omparisons between groups should always consider both likenesses and differences, that is, they should be based upon more than a single dimension of contrast, and it must be remembered that no individual member of a group embodies all of his or her group’s characteristics

Scollon and Scollon (1995) caution that in order to overcome the problem
of oversimplification and stereotyping ‘comparisons between groups
should always consider both likenesses and differences, that is, they
should be based upon more than a single dimension of contrast, and it
must be remembered that no individual member of a group embodies all
of his or her group’s characteristics’ (p. 157).

Therefore, it is also important for
teacher educators to emphasize individual variation, as well as the
dynamic nature of (sub)cultures.


 It needs to be pointed out that the main
aim of using the above framework is not to find out how different the new
student body or teaching context will be fromwhat teachers are
accustomed to, but to explore what kind of preconditioned ideas teachers
themselves have about that particular context, while showing them the
dimensions over which cultures are most likely to vary in their discourse
systems.