CIICPD 2023

and to resist interpreting the setting at hand through their own cultural lens and preconceived ideas. It also encourages the attitudes of curiosity and openness that are key ingredients of the model of intercultural competence (Bryam et al., 2001). In the third step, the one of verification, students are asked to validate the likelihood of their possible interpretations. This may occur through “specific investigation, asking people in the host country, and examining whether our interpretation is part of a broader pattern” (Downey et al., 2012, p. 9). The final step is the one of explanation, which is not about assigning a precise answer to a stand-alone incident. Rather, it is about connecting experiences, ideas and other practices to come to a new understanding of the situation at hand. Gaisch (2019) elaborated on the DIVE Strategy and used it as a teaching strategy that allows its users to make more informed decisions about the world and its interrelated connections. For her, the last letter in DIVE – the E is not so much about explanation as about evaluation of one’s own previously held beliefs. The rationale behind her approach lies in the fact that the unconscious brain is habit-driven and can process a huge amount of information very quickly due to its ability to recognise patterns and use them to assign people, objects and situations to specific categories. It is therefore hardly surprising that the underlying assumptions are often misleading since they are based on experiences that were gained through our own cultural backgrounds, media coverage and other channels. This distorted perspective results in unconscious bias or implicit prejudice, which uses shortcuts, based on our personal stories, socialisations and cultural norms to make snap decisions about our immediate or distant surroundings. Undoubtedly, each person has some biases, which is to say filters, through which the world is perceived. Bias can be about race, gender, class, education and/or disability, simply about everything that diverges from internalised social norms. In addition, we have a natural tendency to jump to conclusions when we do not fully understand a situation. First, we observe something, then we filter this experience and add meaning to it based on our own cultural beliefs, norms and previous experiences. After that, we make assumptions to fill in any gaps and draw conclusions. Finally, we act based on these conclusions and beliefs. In other words, unconscious bias does not use analysis but rather instinct, which allows us in milliseconds to judge and categorise people and situations and connect them to our learned ideas and value systems. Therefore, it is vital to identify and evaluate one’s own snap decisions, which is why Gaisch (2019) prefers evaluation to explanation. In the following, an example is given how cultural and diversity educators can use the DIVE Strategy in class and combine it with elements of the HEAD Wheel to allow for a more complex reflection on the task. To illustrate this, a picture of people wearing traditional garments with tall pointy hats and white matching robes with their faces completely covered is shown during the lesson. For this reason, a YouTube video (FH OÖ – Unconscious Bias) was conceived that not only explains phenomena such as the unconscious bias, the ladder of inference or the infinity bias, it provides some guidelines as to how the DIVE Strategy can be applied and in which way it may have fruitful results.

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