Encouraging Intercultural Communication Using an Action Research Approach

South Africa is 15 years into democracy, but difficult dialogues about race, ethnicity, and other cultural differences are hindered when students are developmentally unprepared to handle them. Although institutions of learning have been painfully aware of the racial, cultural and ethnic divides on their campuses, no real strategies or policies have been put into place to ensure integration. This study started with problems that my colleagues in the Faculty of Science at a university in South Africa were experiencing with the lack of interaction and communication among the first year students in their large and diverse classrooms. They were also concerned that their students did not know how to deal with diversity and they wanted to graduate students who would be successful in their professional careers in a multicultural environment. This study found that using an action research approach was particularly successful in teaching Communication and in encouraging intercultural communication as lessons learned could be built upon or learned from in order to plan the next phase of intervention. The continual interactions during the various phases typical of the action research approach used, enabled the unearthing of feelings, problems and issues which would otherwise not have surfaced in the normal classroom where students are merely lectured. By transforming method and methodology, students and educators were exposed to new and different ways of being. This paper therefore reports on how a course in Communication was developed to facilitate communication and interaction between the different cultures and race groups in a Science classroom using an action research approach.