person’s behavior within a particular situation, but encounters a
different behavior in that situation when interacting with an individual from a different culture.
Culture bump theory is concerned with how cultural knowledge is acquired and its effect on
intercultural relationships.
In examining how cultural knowledge is acquired, culture bump theory asserts that people
feel disconnected when encountering culture bumps and adopt coping strategies to relieve their
discomfort. A primary strategy is to attempt to understand the motive for the Other’s behaviour,
assuming that this understanding will alleviate the anomie that emanated from the culture bump.
However, gaining culture-specific knowledge about why Others behave as they do results in only a
by guest on September 8, 2016plj.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Role of Culture Bump
336
partial resolution of the original anomie. In fact, culture-specific knowledge frequently strengthens
the sense of separation by maintaining focus on the Other’s culture. This knowledge does little to
help persons experiencing the culture bump to recognize their intersubjective biases. Archer (1991)
theorized that another level of knowledge is necessary to develop connection and to deepen
intercultural relationships.
She suggested that a series of steps can guide individuals through a self-reflective analysis of
their culture bumps so that they not only experience relief from the incident, but also uncover their
own cultural criteria, expectations, and assumptions. In so doing, they achieve an affective
awareness of the culturally relativistic nature of the incident, which supports Davis’s (2009)
observation that intercultural sensitivity requires a ‘conscious self-mediation of one’s own
cognitive, affective and behavioral states’ (p. 22). However, this self-reflective process not only
leads to an awareness of cultural relativism but continues to explore various patterns for dealing
with universal life situations. This aspect of culture bump theory is aligned with Abdallah-
Pretceille’s (2006) call for cross-cultural training to include a ‘subjacent universality’ (p. 478).
The seven culture bump steps that structure the self-reflection process are:
1. pinpointing the culture bump;
2. listing one’s own and the Other’s behaviour;
3. identifying one’s emotions regarding the culture bump incident;
4. extrapolating the universal situation implicit in the incident;
5. describing in behavioral terms one’s expectations for that situation;
6. reflecting and extrapolating the meaning of having one’s expectations met; and
7. having a conversation with the Other about how one experiences that meaning in one’s life.
By pinpointing a personal culture bump as the first step, the focus of the cultural sensitivity training
shifts from understanding the Other’s culture at a macro level to a personal experience with the
Other’s culture at the micro level. Archer (2001) noted that one consequence of this micro view of
cross-cultural communication is that rather than defining oneself or Others only as products of
their culture, it allows for individual interpretation of cultural identity. This micro view shifts the
focus from attempting to eliminate prejudice and ethnocentrism to acknowledging them as the
source of personal, existential meaning. This acknowledgment is embodied in the sixth step, which
then becomes the key for diverse individuals to truly connect with one another in a process that is
both synergistic and transformational. This process of uncovering and sharing one’s own cultural
criteria for common human themes is the core of the Culture Bump Approach
The Culture Bump Approach
Simply put, the Culture Bump Approach to dealing with cultural differences teaches individuals to
use any difference that they may encounter as a way to connect to another by uncovering a shared
commonality. It builds on Gundykunst, Ting-Toomey, and Wiseman’s (1991) traditional cross-
cultural communication program design but shifts the focus from a macro-cultural level and
incorporates the development of a specific skillset.
The Culture Bump Approach provides overt training in skills required for effective culture
bump conversations. These skills, which emerge from the seven steps, are: (a) pinpointing a culture
bump; (b) managing one’s emotional response to culture bumps; (c) recognizing one’s expectations
and the meaning of having one’s expectations met; and (d) articulating one’s meanings in a
conversation with the Other. A ‘human connection’ occurs as the conversation moves cyclically
between ‘why’ people are different and ‘how’ people are the same.
This cyclical movement from acknowledging differences to discovering commonalities is
consistently maintained throughout each activity in the Culture Bump Approach, resulting in a
cognitive and an affective awareness of cultural relativism and of human universals. When
participants combine these insights with a conscious awareness of the emotional impact of their
culture bump, they achieve a measure of detachment from the original incident. Thus, more than
merely describing what happens as simple events, participants actually access the domain of
understanding of the Other’s worldview, not as knowledge, but through an extension of their
horizon (Archer & Nickson, 2012). This approach underpinned the development of the Toolkit for
Culture and Communication.
by guest on September 8, 2016plj.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Carol M. Archer & Stacey C. Nickson
337
The Toolkit for Culture and Communication
Archer (2004) developed the Toolkit for Culture and Communication for the University of
Houston, whose College of Continuing Education marketed it for cross-cultural communication
training in business and education. It is a complete course that combines modules on traditional
intercultural communication content areas such as perceptions, communication, cultural values,
and the cultural adjustment cycles with modules on culture bumps and human commonalities. A
knowledge of the traditional concepts provides an understanding of why people of different
cultures believe and behave as they do, while the culture bump and human commonality modules
provide a skill set for deepening relationships.
Each content area has experiential activities designed to have participants learn not only
about the notions of perception, communication, cultural values, and the cultural adjustment
cycle, but to experience them as well. There are short explanations of each of the concepts, along
with videos, role plays, simulations, and critical incidents to provide a cross-cultural
communication knowledge base. It represents best practices as developed in the field over the past
decades (e.g., Gundykunst et al., 1991). We used the Toolkit in the three case studies we describe in
this article.
The Three Projects
Three projects provided an opportunity to assess the impact of the role of culture bump in
developing intercultural communication competency. One of the authors (Archer) was the lead
trainer in all three projects. In each project, she required participants to learn all of the content
areas of the Culture Bump Approach, including culture bump theory, and to then apply it what
they had learned in a project. All three groups received their basic training from the Toolkit for
Culture and Communication. The English as Second Language students also received some
language support.
Sociolinguistics Course Project
The sociolinguistics course was a joint project between the English Department and the Language
and Culture Center (LCC) intensive English program of the University of Houston and involved 33
English Department students and 11 second language (ESL) students. The ESL students were from
Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Chad, Mexico, People’s Republic of China, and Taiwan. Both
groups of students studied concepts of sociolinguistics as well as the Toolkit for Culture and
Communication. Then, in mixed cultural teams, students identified a culture bump, analyzed it,
and presented their results either in a video or on a webpage. All students wrote an essay in which
they applied the culture bump analysis to either a gender or a generational culture bump.
Synthetic Rubber Plant Project
The second project involved members of a self-selected team at a synthetic rubber plant whose
mission was to develop a training program for reconciling gender and professional differences. The
16 participants ranged in age from 26 to 63 and included engineers, plant operators, maintenance
workers, and administrative personnel. All were American-born except for two long-term
immigrants from India and Ghana. Archer gave the participants a 4-day training course using the
Toolkit for Culture and Communication. She returned for 3 full-day follow-ups to assist them in
designing and customizing the Toolkit material to meet their specific needs.
International Student and Elementary School Project
The third project consisted of 26 advanced-level ESL students from the Language and Culture
Center at the University of Houston who were from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Congo, Gabon,
Angola, Mexico, Syria, China, Vietnam, Korea, and Libya, and a group of 21 fifth-graders at a local
elementary school. Archer trained the ESL students in four modules from the Toolkit for Culture
by guest on September 8, 2016plj.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Role of Culture Bump
338
and Communication: perceptions, culture bump, cultural values, and commonalities. Most of the
ESL students in the class had previously been trained in the module on Cultural Adjustment. On
three separate occasions, the ESL students visited the fifth-grade students to whom they taught the
same concepts. The ESL students also wrote essays in which they applied the concepts of culture
bump, communication styles, and cultural values to their experience of working with the children.
Methodology
To assess how the culture bump training changed their intercultural sensitivity, Archer asked
participants in all three projects to respond to the following question:
How do you think that understanding and practicing the Culture Bump Approach impacts your
perceptions of and interactions with people who differ from yourself as well as people with
whom you share similar backgrounds?
The synthetic rubber plant and the sociolinguistics class participants responded to the question by
email. The students in the sociolinguistics class responded by WEB CT at their own home at their
convenience. They submitted their responses after having received their grade in order to facilitate
more authentic responses. The ESL students in the international student and elementary school
project responded to the question on paper, which they returned to their teacher at mid-semester.
Analysis and Discussion
Bennett’s (1986) Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity provided a framework for
comparing the our participants’ experiences. He described six developmental stages of cultural
sensitivity. Stage 1, Denial, occurs when individuals do not notice cultural differences or notice only
broad and meaningless cultural differences. Stage 2, Defense, occurs when individuals recognize and
react to differences as being threatening. Stage 3, Minimization, occurs when people acknowledge
differences but consider them as unimportant. Bennett described these first three stages
‘ethnocentric’. Thus, in these three stages, people do not notice cultural differences, minimize
them, evaluate them negatively, or become threatened by them.
Stage 4, Acceptance, occurs when people accept and respect behavioral and value differences.
Stage 5, Adaptation, occurs when individuals temporarily change some aspect of their behavior
relative to cultural differences. Stage 6, Integration, occurs when individuals acquire an ability to
become a part of the Other’s culture while maintaining their own cultural values and perspective.
Bennett called these last three stages ‘ethnorelative’. In these three stages, individuals consider
cultural differences positive and preferable.
Archer categorized participant responses as either attitudinal change or behavioral change
and sub-divided those two categories into seven sub-categories. Feeling connected to Others refers to a
consciousness both of cultural differences as well as of the possibility of sharing commonalities.
Noticing differences refers to a newly developed consciousness of cultural differences. Self-awareness
refers to the beginning of recognition of the impact of one’s own response to a difference.
Awareness of another’s point of view refers to the recognition of differences in patterns of values
and of behavior. Behavioral change means consciously changing one’s behavior to fit another’s
pattern. Self-confidence as an attitudinal change refers to believing that one’s responses are not
‘wrong’ but part of developing cultural awareness. Self-confidence as a behavioral change refers to an
awareness of having appropriate choices to respond to any future differences – without having to
have in-depth knowledge of the differing culture. The categories and examples of the type of
response for each of the categories are shown in Table 1.
We interpreted these changes using Bennett’s (1986) model as follows:
• Noticing differences or feeling connected to others means moving from Stage 1 into Stage 2.
• Self awareness means moving from Stage 2 into Stage 3.
• Awareness of another’s point of view means moving from Stage 3 into Stage 4.
• Behavior change means moving from Stage 4 into Stage 5.
Self-confidence emerged from the responses as a separate category, which is not described
specifically in Bennett’s (1986) model. This change in attitude falls into two categories:
by guest on September 8, 2016plj.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Carol M. Archer & Stacey C. Nickson
339
1. Knowing how to respond to differences (cognitive knowledge).
2. A sense of not being alone or wrong.
Table 1. Categories of responses and examples.
Categories of responses Example
Attitude change
Feeling connected to
Others
I definitely realize that everyone pretty much goes through what I go through, just in their
own unique wa
y
Self-awareness Recognizing that there are culture bumps was somewhat eye opening for me.
Understanding that people do things differently is not a new concept; however, evaluating
the feelings that occur and processing the experience as a culture bump gives me a new
wa
y
of lookin
g
at m
y
interactions with others.
Awareness of other
point of view
To my surprise, after experiencing the culture bump exercises in a formal setting, the
culture bump approach became formal for me and has heightened my awareness of others
to a
g
reater extent.
Self-confidence, not
feeling alone/wrong
Simply knowing that there’s actually a term for the thing that triggers that awkward feeling
you have when you meet with someone from a different culture has already influenced my
life and perceptions
g
reatl
y
.
Behavioral change
Noticing differences Before this notion of ‘culture bumps’, many ‘bumps’ would have simply not occurred to
me at all: I would not have taken notice.
Self-confidence, know
how to respond
It gives me a more proactive alternative to either (a) judging someone who’s different from
me or (b) ignoring them and acting like it’s OK. It gets me into the very foundations of
where culture variations come from and a way to compare my core values to those of
someone else.
Behavior change I’ve caught myself not smiling as much at strangers because they may be from a culture
that disapproves of strangers smiling because it’s too intimate. I am aware that my culture
is vastl
y
different.
In some instances, respondents’ answers fell into more than one category. In these instances, we
categorized the respondents’ dominant answers. Although these determinations are subjective, a
Qualified IDI Administrator (an individual trained in using the Intercultural Development
Inventory, a statistically validated tool based on Bennett’s model) verified that the categories and
coding were consistent with Bennett’s (1986) model. We summarize these results in Table 2.
Table 2. Numbers of participants across the three
projects moving from one stage to another.
Stage transitions Number of
participants
(
N
= 41)
Sta
g
e 1 to Sta
g
e 2 11
Sta
g
e 2 to Sta
g
e 3 12
Sta
g
e 3 to Sta
g
e 4 8
Sta
g
e 4 to Sta
g
e 5 9
Sta
g
e 5 to Sta
g
e 6 1
Note: In addition, 31 of the 41 participants reported
developing a more positive attitude about cultural differences.
We assumed that the self-assessment reflected a change in participants’ perception of themselves
that represented a new stage of development in the individual’s ability to respond to cultural
differences. A primary limitation to this assumption lies in the element of self-perception bias.
by guest on September 8, 2016plj.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Role of Culture Bump
340
Students in both the sociolinguistics course and the English as second language course may have
been influenced – consciously or unconsciously – by an attempt to please their professors.
Participants in all three groups seemed to follow a developmental path corresponding to
Bennett’s (1986) model. The Culture Bump Approach enabled participants to move at least one
stage beyond the stage at which they began the course. However, an incongruity appears to exist
for those participants whose self-assessments placed them in one of the first three stages. Although
Bennett (1986) suggested that individuals experience cultural differences as being threatening or
negative in these stages, participants in these projects overwhelmingly experienced differences as
being positive. In fact, of the 23 participants who placed themselves in one of the first three stages,
15 also reported feeling more confident and/or positive about cultural differences.
The focus on commonalities as well as the micro-cultural approach may partially explain the
higher level of positive responses to cultural differences than Bennett’s (1986) model would
suggest. The Culture Bump Approach not only overtly reassures participants that the focus of the
training is on forming human connections, but it also teaches them the skills necessary to find the
commonalities with individuals from different cultures. It is possibly this conscientious focus on
commonalities within differing cultural perceptions at the onset of the training that sets a tone of
inclusiveness and security that ameliorates the defensiveness and minimization of Stages 2 and 3. It
may be that an individual’s conscious awareness of common humanity while learning about
cultural differences facilitates his or her passage through Bennett’s (1986) developmental stages.
In fact, the high level of self-confidence experienced by the majority of the participants in all
three case studies may be attributed to the microcultural focus of the Culture Bump Approach. The
first step of this approach is to pinpoint a culture bump, which immediately begins the process of
moving from Stage 1 to 2 in a precise manner wherein behavior is noted separately from its
emotional impact. This overt acknowledgment of the precise emotions associated with the incident
allows for a detachment from the culture bump that may support an easier acceptance of a
different value system. Implicit in many of the participants’ comments is a sense of empowerment
that ranges from an awareness of having language to express the ‘awkward feeling’ accompanying
a culture bump to having a step-by-step structure for processing the emotional, cognitive, and
normative consequences of their own authentic experiences.
In the sociolinguistics class, many of the American-born students commented specifically on
how the Culture Bump Approach impacted their relationship with their international classmates.
One student’s comments sums up this experience:
I think that this class was a great opportunity to discuss culture bumps with people from different
cultures and actually apply all the information that we learned about culture bumps throughout
this semester. It gave us an opportunity to discuss amongst each other and a ‘hands on’ chance to
demonstrate our version of a culture bump. I would highly recommend adding international
students because it makes the learning experience that much more effective.
This student’s comment suggests that the Culture Bump Approach provides a means for American-
born students to leverage the opportunities of having international classmates while
acknowledging the challenges inherit in culturally diverse classrooms. Given the increasing
globalization of higher education, these findings are of particular interest for teaching at the college
and university level.
Globalizing Higher Education and Internationalizing Psychology Education
Culture bump as a theory and approach offers a salient mechanism to promote integration and
connectivity in higher education because it provides skills to incorporate diverse points of view and
contextualizing issues. Culture bump supports Palmer and Zajonc’s (2010) vision of education as a
means by which to connect humans across cultures and thus enlighten understanding of each
other.
Introducing students to the Culture Bump Approach and integrating it as an inter-disciplinary
skillset may enhance students’ potential to master cross-cultural communication, gaining unlimited
access to individual and collective global connections. Without acquiring the knowledge and skills
gained from culture bump, students, regardless of their academic achievements, minimize their
ability to communicate globally. When culture bump is used as a pedagogical strategy and the skills
by guest on September 8, 2016plj.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Carol M. Archer & Stacey C. Nickson
341
are taught as a means of communication, transformative education is likely to occur. The
conscious awareness of ‘parallel’ conversations and the ability to re-direct those conversations
toward shared meaning allows for deeper understanding for all parties involved.
Bok (2006) claimed that no one can perfectly predict the countries that will dominate the
future political or economic landscape, affecting our ability to determine specific global focal points
in higher education. Bok supported an integrated approach to undergraduate education based on
objectives emphasizing knowledge of general world affairs and cultural understanding.
Few scholars would argue against Bok’s suggestions for the establishment of these objectives.
However, a systematic achievement of these objectives appears elusive. An interdisciplinary
approach to global engagement that is academically rigorous and internationally relevant is difficult
for institutions to attain (Hovland, 2009). However, a review of the current mission and vision
statements of a cross section of colleges and universities revealed an emphasis on producing global
citizens as evidence of the quality of one’s education (Elrod, 2011). Culture bump, when integrated
into the curricular and co-curricular lexicon of the university, offers the ‘college community’ a
shared language and means by which faculty, staff, and students can experience global connectivity.
Culture bump allows all departments, individually or collectively, to serve as a basis for global
learning, promoting a shared sense of responsibility and community throughout both real and
virtual campuses (e.g., distance learners, alumni).
What is the role of psychology education in the internationalization of psychology as a
discipline? The 2001 American Psychological Association (APA) Education Leadership Conference
(ELC) served to foster participants’ recognition of the role of internationalization in psychology.
The ELC proposed the promotion of an internationalized curriculum, research, and practice,
enriched by training in cultural competency (Nelson, 2008). Since 2001, the collaborative efforts of
the Carnegie Foundation, the American Council on Education, and the APA’s related governance
groups has resulted in guidelines and resolutions for the internationalization of psychology
(Nelson, 2008).
The ELC, the Carnegie Foundation, the American Council on Education, and the APA agreed
that internationalization of higher education would be seen as a process of interweaving
intercultural and international concepts into content, application, and delivery of psychological
services. Additionally, global learning outcomes would focus on understanding, analysis, and
application of knowledge and skills to enhance cultural competency, which supported Bok’s (2006)
suggestion that faculty must supplement content-specific knowledge of cultures with a mechanism
for self-exploration that will allow students to increase their capacity for tolerance and sensitivity.
Bok (2006) also suggested that an approach that does not offer students the necessary skills to
develop these competencies leaves them limited in their ability to make necessary future cross-
cultural adjustments. Likewise, Nussbaum (1997) asserted the importance of preparing students for
self-examination with regard to their own values and traditions, and of the development of cultural
empathy and a sense of human inter-connectivity. These viewpoints suggest that the Culture
Bump Approach is a viable means by which psychology education could effectively achieve its
goals related to helping psychology students become more culturally aware and sensitive. Because
the Culture Bump Approach addresses the acquisition of culture-specific knowledge and the impact
of that information on intercultural relationships, it offers a means by which to understand human
reaction to cultural differences and strategies to negotiate individual responses. Culture bump is an
effective inter-disciplinary approach and is uniquely positioned to impact the globalization of
psychology education.
Undergraduates engage in psychology not only as a discipline, but as part of their liberal arts
education. Unfortunately, internationalization generally has not been systemically woven into the
curriculum or textbooks (Nelson, 2008). Culture bump could be presented as part of the
curriculum utilizing the Toolkit for Culture and Communication as a supplement to any general
psychology text. With the Toolkit’s online availability (www.culturebump.com), both teachers and
students can access myriad resources that directly support the APA’s guidelines to improving
students’ sociocultural and international awareness in undergraduate psychology courses.
Likewise, graduate education and research is strengthened when students have greater
exposure to scholarship with an international foundation. According to Nelson (2008),
understanding the foundation and epistemology of different cultures broadens graduate students’
basis for research and their ability to produce internationally recognized scholarship. Graduate
by guest on September 8, 2016plj.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Role of Culture Bump
342
students preparing for careers in industrial/organizational psychology in particular need cross-
cultural knowledge and skills to prepare them for careers with multinational corporations. The
American Association of Colleges and Universities conducted a series of focus groups with business
leaders in 2006 and found that only 18% of those leaders believed that college and university
graduates are well versed in global knowledge, with 72% of those leaders desiring colleges to put
greater emphasis on global learning (Hovland, 2009). Culture bump has been taught and used
extensively in the business arena for over three decades. Thus, it would seem that culture bump
skills taught to corporate professionals and business students would likely be transferable to
industrial/organizational psychology programs.
The most far-reaching implications for the internationalization of psychology may be the
ability of psychology as an academic discipline and a profession to expand the cultural boundaries
that will truly make it global. Psychology, as taught and practiced in North America and Europe, is
frequently viewed as eurocentrically biased by minority cultures and non-western international
cultures. The Culture Bump Approach offers a means by which psychology education and
practicing psychologists can challenge their cultural assumptions while understanding the cultural
assumptions of Others using a structured approach that leads to a deeper cross-cultural
understanding. The use of culture bump in psychology to respond to global issues, based on a
broadening of assumptions, supports Marsella’s contention that a new psychology could develop
that is ‘multicultural, multisectoral, multinational and multidisciplinary’ (as quoted by Nelson,
2008, p. 16). Culture bump uniquely offers both theory and application, allowing for access and
action as prescribed by those dedicated to the global recognition and expansion of psychology.
Culture bump training is an overt attempt to seek human commonalities while exploring
cultural differences using a structured, non-threatening, and validating approach which advances
people through Bennett’s (1986) developmental stages of intercultural sensitivity. Thus, culture
bump can serve as a practical, accessible tool of application for educators striving to achieve the
internationalization of psychology education and the goals of globalizing psychology as both a
discipline and a profession.
References
Abdallah-Pretceille, M. (2006) Interculturalism as a paradigm for thinking about diversity. Intercultural
Education, 17, 475-483. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080%2F14675980601065764
Archer, C. M. (1991). Living with strangers in the USA: Communicating beyond culture. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall.
Archer, C. M. (2001). Training for effective cross cultural communication. Retrieved from
http://culturebump.com /Related-Materials.html eHow
Archer, C. M. (2004). Toolkit for culture and communication. Houston, TX: Department of Intellectual Property,
University of Houston.
Archer, C. M., & Nickson, S.C. (2012). Culture bump: An instructional process for cultural insight. In J. E.,
Groccia , M. A. T. Alsudairi, & W. Buskist (Eds.), Handbook of college and university teaching: Global
perspectives (pp. 406-423). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Bennett, M. J. (1986) A developmental approach to training for intercultural sensitivity. International Journal of
Intercultural Relations, 10, 17-95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2F0147-1767%2886%2990005-2
Bok, D. (2006). Our underachieving colleges. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Davis, J. C. (2009). An empirical exploration into the intercultural sensitivity of foreign student advisors in the United
States: The status of the profession. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Boston, MA: Boston College.
Elrod, S. (2011). Global learning and scientific literacy at the crossroads. Diversity & Democracy, 14, 1-4.
Gundykunst, W. B. Ting-Toomey, S., & Wiseman, R. L. (1991). Taming the beast: Designing a course in
intercultural communication. Managing Multicultural Communication Education, 40, 272-285.
Hovland, K. (2009). Global learning: What is it? Who is responsible for it? Peer Review, 11(4), 4-7.
Nelson, P. D. (2008). 2008 Education Leadership Conference: Internationalizing psychology education.
Educator, 7, 1-19.
Nussbaum, M. (1997). Cultivating humanity: A classical defense of reform in liberal education. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
Palmer, P., & Zajonc, A. (2010). The heart of higher education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
by guest on September 8, 2016plj.sagepub.comDownloaded from
Carol M. Archer & Stacey C. Nickson
343
CAROL M. ARCHER is an ESL specialist and cross-cultural communication trainer and developer.
STACEY NICKSON* is the Assistant Director of the Biggio Center for the Enhancement of
Teaching and Learning at Auburn University, where she directs the Cultural Insight Program.
Correspondence: scn0004@auburn.edu
*Contact author
Manuscript received 20 November 2011
Revision accepted for publication 5 April 2012
by guest on September 8, 2016plj.sagepub.comDownloaded from
