The Importance Of Connecting Cultures

Entering into an environment in which the culture is different from one’s own provides a range of variables and outcomes to study. Interacting with people who are from different cultures provides a unique experience of evaluating differences, similarities and comparisons. This process happening within an adventurous atmosphere provides a unique scope in which to look at intercultural relationships and other variables within an intentional environment. Connecting Cultures is a program run through Outward Bound Oman, which is the first Arab based Outward Bound School. The foundation of this program is as follows:

Based in the Sultanate of Oman, Connecting Cultures works in close partnership with the Oman National Commission for Education, Culture and Science. The program is formally endorsed by UNESCO, and supported by the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Centre, and the MBI Al Jaber Foundation. Connecting Cultures is Oman’s gift to UNESCO and the UNAOC (Universityofthedesert.com, 2004).

The aims of Connecting Cultures is “bringing young people together from the Western and Muslim worlds together to engage in extended, focused, intercultural debate” (Evans, 2012, p. 36). Connecting Cultures provides a specific environment for young people to ask questions, express views or opinions openly, and be exposed to a variety of cultures. Outcomes from the five-day Connecting Cultures expedition include increased cultural interactions, awareness, intercultural interchanges and as well as intercultural competence (Evans, 2012). The course takes place within the landscape of the desert, and provides an environment away a person’s everyday life and a unique place in which to begin an intensive intercultural dialogue. How a person interacts with other c...

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...nt considerations in linking course learning’s to post-course behaviors, as the purposes of the trip are to challenge relationships of self to self and self to other views. Questions relevant to these conversations revolve around how the process of adjustment back into the home environment changes with newfound information or understanding about other cultures.

A New Model Introduced: Reentry as a Transitional Coil

Important to the conversation are considerations of whether the traditional models of the U-and W curves provide a relevant interpretation of the cultural process within a short-term experience such as five-days to one-month long experiences. A new model proposed by Alexeichik & Allison (?) could provide an alternative way to view the transformational process including the post-experience reentry process. A coil or spring represents aspects of the U-and