ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the characteristics of different societies, their ways of communicating and determining acceptable social behaviours and interaction through a discussion of the levels of thought detailed in Hall’s Cultural Iceberg. It discusses the levels of conscious, subconscious and unconscious values and attitudes which impact on intrapersonal and interpersonal behaviours and attitudes. It includes the research participants’ strategies and viewpoints related to the sensitive issues of acceptance and inclusion. It also focuses on the value they place in diversity and difference as represented by their students with refugee and asylum-seeker experiences. This investigation is extended into characteristics of societies as explored in Hofstede and Minkov and Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory.
