Reaching Across Cultures in Italy

March 26, 2015

There is no better way to experience a culture than to be immersed in it -- just ask DePauw University junior Clare Polega, who’s studying human development as it relates to interactions across cultures in Italy this semester. Polega is taking the “Human Development in Culture” class at the Umbra Institute, a study abroad program in Perugia, Italy. The course includes a service-learning project focused on engagement with two different Italian schools.

Led by Professor Christian Tarchi, Human Development in Culture combines theory and practice with a hands-on project that places students in the heart of Perugia’s community.  Through visits to two separate Italian schools, Umbra students acted as both observers and participants in the classroom.

First, the class visited a Montessori elementary school in Perugia to observe student and teacher interactions, classroom organization, and teaching styles. These observations will be used in an ethnographic research project on the implicit school curriculum. The second school visit allowed students to actively participate in the life of an Italian classroom. Polega and her classmates led English language activities with the Italian students to research the interactions within the space.

“Today I learned that kids are pretty similar across cultures, I guess a kid is a kid no matter where you are. However, I also learned a lot about the Montessori system and how kids learn through tools and processes rather than memorized concepts,” Polega commented.

The principals of the two schools enthusiastically embrace collaboration with Umbra students because it gives local children the unique opportunity to practice English with native speakers rather than passively listening to the language through tapes and lectures.

In addition to this course, the Umbra Institute offers an Education Internship each spring that features weekly visits to Italian classrooms. In these courses, students gain intercultural communication skills, work with Italian teachers, and explore how their roles as interns connect them to the local community.

Along with bringing change to the community in Perugia, the students themselves have also been affected by what they have experienced in the course. “It was very interesting to take a field trip to the Italian Montessori primary school. It was fun interacting with the children and I was surprised at how well they spoke English! This experience and class in general helped me see how much culture can shape an individual.”

The Italian students were equally enthusiastic about meeting new American friends, demonstrating that a love of learning transcends cultural boundaries.

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