Mission (lat. missio) stands for sending members of a religious group or organization to spread their faith. This article provides the reader with a short overview about the current state of art in cultural psychological research.
Continue ReadingNew Article Published: Research on Religious Missions in Cultural Psychology
Games are not only an integral part of our everyday routine from the early days of our life, but they are also regarded as an effective teaching method in (higher) education. Previous research has shown that business or simulation games in the classroom support problem-based learning.
Continue ReadingPlaying Culture in Intercultural Trainings and the Role of Simulation Games
exc-5a23fbb6343a9bd737479e09 Die Berufsakademie (BA) Sachsen mit ihren 7 Standorten fokussiert als akademische Einrichtung des tertiären Bildungssektors seit nunmehr 20 Jahren eine enge Verzahnung von wissenschaftlicher und praxisintegrierter Ausbildung. Vor dem…
exc-5a23fbb6343a9bd737479e06 Religiously motivated missions are part of a long historical tradition in various world religions. Missions are usually regarded as undertakings to prop agate, spread and communicate religious beliefs, values…
As part of the boundary-crossing transformations in the education sector forced by the Bologna Reform and increased needs for (re-) accreditation intercultural communication and competence has become an acute issue for the development of study programmes at the University of Cooperative Education in Saxony (Berufsakademie Sachsen). Within the tertiary education sector this academic institution awards Bachelor of Arts degrees, mainly in the field of economics, engineering and social work and with high relevance for professional practice (so-called dual training). An “Additional Qualification of Intercultural Competence” will from now on contribute to the improvement of quality in teaching and learning along with an implementation of a transferable study module at all campuses of the university. After successful evaluation at the campus Breitenbrunn the mentioned qualification will eventually be implemented at six campuses of the University of Cooperative Education. Intercultural competence is an integral learning item and objective in the curriculum. After successful completion of the programme students are enabled to understand, reflect and analyse intercultural encounters and cultural differences in perception, thinking, feeling, judgement, action, etc. with regard to their own and other cultures. The module imparts to students not only profound knowledge of other cultures, countries and living and working conditions, but also provides training for various occupational situations, especially such of uncertainty, stress or conflict. Last but no least, students are enabled to apply cultural knowledge to complex issues in professional practice and to link such knowledge with other academic fields and disciplines.
Although it is evident that religiously motivated missions are part of a long historical tradition in various ‘world religions’ (e.g. Smith, 1991) in the course of which experiences of ‘cultural…
Continue ReadingAcculturation of Missionaries – How Religious Orientations Affect Cultural Adjustment?
According to the “Status of Global Mission” (Bonk, 2011, p.29), widely considered as serious statistics of missionary population, in the year 2011 approximately 4,800 mission societies (“foreign-mission sending agencies”; line…
Continue ReadingReligious Self-Transformation and Faith Development of Protestant Missionaries
In a series of publication projects I focus on the question of how optimization and standardization of ‘others’ and foreigners takes place (or is supposed to take place) in the context of missionary strategies of religious persuasion. Missionary goals are inseparably connected to the Christian imagination of ‘the renewed man’. This concept of man can be characterized best by a range of elements – like e.g. improvisation by cultural adjustment, self-abandonment, willingness to make sacrifices under the banner of selfless service to the neighbor, directive or non-directive persuasive communication, self-alteration of the ‘others’ by assertion of one’s own ‘self’ – that are required to accomplish one’s own aspirations to change and optimize the others.The described strategies of persuasion and change are findings of an empirical study about the intercultural practice of Protestant missionaries. Missionary action represents a mode of purpose and goal-oriented, intentional and strategic action aiming at the ‘improvement’ and ‘perfection’ of others. Finally, the findings and reflections should lead to a ‘prototypical’ abstraction, so that a special type of action can be conceived which aims at optimization and standardization of the humane. Publications:
Dr. Maik Arnold is Professor for Non-Profit-Management and Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Transfer at University of Applied Science Dresden.