Developing training course focused on future seafarers sociocultural communication in multinational crew

Frolova O.O.

Keywords: training course, sociocultural communication, future seafarers, multinational crew.

Аннотация

В статье проанализированы имеющиеся курсы подготовки будущих морских специалистов к социокультурной коммуникации в мультинациональном экипаже: «Курс межкультурного общения на борту судна», «Управление этническим и социокультурным многообразием», «Социокультурные аспекты профессиональной подготовки будущего судоводителя». Обоснована необходимость применения предложенных курсов в учебном процессе высших морских учебных заведений.

У статті проаналізовано наявні курси з підготовки майбутніх морських фахівців до соціокультурної комунікації в мультинаціональному екіпажі - «Курс міжкультурного спілкування на борту судна», «Управління етнічним та соціокультурним різноманіттям», «Соціокультурні аспекти фахової підготовки майбутнього судноводія». Обґрунтовано потребу застосування запропонованих курсів у навчальному процесі вищих морських навчальних закладів.

Автором підкреслено той факт, що наразі спеціальних курсів та конкретних методичних розробок з означеної проблеми, які б відповідали умовам сьогодення, недостатньо. Це може бути зумовлено тим фактом, що Міжнародною морською організацією (IMO) досі не розроблено й не впроваджено типового модельного курсу з підготовки морських фахівців до професійної діяльності в умовах мультинаціонального професійного середовища.

Professional training of future seafarers in the system of higher maritime education of Ukraine shall meet the requirements of national (industry standard) and international documents (conventions, codes, resolutions), adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

Nowadays the shipping industry is characterized by its diversity (multilingual and multinational crews on board ships) due to the increasing internationalization and globalization processes. As the vessel is a social, cultural and working environment for crewmembers on board, the chances that they have to encounter the personnel of different nationalities and cultural backgrounds are very high. Future seafarers shall communicate both between ship and shore in ordinary and emergency situations, e. g. in narrow channels, in coastal and congested waters, in restricted visibility, in distress / urgency situations, during berthing, anchoring, pilotage etc. In all above mentioned situations the crew shall communicate adequately in order to guarantee the safety of navigation. Furthermore, the seafarers are involved in daily communication on an intra-ship level, i. e. a process by which data are conveyed in an attempt to create shared understanding between crewmembers during routine and emergency operation of the ship.

Thus, there is an urgent need in clear and accurate on-board communication for safety of the crew and the vessel and effective social and cultural interaction among the crewmembers. These issues are very important as many maritime accidents are caused by communication failures and misunderstandings. Unfortunately, real situation with communication in mixed crews is rather problematic and often results in unsuccessful attempts to understand each other.

In this regard, training of future seafarers for effective sociocultural communication on board is a key issue for maritime institutions. As the consequence, these institutions shall develop training courses and teaching materials to form seafarers' sociocultural skills necessary for both safety and communication within mixed crews. The aim of such training courses is to cultivate maritime officers and ratings who apply their professional knowledge and communicate with crewmembers originated from different social, cultural and linguistic backgrounds in common working environment.

The problems connected with cultural awareness, cultural misunderstandings, sociocultural communication, effective cooperation and unity amongst crewmembers, balanced and efficient working atmosphere on board the ship have been deeply studied and examined by native (M. Babyshena, N. Bobrysheva, S. Kozak, M. Kulakova, L. Lipshyts, O. Romenskiy, N. Slyusarenko, V. Smelikova, S. Sytnik) and foreign researchers (T. Andres, C. Chirea-Ungureanu, J. Gu, J. Horck, H. Iakovaki, F. Knudsen, A. Noble, M. Progoulaki, I. Salter, L. Stan, L. Sun, I. Theotokas).

Most of them are focused on intercultural communication within mixed crews and necessity to prepare future seafarers for a diverse working environment on board. The majority of research papers are directed to increase the trainees' cultural awareness of their own «home culture», the sociocultural materials provided by the authors usually are based on traditions, customs, behaviours, beliefs and values of the «home culture»: the Filipinos [1], the Chinese [4; 15], the Greek [6; 14; 16], the Romanians [2; 3], the Swedes [5], the Danes [13], the Nigerians [12].

But much of the focus must be on development of successive and systematic training courses and teaching materials which would assist future seafarers in the field of professional training to meet challenges of a modern diverse maritime industry. The improvement of training materials as guidelines for effective sociocultural communication in mixed crews must be done dynamically and continually. Taking into consideration that the mentioned problem has not been fully dissected, it is necessary to outline specific and logical instructions as for the development of teaching materials which would meet the requirements of the main official publications covering the problem of multinational maritime community organization and management such as the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) and the International Safety Management Code (ISM Code). The outline of the IMO model courses «Personal Safety and Social Responsibility» [7], «Leadership and Teamwork» [8], «Maritime English» [9], «Master and Chief Mate» [10], «Officer in Charge of Navigational Watch» [11] is also considered as guidelines for sociocultural training.

The purpose of the research is to conduct an analysis of available training courses focused on intercultural and sociocultural communication on board ship, to assess their effectiveness and potential success.

From the foregoing, it is important that maritime institutions play a proactive role and develop training courses which prepare future seafarers for a diverse working environment. Training focused on sociocultural communication cannot be just a simple addition to the regular curriculum of maritime institutions. There is need to develop the entire course, learning and teaching materials devoted to sociocultural training.

According to C. Chirea-Ungureanu the basic part of available training courses focused on intercultural and sociocultural communication of seafarers on board (usually named «Cultural Awareness» Courses) are developed to increase the trainees' awareness of their «home culture»; the optional part of such courses is often concentrated on assumptions, values, and behaviours of the «target culture». The topics chosen by the researchers usually present the following framework: Part 1: »Considering Parameters»; «Defining Culture»; «Human Needs»; «Cultural Expectations and Behaviours»; «Identity Symbols»; «Rituals»; «Methodology: The Students Teach the Teacher»; Part 2: «Understanding Target-Culture Behaviour»; «Nonverbal Communication»; «Basic Reality-Assumptions»; «Home-Culture Values - Proverbs»; «Cultural Heroes»; «Cognition as Culturally Determined»; «Stereotyping- Roadblocks to Understanding»; «Culture Shock and Adjustment»; «Critical Incidents»; and «Pedagogical Approach» etc. [3, p. 20-21]

As there is still no universally adopted training course focused on intercultural and sociocultural communication, this article will outline those which can serve for this purpose: «Diversity Management» (author - Jan Horck), «Intercultural Communication Course» (author - Carmen Chirea-Ungureanu), «Sociocultural Aspects of Future Navigator's Professional Training» (author - Olena Frolova).

The first course among the above mentioned training courses is «Diversity Management» [5]. Its developer, Jan Horck, holds a Doctorial degree in Pedagogy and has a long work experience at World Maritime University (Malm^ Sweden). The specific character of this course is that it is based on principles of andragogy, because the trainees studying at World Maritime University are grown-ups with seagoing service. And as it comes from the course name it is used in the training process of future maritime officers at the management level.

The author mentions that the word «diversity» does not denote only «culture» (usually an emphasis is put on this word). Diversity has much broader meaning and can include such issues (except culture): Age, Race, Beliefs (political, religious), Gender, Sexual orientation, Cognitive style, Language, Skills (specialization, expectance), Colour, Physical ability, Social class. The course is intended to prepare future seafarers for work in a diverse shipping industry focusing on the main aspects of the issues mentioned above [5, p. 167]. We'd like to stress that «diversity» unites both social and cultural phenomena.

Jan Horck mentions that «it is practically impossible to have all the world's cultures discussed in a course on diversity management» [5, p. 169]. We fully agree with his statement. Cultures and social groups are very rich in peculiarities and specific characteristics. It seems impossible to cover all massive data. Anyway, such course highlights the basic knowledge on sociocultural communication and interaction of seafarers on board.

The layout of this course is rather adaptable. At World Maritime University its duration is ten periods (90 minutes each). The course includes three sub-modules:

1) diversity management - the basic aspects on a diverse nature of modern shipping industry, the challenges of work in multinational, multilingual and multicultural crew, the role of female officers performing management duties onboard;

2) discussions - considerations about the change of attitudes, self-awareness, communication failures and victims of prejudice etc. Group and pair work, case studies and discussions play an important part in this course;

3) assessment - reasoning on how to evaluate if a trainee is culturally aware or not [5, p. 171].

This course does not provide keys to the whole range of sociocultural challenges which take place at sea and on shore, but its contents and methods can be used as a basis for further development perspectives.

The second course to be analyzed is «Intercultural Communication Course». It was developed by associate professor, PhD Carmen Chirea-Ungureanu [2]. This course was addressed to Romanian students-maritime officers and implemented at Constanta Maritime University.

The course consists of two major parts (duration - 14 hours each): Home culture and Target culture.

C. Chirea-Ungureanu mentions that the Part One of the course is aimed to increase the trainees' awareness that they are members of a certain culture. During these units the students learn the vocabulary which can help them to describe traditions, values, behaviours, customs, cultural signs and symbols [2].

The author stresses that the students have to investigate their own culture first and only then to discover new cultures. She suggests the following topics to be included into the course and grounds their sequence in the syllabus (table 1).

Table 1 The Syllabus of «Intercultural Communication Course»