Synchrony: An Embodied Approach to Diversity

Frijns, T. (Tom)¹, Van der Weiden, A. (Anouk)^1
1Department of Social, Health and Organisational Psychology | Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, Utrecht

 

Submission type

Oral and Poster

Scheduled

Jacobzaal, 26-09-2019, 09:00 - 10:30

Keywords

synchrony, embodiment, diversity, international classroom, intercultural communication, cooperation, coordination

Summary

Both the international classroom and subsequent professional environments are prime examples of the increasingly diverse but cooperative settings of our globalizing world in which our students find themselves. In order to successfully wield the “double-edged sword” of diversity - reaping its many potential benefits while avoiding its equally manifold pitfalls - 21st Century skills of intercultural communication, cooperation and coordination are essential. In this workshop, we will present a training that we have developed using a novel, evidence-informed strategy that adopts an embodied approach to fostering intercultural competence among students. Specifically, we employ nonverbal synchrony – the interactional state of coordinated nonverbal behaviors between communicants - as a means of establishing an inclusive and cooperative classroom climate and enlarging students’ 21st Century skillset and overall learning output in our international master Social, Health and Organisational Psychology at Utrecht University. We will explain the ideas behind the training, but also have participants take part in some of its exercises. These consist of embodied practices derived from psychomotor therapy, somatics and the Japanese martial art of aikido. By harnessing synchrony, we focus on what connects and binds us, not what separates us.

Auteurs