IMendoza-Reflection #1

Review-What di did you learn?

Chapter one is a very interested chapter it deals with the development of culture, how someone upbringing shapes the individual’s culture.   As Noel stated in the chapter “Culture is a way of seeing, perceiving, and believing.  Although earlier definitions focused more on artifacts and customs, items and activities that can be physical observed, current conceptions of culture look at the underlying beliefs and perspectives that give rise to those manifestation of culture” (P.11).  In other worlds, your life is shape by culture and it influences every decision you make in your life.  One of the things that I found more interested was the whole idea of looking at culture from the aspect of a tree where the root is the foundation of the branches.  Beliefs, Language and perception are the foundations of your culture because these are universal aspects of people’s culture in the world.  Culture is in constant change, especially in todays’ globalized world where people are constantly interacting in a multicultural environment, this allow for a constant influence of other’s peoples cultures. 

Culture not only shapes our view of life but it also shapes our communication abilities.  In the United States is very common for parents to read books to children, helping them at a young age to develop their analytical skills in compared to Latin American were children learn how to communicate through storytelling and the use of songs.   In addition to influence of culture in the communicating abilities, another important aspect of communicating is the intonation, eye contact, etc.  I particularly found this very interested, because, in Latin American eye contact shows disrespect and in the United States is very important.  Eye contact shows that the person is self-confidences, and that is a trustworthy individual.

Culture also plays an important role in our organizational style; in some cultures time plays an important part of the daily life, this is characterized as monochromic organizational style.  For example, in the United States people run their life around the time.  We use our calendar to plan each event in our life, meetings are conducted within a time frame and punctuality is expected in the American society.  On the other hand, in Latin American people are more lay back when it comes to time, for the most parts events are planned without a time frame and people are usually late, this is characterized as polychromic organization. Organizational style is very connected to intellectual style, how do we refer to communication do we prefer written or oral communication venues, for example in the United States agreements are not finalized without written contract that both party agreed and signed, in contrast with other cultures such as in Latin America were verbal agreement is enough to conduct a negotiation.

You don’t have to travel to another country to find cultural differences, one of the most noticeable cultural differences exist between urban communities and rural communities.  Noel refer to this differences as “Rural/Gemeinschaft and Urban/Gesellschaft charcterizations of culture” (p.26)   In rural communities people tend to be more close to their communities, and they all work together for same common goal of the community.  On the other hand, people in urban communities are more egocentric, they make decision based on what they believe and want for themselves disregarding the community.

Last but not least, schools played an important role in the shapes of an individual culture regardless of what students have learned at their homes and communities.  The school serves as a platform for students to learn the dominant culture and what is expected of them as good citizens in the society.

Reflect-What did it mean to you?

I really enjoyed reading this chapter because while reading it I was analyzing myself, my believed, my perceptions and my view of the world.  Since moving to the United States I have lived in two cultures.  My Dominican roots that shaped me into a layback individual, someone who values family and has made a lot of decisions based on family and community approval.    On the other hand, the American culture which I have adopted after 20 years of residing in the United States.  With the American culture I have learned the values of punctuality, respecting people’s time, being independent, etc.   This self-realization of differences cultures in my life make me think of my students, how diverse my classes are, and how this students walked into my classroom having so many different views of the world.   As an educator, I feel that we have to be more aware of this culture differences and learned of way to embraced them instead of reprimanding them.  Especially, since we lived in the United States, a country where we interacted with people from all different backgrounds and that is reflected in our students. 

Refine-How will you use the information in your classroom?

After reading this chapter, I will like to become more sensitive to my students needs and cultural background by getting to know them better and their communities.  With this in mind I will like to create lesson that are more relevant to my students where can they can reflect and make connections.