Teaching Culture as a Dynamic Concept: What Pioneer Teachers Perceive Constitutes Culture Teaching in Foreign Language Education

Teaching culture in Foreign Language (FL) education has evolved from a domain focusing on the reproduction of cultural facts to a domain in which culture is seen as a dynamic concept. Persistent challenges remain concerning the implementation of Teaching Culture as a Dynamic Concept (TCDC). Teachers’ ideas concerning FL culture teaching are considered to be varied and researchers indicate culture teaching practices are not aligned with scholarship on FL culture teaching. This study aimed to gain more insight into the perceptions and practices of teachers who pioneer in TCDC. For this study we interviewed 13 FL teachers in secondary education who pioneer in TCDC. Transcripts from the interviews were thematically analyzed. This analysis resulted in three findings: (a) teachers both used a Personal Approach, focusing on individual people, and a Social-Cultural Approach, focusing on cultural groups; (b) within both approaches the themes of Self, Other, In- and Exclusion, and Change occurred; and (c) these four themes were enacted differently within the two approaches, resulting in eight areas which we consider to constitute TCDC. Results additionally indicated that teachers created multifaceted classroom practices in which they used a combination of those areas. These findings have practical and theoretical implications. The findings can help with the reported disconnect between FL culture teaching scholarship and what happens in practice, and it adds a practitioner’s perspective to the discourse on teaching the cultural domain in FL education. The findings can provide teachers with didactical guidance for implementing TCDC into practice.