COGNITIVE INTEGRATION IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERCULTURAL STUDIES: EDUCATIONAL EXTENSIONS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE DIRECTION OF WRITING AND THE SPATIAL REPRESENTATION OF THE CONCEPT OF TIME AS A MODEL
The concept of time has cultural characteristics, as it is the product of a symbolic communicative context that draws its characteristics from its founding group. Hence, the concept of time is shaped and represented mentally according to its socio-cultural context. Accordingly, it seems legitimate to examine its cultural specificity. This study tackles the nature of the spatial representation of the concept of time, as this latter is carried through cultural mediums, namely the oral and written language. The target group includes 32 unschooled children aged between 10 and 11. It is worth mentioning that many intercultural studies have indicated the existence of a definite, statistically significant relationship between the concept of time on the one hand and the direction of writing on the other hand. As the spatial representation of the concept of time in children of French culture is from left to right, influenced by the direction of French writing. Whereas, the spatial representation of the concept of time in children of French-Maghreb culture is in both directions (rightleft) and (rightleft), that is, in the form of congruous formula between the two directions of French writing from left to right and Arabic from right to left. The study confirms, in its third context, the spatial representation of the concept of time among uneducated children who do not know how to read and write, the results of previous studies on the concept of time in its relationship to the direction of writing. Where the space-time orientation is characterized by the multiplicity and diversity (rightleft, leftright, topbottom, topbottom...), regardless of the direction of presentation of the images by the experimenter. Studies, with their integral depth, confirm that it is a matter of cultural learning; the school institution as a social unit with symbolic and communicative contexts works to impart our concepts, including the concept of time, the characteristics of the socio-cultural context. The child, during his development and passing through socio-cultural institutions, integrates these characteristics in the framework of cognitive units that govern his subsequent cognitive functioning
Keywords: Cognitive Integration, Educational Extensions, Intercultural Studies.