Thoughtful Connections in a Globalized World

Connecting with and learning about peers from other places, cultures, and backgrounds can be an exciting and enriching experience for many young learners. Students need guidance on the appropriate sensitivity and thoughtfulness that is needed for intercultural dialogue, though, to avoid misunderstandings. A tool developed by researchers at HGSE’s Project Zero (PZ) helps young people avoid missteps “such as making assumptions, stereotyping, or viewing one’s own culture or perspective as the norm.”

The tool, named the Three O’s, includes helpful tips for students aged 10 and up shaped by conversations with PZ researchers and learners who have participated in The Open Canopy intercultural exchange program. For more than a decade the initiative, formerly known as Out of Eden Learn, has grouped students from across the world, with different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, for shared learning experiences through its online platform.

A recently published manual, The Open Canopy Handbook — written by current Project Zero co-director Liz Dawes Duraisingh and former director Shari Tishman — includes the Three O’s tool and many other resources for educators. Dawes Duraisingh describes the Three O’s tool as helping students interpret what happens “either in the world around them or specifically to them,” both in-person and online. One example, shares Dawes Duraisingh, involves an African American student who told the researchers that people sometimes ask him if he celebrates Kwanzaa, when in fact his family doesn't. In this situation, he thought that people made “generalizations based on his appearance,” she explains. In another example, the Three O’s tool helped a student to realize that in a geography assignment she had made sweeping generalizations about miners in Indonesia and had overlooked the complexity of their varied stories. Meanwhile, many students talked about the prevalence of the Three O’s on their social media feeds.

How to Avoid the Three O’s

The PZ researchers advise learners to:

• Take an inquiry mindset and ask lots of questions. For example, a student might say to another learner from a different country: “I appreciated learning about your experience. Do many people in your community do the same thing?”
• Be cautious and thoughtful about the words they use and avoid making broad and sweeping statements.
• Think deeply about other people’s perspectives and what might be shaping their opinions and ideas and to be generous when considering or attempting to interpret their intentions.
• Refrain from what Dawes Duraisingh describes as becoming the “Three O’s Police.” If students become “too extreme” in trying to avoid the Three O's they will “never be able to say anything,” she says. Instead, the framework advises students to, “keep calm and be generous in [their] interactions, even if [they] think someone is engaging in the Three O’s.”
• Practice humility. The world is a complex place — acknowledge your own limitations and that you still have lots more to learn.

How to Get the Most Out of the Three O’s Tool

The handbook also features a series of questions that students can ask themselves as part of the learning process:

• How might people from the communities or places I am referring to feel about what I am saying? How would I feel if someone said this about me?
• Am I speaking on behalf of other people?
• In what ways can I connect while acknowledging differences?
• What other perspectives could I account for?
• What information or assumptions am I relying on? Where did they come from? Are they credible and reliable? How do I know?