Culture and Culture Learning Process

1
Culture and Culture Learning Process
Chapter Three
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2
Defining Culture

• Culture is socially constructed
• Culture is shared by its members
• Culture is both objective and subjective
• Culture may be defined by geography, ethnicity,
  language, religion, history, or other important
  social characteristics
• Culture is socially transmitted

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Culture in Everyday Use

• Terms commonly used to describe social groups
  that share important cultural elements are
• Subculture
• Microculture
• Ethnic group
• Minority group
• People of color

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Subculture

• Some examples of subcultures are
• Corporate culture
• Adolescent culture
• Drug culture
• Culture of poverty
• Academic culture

• Subcultures share characteristics that
  distinguish them from the larger society in which
  they are embedded these characteristics may be a
  set of ideas and practices or some demographic
  similarity

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Microculture

• Microcultures also share distinguishing
  characteristics, but tend to be more closely
  linked to the larger society, often serving in
  mediating roles

• Some examples of microcultures are
• The family
• The workplace
• The classroom
• The school

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Ethnic Group

• Some examples of ethnic groups are
• Irish American
• Native American
• Lebanese American
• African American

• Members of ethnic groups share a common
  heritage, a common history, and often a common
  language loyalty to ones ethnic identity can be
  very powerful

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Minority Group

• Members of minority groups occupy a
  subordinate position in a society they may be
  separated from the dominant society by
  disapproval and discrimination

• Some examples of minority groups in the United
  States are
• Racial minorities
• Women
• People with disabilities
• Language minorities

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People of Color

• This term refers to members of non-white
  minority groups it is often preferred to the
  term minority group, but does not clearly
  identify specific loyalties

• For example, native Spanish-speakers may identify
  themselves as Hispanic people of color, but their
  cultural identity may be Puerto Rican, Mexican,
  or Salvadoran

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Culture Solves Common Human Problems

• Means of communicationlanguage
• Determination of powerstatus
• Regulation of reproductionfamily
• Systems of rulesgovernment
• Relationship to naturemagic, myth, religion,
  science
• Conception of timetemporality
• Significant lessonshistory
• Cultural representationsmusic, story, dance, art

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The Contributions of Cross-Cultural Psychology

• While sociology and anthropology study groups,
  and psychology studies individuals,
  cross-cultural psychology studies the
  interactions that occur when individuals from
  different groups meet
• Cross-cultural psychologists may approach this
  problem from one or both of two perspectives

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Culture Is Both Objective and Subjective

• Objective culture
• Physical artifacts
• Language
• Clothing
• Food
• Decorative objects

• Subjective culture
• Attitudes
• Values
• Norms of behavior
• Social roles
• Meaning of objective cultural elements

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Two Ways to Understand Culture

• Culture-Specific Approaches
• Help to understand a particular cultural group,
  for example, Native Americans
• Does not account for in-group differences

• Culture-General Approaches
• Help to understand how culture works in
  peoples lives a universal perspective
• Suggests questions to ask of any culture

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The Culture-Learning Process

• Sources of Cultural Knowledge and Identity
• Individuals in complex societies like the United
  States tend to identify themselves as belonging
  to various cultural and social groups, depending
  on their personal biographies
• There are twelve major sources of cultural
  identity that influence teaching and learning

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Cultural Knowledge Is Transmitted by People and
Experiences

• We gain the knowledge that contributes to our
  cultural identities through interaction with
  various socializing agents
• These agents mediate our cultural knowledge in
  particular ways

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How We Learn Culture Socialization

• Three stages of socialization
• Primary socializationof infants and young
  children by the family and early caregivers
• Secondary socializationin childhood and
  adolescence, by the school, the religious
  affiliation, the peer group, the neighborhood,
  and the media
• Adult socializationthe workplace, travel, and
  assuming new roles in life

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Some Results of Socialization

• Because the process of socialization is
  intended to cause individuals to internalize
  knowledge, attitudes, values, and beliefs, it has
  several results which should not be surprising

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Ethnocentrism

• The tendency people have to evaluate others
  according to their own standards and experience
• While this tendency can help bind people
  together, it can also present serious obstacles
  to cross-cultural interactions

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Perception

• Stimuli received by our senses would overwhelm us
  if it werent somehow reduced thus,
• What we perceivewhat we see, hear, feel, taste,
  and smellis shaped in part by our culture

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Categorization

• Categorization is the cognitive process by which
  all human beings simplify their world by grouping
  similar stimuli
• Our categories give meaning to our perceptions

• A prototype image best characterizes the meaning
  of a category
• Example for the category bird, we usually
  think of robins, not chickens

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Stereotypes

• Stereotypes are socially constructed categories
  of people
• They usually obscure differences within groups
• They are frequently negative and play to
  ethnocentric ideas of the other

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Some Limits on Socialization

• While socialization is a powerful process, it
  does have limits.
• It is limited by a childs physical limits
• It is limited because it is never finished, and
  thus never absolute it can be changed
• It is limited because human beings are not
  passive recipients, but also actors in their
  environments

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Understanding Cultural Differences

• In a complex, pluralistic society like the United
  States, all people are in some ways multicultural
• While we all draw on common sources of knowledge,
  we are socialized by different agents, with
  different perspectives on that knowledge

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Variations in Cultural Environments

• Although the sources of cultural identity are the
  same in all societies, the content in those
  sources may be different
• Moreover, each community varies considerably in
  the number and character of its socializing
  agents
• cont.

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• Given this complexity, it is wise to consider the
  possible cultural elements in our own lives and
  in the lives of others
• Despite this potential for variation among
  individuals and within groups, there are
  similarities or generalizations that can be made
  about individuals who identify with particular
  groups cont.

Variations in Cultural Environments
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Variations in Cultural Environments

• What is needed is a more sophisticated
• way of looking at diversity

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Such an approach to diversity involves several
elements

• Questioning the dominant model, or the
  prototype image

• Questioning stereotypes

• Looking for commonalities among our differences

• Thinking of differences as resources to learn from

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Something to Think About

• By ignoring the cultural and social forms
  that are authorized by youth and simultaneously
  empower and disempower them, educators risk
  complicity in silencing and negating their
  students.
• This is unwittingly accomplished by refusing to
  recognize the importance of those sites and
  social practices outside of schools that actively
  shape student experiences and through which
  students often define and construct their sense
  of identity, politics, and culture.
• Giroux and Simon

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Human Diversity in Education, 5/e