Culture Reflection, Evans

When my son was in pre-k, his class was learning about cultures from around the world. They learned about holidays and traditions in Japan, Mexico, and Italy, among others. During this time, he was given a homework assignment. We were to share our own family’s cultural background by listing where our ancestors came from, holidays we celebrate, and traditional foods we eat. My husband and I felt very “uncultured” as we tried to fill in the blanks of his assignment sheet. Our combined families are the classic American melting pot. Our ancestors came here from all over Europe. We celebrate typical American holidays, and we eat all kinds of bland and boring food, as well as, foods from other cultures (Japanese, Mexican, and Chinese) on a regular basis. When we finished the assignment, we felt like our family was pretty bland and boring too!

            This first chapter in Developing Multicultural Educators was a reminder to me that the reason I sometimes feel pretty unoriginal here in my own backyard, is because I am in my own backyard. To someone from Japan or India, the foods that my family considers bland and boring would be considered very unusual. The chapter also made me re-think my definition of culture. A person’s culture is not just the foods they eat or the holidays they celebrate. It also includes our perspectives and beliefs about the world. In this respect, when I examined my family’s and my own identity with the Cultural Background Pie (p. 11), I realized how unique we are, even when compared to other families within our own community. This insight will be useful, not only with my EL students, but also with the rest of my class. Just because a student and their family may appear to be similar to my own on the surface, this doesn’t mean that their basic beliefs and what they value are the same as mine.

            Noel discussed the three components of culture as additional ways in which families, communities, and societies differ from one another. How we communicate, organize our time, and even think can be different from one culture to the next. In relating this again to my own family, I realized that even though my husband I are the same ethnicity, religion, age, have similar views in regards to family roles, and were raised in the same socio-economic level, we are very different in how we communicate. His family tends to be very involved and passionate when speaking, whereas mine tends to be more passive and expository. Fortunately, we’ve learned to appreciate our different ways of communicating, and it will be interesting to see how our children’s communication styles develop.

            In regards to the classroom, I can also see how students’ communication, organizational, and intellectual styles would have an effect on their success within the school environment. I can list several students in my own class right now who are passionate, verbal communicators. They are more used to talking than listening. I have others who have a very relaxed sense of time. They are in no particular hurry to get anywhere. And finally, I have the students who appear to be bored because they just want to know how what we are doing relates to them. There is nothing necessarily wrong with any of these styles, however, they do make it more of a challenge to meet their needs in an environment that relies on listening skills, time management, and learning through facts as opposed to feelings.

            In summarizing the next section of this chapter involving characterizations of culture, Noel states “Perhaps the most helpful reason to study the sets and types of characterizations of different cultures is to realize that there are multiple ways of being (p.28).” I think that in order to be an effective teacher, one has to understand that not all students are going to fit into one cultural mold. Every child in my classroom is not going to have the same background as me, and I can’t assume that just because they are a certain ethnicity or are from a certain area that they are going to behave in a particular way. Some generalizations can be made about cultures that have developed over time, for example, people who have primarily lived only in either a rural or an urban environment. However, within each of those cultures exists individuals with their own ways of behaving. Because of this, I need to be accepting of their differences and try to find ways to meet their unique needs.

            The importance of this is demonstrated in the final section of this chapter where the author discusses the purpose of schools being not only to teach subject areas, but also to develop the next generation of adults within a society. Whether intentionally or not, because they are with us day in and day out, we, as teachers, instill our own values, beliefs and expectations upon our students. More often than not, these are the same views as the society in which we live(p. 36). This is a huge responsibility, particularly when we examine the two perspectives Noel describes in relation to the cultural socialization of education.

            I tend to agree more with the functionalist perspective. I believe that part of our job is to pass on the beliefs and traditions that have been a part of our country’s history so that our society will continue to function in the future. The challenge however, is to do this without hurting the many cultural identities of the students we teach. The critical perspective argues that the structure of our schools does, in fact, hurt students by intentionally holding back those students who are in the minority, so that the dominant group within our society continues to be dominant.

            I think the best way to counteract this argument is to get to know the various general cultures that make up our school’s community so that we can better understand their needs and styles. We also need to be willing to collaborate with other teachers, parents, and representatives of these various cultures so that we can better understand their unique perspectives. Finally, we still need to remember that even if we feel that we know the needs of the cultures that make up our community, each student is still an individual and is going to come to school with their own unique perspective on life and learning.