Academic Culture: Intercultural learning and teaching
This workshop explores academic culture as a historically shaped and structurally embedded system within higher education. The session focuses on the role of tutors in making academic practices transparent and enabling access within a structurally selective system.
- https://www.uni-giessen.de/de/fbz/zentren/hd/zertifikate/tutorenqualifikation/tuquculture
- Academic Culture: Intercultural learning and teaching
- 2026-06-24T12:00:00+02:00
- 2026-06-24T14:00:00+02:00
- This workshop explores academic culture as a historically shaped and structurally embedded system within higher education. The session focuses on the role of tutors in making academic practices transparent and enabling access within a structurally selective system.
24.06.2026 von 12:00 bis 14:00 (Europe/Berlin / UTC200)
Course Contents
This workshop introduces the concept of academic culture as a historically shaped and structurally embedded system of orientation. Drawing on the historical development of European universities, participants compare different academic models, particularly the German, French, British, and US systems. The session highlights how contemporary academic norms are not neutral, but shaped by historical power relations and global hierarchies.
In a second step, academic culture is analysed as a multidimensional framework including everyday culture, academic habitus, knowledge cultures, disciplinary cultures, organisational structures, and teaching and learning practices. Participants explore how implicit expectations operate within higher education and how these can create barriers, especially for international students and students from non-academic backgrounds.
Through discussion and case-based reflection, the workshop connects structural analysis to practical tutoring strategies. The role of tutors as translators of academic culture is critically examined and translated into concrete action.
Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
- describe academic culture as a historically developed and multidimensional system
- compare key features of German, French, British, and US higher education models
- identify implicit academic expectations in typical tutorial situations
- analyse how structural selectivity affects different student groups
- reflect on their role as tutors in making academic practices transparent and accessible
- formulate strategies to support access without reproducing deficit perspectives