Streets in the Sky: The Balconies of Lima and the Road to Intercultural Competence

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective Volume 7 Number 2 Pervuvian Trajectories of Sociocultural Transformation Article 11 December 2013 Streets in the Sky: The Balconies of Lima and the Road to Intercultural Competence Sabine H. Smith Kennesaw State University, Miriam Bley Kennesaw State University, Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/jgi Part of the International and Area Studies Commons, and the International and Comparative Education Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Smith, Sabine H. and Bley, Miriam (2013) "Streets in the Sky: The Balconies of Lima and the Road to Intercultural Competence," Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective: Vol. 7 : No. 2 , Article 11. Available at: https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/jgi/vol7/iss2/11 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University. For more information, please contact . Sabine Smith and Miriam Bl•• Volume 7, Journal of Global Initiath umber 2, 2012, pp.J43- J Streets in the Sky: The Balconies of Lima and the Road to Intercultural Competence Sabine Smith and Miriam Bley The KSU country-study program ("Year of Peru") forms the backdrop to this descriptive case study. German and Spanish faculty explored the research question: "How does intercultural inquiry anchored in discipline-based methodology hel p advance intercultural competence in undergraduate learners?" According to national standards, students attain learning outcomes, for example, by examining cultural "products" (e.g. balconies), in connection with cultural practices and perspectives (ACTFL, 2006). In studying "products" of different countries (e.g. Peruvian and German balconies) and by engaging in level-appropriate intercultural inquiry, learners develop knowledge, ski lls, and dispositions- key components in advancing intercultural competence. Introduction We had been following the university 's "Year of... " celebrations for years. The annual country study program with lectures, performances, film screenings, and culinary events held the allure of virtual travel and vicarious experiences- all to be enjoyed from the armchairs and student desks of the institution's lecture halls. As professors of German Studies (Sabine Smith) and Spanish (Miriam Bley) in the Department of Foreign Languages, we lacked an obvious disciplinary link with most of the countrie1 studied in the annual series. However, a culture-general survey course in which undergraduate learners explore the world 's major languages and cultures allowed us to form some tenuous connections, and the students enjoyed the annual country study program as a source of co-curricular enrichment and experiential learning (see sample assignments in Appendix). When the 2012 Year of Peru (YoP) program was announced, we were determined to deepen our commitment and applied to both participate in the YoP Faculty Learning Community and to develop YoP learning modules for our classes. Having visited Latin America as tourists, we were fascinated by Peruvian culture and history, and chomping at the bit to learn more. We decided to utilize our disciplinary tools, forging connections that may possibly serve colleagues in other disciplines and be of benefit to our undergraduate learners. In what follows , we present a descriptive case study that does not lay claim to broadly generalizable findings . It introduces, however, general principles and replicable strategies, offering a template that may be of use to any academic reader interested in bridging the proverbial disciplinary silos while advancing students' intercultural competence. We draw on core pedagogical principles of our discipline, mediated in the United States as "National Standards for Foreign Language Learni ng" (2006), and we 144 Journal of Global Initiatives rely on the growing body of scholarship advocating the development of intercultural competence as an academic and civic goal. We argue that in studying Peruvian culture through distincti ve material products that entail people's cultural practices and, on a deeper level, allow insights into cultural values or perspectives, a Ieamer does not only expand culture-specific knowledge and understanding of Peru, but develops skills and attitudes for cross-cultural comparisons and intercultural competence. We offer, by way of description and analysis, the qualitative data in this limited case study as a springboard for further discussion and critical review. The discussion of theoretical underpinnings, methodology and pedagogical transfer, as well as salient outcomes of this project, intends to elucidate the extent to which the annual country study program benefits educators and students committed to learning about world cultures. We see this collaborative project as exploring a new path bridging seemingly unrelated content areas through discipline-based inquiry to produce solid academic work. We harken back to the title of this paper in hopes that the path we describe will also form a "street in the sky" for fellow academicians. Streets in the Sky: The Balconies of Lima Since its earliest expressions nearly 2,000 ago in ancient Greece (the Caryatid Porch of Erechtheion in Athens dating to 421-407 BCE), the balcony (or its variations, such as the loggia, the porch, or gallery) has accommodated diverse purposes and evolved in design and style. However ornate or practical, balconies form both a metonomy and metaphor for the cultures to which they belong. Evidently, balconies have varied in style not only throughout history, but also regionally in urban and rural settings, and as space, economic concerns, and cultural mandates have guided their production and utilization. Some balconies meet residential needs, others fulfill ceremonial purposes in public spaces. Always anchored in culture, the use of balconies is not only based on custom and tradition, fads and style, but also on laws (either explicit or implicit) that regulate the use of space. In comparing what the culture's conventions tell us about underlying values, we learn not only about the culture itself but become also aware of cultural differences. Friars Antonio de Ia Calancha and Juan Melendez, both contemporaries in Lima during the late 16th century, have been credited with the metaphor for Lima's balconies as "streets in the sky" (Reyna, 2009, p. 2; Fernandez, 2005, pp. 905 , 911): "They are so many and too large that they seem to be streets on the air," (Reyna, 2009, p. 2) said Calancha reportedly of the city that once was known not only as the "City of Kings" but also "the city of the balconies" (Fernandez, 2005, p. 920). To be sure, the balconies of Lima form world-fam (...truncated)