To solve the challenge, you and your students need to develop self-awareness and self-knowledge, empathy and de-centering, as well as knowledge and understanding of other cultures, and to raise curiosity and empathy about other cultures.

In the PISH project, we have developed a Toolkit on Intercultural communications. My History is a tool particularly useful to inspire curiosity about the culture of others, to encourage people to speak about their cultural and historical similarities and differences, and to see where our beliefs and values stem from. 

Each participant must choose and present three public historical events, pointing out why they chose them, what happened, and how they impacted their life. Events can be related to politics, history, sports, music, art, accidents, etc. and the focus can be positive, negative or neutral.

At the end participants discuss whether they can see any patterns in the types of events that were chosen, recognizing similarities in beliefs and values that they have.

This tool should lead to students warming up to each other and seeing value in having diversity in the classroom. You might observe students getting curious about each other and having follow up discussions about their cultures. It’s a good icebreaker before you need students to collaborate in group work or study projects.