Tyler Bates

Tiger Pride
IDI Pre-Tiger Pride Reflection
When I see the words intercultural communications I automatically think it means the
interactions between multiple cultures and how we communicate to one another with the culture
we were raised in. I am aware that even though many of students in the school systems may
speak English and to some people, they find that it is difficult to instruct of relate to the students
in todays school system. Teachers usually relate this to students not really responding well but I
actually believe that culture plays a big role in the way we communicate to one another. While
taking this Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) test, they were able to gather information
that told me of my perceived orientation about culture, developmental orientation which is where
I actually am on a point scale culturally, orientation gap which is the difference between my
perceived orientation and developmental orientation, trailing orientation which happens to be at
minimization, defense trailing orientation where one defends their culture over another, reversal
trailing orientation which is the opposite, and cultural disengagement.
The significant results from my IDI test show that I have over perceived my
developmental orientation. I am actually considered in the minimization stage of orientation
rather than in the acceptance stage when speaking of cultural recognition and differences. In the
acceptance stage, a person would be able to recognize certain differences as well as be
comfortable in different cultural atmospheres and would not be bothered in such an atmosphere.
The other two really important results that I found were my defense trailing orientation and my
reversal trailing orientation. A defense orientation is made from when specific topics or
situations arise and view cultural differences in separating by us and them. I am considered
unresolved at this point because I am at 3.67 and a 4.001 would make it to where I am resolved.
In the same way with reversal trailing orientation I am even lower on the scale with a 3.11
meaning that I actually in which I may be overly critical about my own culture instead of other
cultures. The current level of my intercultural communication and awareness also plays into the
way I look at different situations. I may feel uncomfortable with certain cultures which will
make me less inclined to learn about that said culture or even want to communicate with them
because I feel so uncomfortable. This also means that I may be culturally unaware in my
surroundings and use different ways to try to communicate such as using similarities instead of
ways people of different cultures normally speak with one another. I feel that I now have a long
ways to go when looking at my developmental orientation and need to put myself out there into
different situations where I can learn more about different cultures as well as interact with them.
I do believe that intercultural communication is very important when teaching because it
helps both the teachers and students know which way can best support the conversation in
communicating with one another. In my own experience, I have always lived in neighborhoods
where we were culturally different and the place that I work always has multiple cultures that so
it has been very challenging in some ways. I first learned when working with my friend Tim that
he does not always share how he is feeling in the work place and there had been times earlier on
in our relationship where he would be upset and I would wonder why he didnt let me know what
was going on. I later learned that not all people like myself likes to let others know what they are
thinking or feeling and like to keep more to themselves rather than to talk about it. It was very
frustrating at times because I felt that I had no way of knowing how to communicate with him
until later on I asked him how he would like to converse with me. Since then it has been a better
work atmosphere and we have enjoyed working with one another. This will also help improve
learning in the classroom when all students can be reached via communication when giving a
lesson.
When talking to Serjio he asked me what I thought my perceived orientation was based
on the scale that was shown. I thought I was in acceptance and when he showed me that I was in
acceptance I was pretty happy about that, meaning that I was more involved in other cultures by
recognizing and appreciating their differences. But in actuality I was in minimization in which
means that I like to see commonalities among cultures and I try to use those to communicate
with people from other cultures instead of finding out the way they would like to be interacted
with. Minimization also uses prior experiences to relate to a current situation even though it may
be an entirely different situation. It was interesting to see that the gap between my PO and my
DO was a 33.33 point difference. This means that my perception was in fact higher than what
my developmental orientation actually was. I think that I had over perceived my actual
orientation because I have grown up around many different cultures while living in Stockton and
I am aware that me compared to many others are different culturally. Therefore, I thought I had
a better understanding of the cultures around me and yet I apparently do not have the same
developmental orientation as though I had perceived. I was a bit surprised to see that my results
were farther off than I thought they were, I was a little shocked as well and also sad that I was
not where I thought I had been. Serjio helped make sense of all the results and I felt better about
it as I left the meeting. He had let me known that even though I was in minimization; I was
working my way to my perceived orientation which is acceptance, and that I need to practice
being more aware of the cultures I interact with and respond to.
I feel that my strengths in the context of intercultural communications even though being
in minimization is that I can recognize differences in cultures and can compare them with my
own. Another strength that I have is being able to have my defense trail orientation almost
resolved, which indicates that I am becoming less critical of other cultures but I still need more
work on being less critical of my own culture. Some weaknesses that I have based on the IDI
test are that I still need to work on keeping away from commonalities between cultures and
actually try and get to know the differences in other cultures and be comfortable being in such
situations where I need to interact with other cultures. Something else that I feel that needs
improvement would be the way I look towards my own culture. I feel that they can actually do
more harm than good in many situations which means that I personally have to work harder to
get away from those stereotypes. I do think that Tiger Pride will help me develop these skills
because I will be working with students of all different cultures and I will need to learn how to
communicate with all of them to make a better learning atmosphere. I would love to improve on
my developmental orientation, my defense trailing orientation, and my reversal training
orientation. Working on these will help me better understand different cultures and how that can
affect me as a teacher.