Post 143: The Role of Culture in Education

Post 143: The Role of Culture in Education

What is culture?  Culture is shared, not learned. Culture is shared in relation to a specific social grouping. Individuals of a particular culture are culture bearers of his/her group.  The various facets of culture are interrelated. The cultural traits of a particular group of people are largely integrated with each other to form an interrelated whole (Ovando, 167). This means that US culture is not a static object, but a constantly moving target of all the immigrants who make up the US. I tend to think of the US, not as a melting pot, but more like a salad, where the distinct characteristics of each immigrant group blend into a unique American salad that get tossed together to form an interrelated whole, which becomes American culture. There should be no such thing as a 'dominant' culture, but instead a sharing of all cultures together, each distinct, but each equally important.



Culture is fluid and constantly changing. Languages borrow from each other words. Different immigrant groups come to the US constantly changing the popular culture through music, food, or other trends. There is no set definition of US culture as just hot dogs, hamburgers, and the American flag. When we speak of American culture, it is a combination/interrelation between many different groups of people who all live in the US and call the US home. When we are born, we are not born, 'American', 'Japanese', or European American. Culture is something we learn at home from our parents, from our family, from being immersed in society. We learn our cultural traits from social interaction with others.

By the time a child arrives at school, he/she has socially interacted with his/her family. She has already developed habits of behavior, L1 or L2, methods of speech, and methods of dress. Even young children have already learned some of the cultural behavior of his/her culture as part of his L1 and L2 acquisition according to Krashen.  There is no set definition of culture since culture is always changing and always evolving as the person or as society evolves. A teacher has to understand and acknowledge the different cultural differences of the students in her class.

What is cultural tourism?

One common teaching approach is to teach about culture as a static set of traits--that is the tendency to view culture as a series of significant historical events and heroes, typical traditions, and culturally coded concepts or terms. Erickson (1997) has referred to such superficial treatment of culture as cultural tourism,  a focus on the more colorful and salient aspects of a group of people. This tongue in cheek approach to culture has been  called the 'laundry list' approach or the "facts, fun, fiesta' approach. Using the laundry list approach to Mexican culture. an educator that students should know  about Benito Juarez, Cesar Chavez, Delores Huertas,  la Virgen de Guadalupe, Cinco de Mayo, La Raza, Cholos, Azlan, and la quinceanera.  (Ovando, 167). This cultural tourism approach or 'laundry list' approach makes it look like culture is static, but instead, culture is fluid and constantly changing.

This limited approach to culture lends itself to stereotyping, and does not take into account the reality of the individuals as culture bearers who remake culture all the time. It does not take into account people's assimilation, or level of acculturation nor does it portray culture as an interrelated whole. One is inclined to believe that Mexican culture can be reduced to just that laundry list of items. Teaching culture using the 'laundry list' method is not a good way to teach students about Mexican American culture or any other culture for that matter.

What is the 'High Civilization View' of culture?

The High Civilization view of culture means putting more value on Western ideals than on non-Western ideals. Educators have often tended to use the word 'culture' as meaning the accumulation of the so called best knowledge, ideas, works of arts, and technological accomplishments of a particular group of people. In the case of Western civilization, "this high civilization" conjures up  an image of a sophisticated conglomerate of Western writers like Shakespeare, Dante, Cervantes, Socrates, and so on. If you don't know who these authors are, then you are laughed at for not having any culture or sophistication. According to Ovando, school curriculum  stresses the importance of western ideas as the hallmark of culture. This monocultural view of culture has negative effects on minority learners and the lack of acknowledgement of the accomplishments of other cultures leads to high dropout rates, alienation and low academic achievement among minority learners. (Ovando, 167).

What then, is the proper way to teach students about other cultures?

Ask the students what their culture is like means instead of assuming that all Mexican Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo, ask students themselves, "What is your favorite Mexican holiday?" "Does your family celebrate Cinco de Mayo?"  You can ask Chinese students if they really eat Chinese fortune cookies, and you'll be surprised to find out that the Chinese fortune cookie was an American invention and is not a real Chinese food. The responses to your questions may confirm what you already know about that culture, but may also reveal new dimensions of a student's cultural identity. Involving the student in your curriculum reaffirms that students' sense of cultural belonging and encourages that student not to drop out or feel alienated in class.

1. Ask the students themselves what their culture is like.

2. Relate the curriculum to the students' culture.

3. Make sure the curriculum acknowledges the achievements of other cultures within the fabric of the history lesson, not just because it is a special day or special unit for that culture.

4. Make students aware that the accomplishments/achievements of their ancestors count and matter in US society, history and language to give young students a sense of cultural identity.

5. Avoid 'tokenism' when talking about other cultures.

6. Avoid teaching a "Eurocentric" point of view. Include other cultures in your curriculum.

I will be talking more about How to Create a Multicultural Curriculum in future blog posts.

http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/curriculum/characteristics.html

Ovando, Carlos & Combs, Mary Carol  Bilingual and ESL Classrooms 6th Ed.