Mapping the coconstruction of meaning in polycultural small group environments via interactive graphic facilitation and collaborative visual mapping

This transdisciplinary case study researched the coconstruction of meaning in polycultural small group environments via interactive graphic facilitation and collaborative visual mapping through the observation of 10 culturally diverse volunteer participants in a visual literacy class at City College of San Francisco. Two small groups of five participants were asked to coconstruct, independent from each other, a visual map depicting a mutually agreed-upon story of a common experience, and then present their map to the other group. Group collaboration and post-process discussion were recorded and transcribed, formal and informal assessments were used to address some variables, and process and analysis models, tools, and concepts were applied.;Located in the nexus of visual communication and intercultural communication, the study approached the research objectively and subjectively and covered three categories of theories of intercultural communication (W. B. Gudykunst, C. M. Lee, T. Nishida, & N. Ogawa, 2005): social construction and constructivist theories, theories about cultural differences, and theories concerning communication patterns, in particular communication networks. The data demonstrated that groups' communication patterns were projected into the gestalt of the visual maps, and the coconstruction of meaning was not found in the individuals' personal frames, but in the communication pattern between them---not in the elements of the visual map but in the gestalt. The cocreated meaning was confirmed in a self-organized seating constellation that mirrored the hierarchy of the groups to each other and exposed, subconsciously, the roles individuals had played.;In an Epilogue to the traditional dissertation chapters, integral theory---in particular D. E. Beck's (n.d.) Spiral Dynamics Integral and K. Wilber's (2005) All Quadrants All Levels---provided the foundation for developing two new models to accommodate the interdependent relationship between the elements of the human core (the Layers of Complexity) and to fully investigate the communication acts through objective and subjective lenses on the individual and collective levels (the Map of Complexity). Data suggested a paradigm shift into polyculturalism with transcultural communication forms, and the potential multipositionality and contextuality of cultural hybrids, leading to the hypothesis that culture has become an available design.