Browsing by Author "Oluoch, Everlyn A."

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    Institutional culture in a multicultural community of practice: A case study of a Kenyan University College.
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Oluoch, Everlyn A.; Huddlestone, Kate; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to explore institutional culture in a multicultural and linguistically diverse university college in Nairobi County, Kenya. It examined intercultural communication and the ability of a shared Community of Practice (CofP) to overcome intercultural barriers and contribute to intercultural understanding, rather than misunderstanding. The study adopted a qualitative paradigm through the collective case study design. The study was guided by four research questions: how institutional culture is constructed in official policy documents in a Kenyan university college; how students in a Kenyan university college perceive the institution’s efforts to make them aware of each other’s culture; how staff members in a Kenyan university college perceive the institution’s efforts to make them aware of each other’s culture; and how students at a culturally and linguistically diverse institution in a Kenyan university college view themselves and others in relation to the institutional culture and official language practices. The study focused on first to fourth year students who were enrolled in the institution in the Department of Education, and teaching and non-teaching staff. The researcher used homogeneous and purposeful random sampling techniques to select the students. For the teaching and non-teaching staff, the researcher employed a purposive sampling technique. The total number of participants for this collective case study was 34. The instruments that the researcher used to collect data for this study were a focus group discussion schedule for students, an interview schedule for teaching and non-teaching staff and a document analysis guide. The researcher transcribed the interviews, manually coded the data, categorised the data, derived themes from the categories, interrelated themes and interpreted the meaning of themes. In spite of creating understanding among members of the established CofP, the study established that the core values of the university college are sometimes a source of conflict between members of the institution. Linguistic variety excludes some members of the institution in the CofP and misinterpretation also occurs in contexts where ambiguous words that denote different meanings in varied languages are used. The study recommended that the administration and staff should continue to create awareness of and sensitise students to the core values. Students should practise intercultural fluency to promote inclusiveness and cohesion in diversity and members of the community should at all times use a common language.