Stimulating Cultural Appetites: an Experiential Gourmet Approach

Abstract

This article is an extension of a presentation that won “Best Exercise” at the Eastern Academy of Management, 1998. The authors introduce an experiential gourmet approach using food stories to stimulate an aura of acceptance and appreciation for human commonalities before delving into human differences. The authors use a semester long active-learning approach. An underlying premise of active learning is that intrinsically motivated students have fun learning and learn more by taking ownership of the learning process. The use of food is an approach to a variety of concerns dating back to the beginning of time—but it still works.

Beyond diversity training: A social infusion for cultural inclusion

“…If you do not like it, please set it aside; I will be around to collect the leftovers." (For an elaboration on these and other stories, see Chavez & Poirier, 2007. )…”

“…In active learning environments, the brain continuously constructs meanings from the situations in which knowledge is learned and used (Gazzaniga, 1995). This occurs because learners are more likely to focus attention on something they are doing, as the process of doing requires the involvement of all our senses and the coordination of movement with thought (Chavez & Poirier, 2007).…”

“…In the following sections, we share our classroom experience followed by a discussion on replicating the process in the workforce, suggestions for evaluating such an approach, and a discussion explicating our final thoughts. For detailed instructor plans, see Chavez and Poirier (2007).…”

Mood, emotion, and affect in group performance: an experiential exercise

“…Similarly, because experiential exercises force students to be active, they are more likely to involve ''the whole'' of the student to include their values, attitudes, and emotions, which is necessary for the internalization process. Finally, the very act of ''doing'' requires all senses to be concentrated on the activity, to include the synchronization between movement and thought (Ball, 1999;Chávez and Poirier, 2007).…”

Food and Culture: A Pedagogical Approach to Contextualizing Food‐Based Activities in Multicultural Counseling Courses

“…In a sociology course, Lopez-Rivera (2006) suggested the use of a culturally contextualized experience with food at the beginning of the course to introduce students to the presence of cultural differences via food prior to an examination of more difficult issues related to race and culture. Finally, in human resource management classes, Chavez and Poirier (2007) reported the use of a semester-long experiential approach for cultural explo-ration through the use of food preparation and its related cultural stories as a context to develop "cultural intelligence" (p. 506). The authors indicated that the class was able to discuss heretofore emotionally charged subjects such as race, religion, social class, and politics, in a calm and appreciative environment .…”