Culture

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Culture

• Julie Esparza Brown
• Director, Bilingual Teacher Pathway Program
• Portland State University

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What is Culture?

• Culture is the sum total of ways of living
  (Hoopes Pusch, 1979).
• Culture is a way of life that is shared by
  members of a population (Ogbu, 1988).
• Culture includes rites and rituals, legends and
  myths, artifacts and symbols, and language and
  history, as well as sense-making devices that
  guide and shape behavior (Davis, 1984, p. 10).
• Culture is what one thinks is important (values),
  what one thinks is true (beliefs), and how one
  perceives the way things are done (norms) (Owens,
  1987).

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Surface Culture

• Surface culture refers to tangible things unique
  to an ethnic group such as
• Arts and crafts
• Historic events
• Intellectual achievements
• Daily living
• Food
• Holidays

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Deep Culture

• Deep culture deals with feelings and attitudes
  one learns by being a member of that cultural
  group
• Thoughts
• Beliefs
• Personal values
• Interpersonal relations
• Spirituality/religion
• Details of daily life

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Can Culture Be Learned?

• What do you think?

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Seeing Culture as a Framework

• Culture can be viewed as a framework through
  which actions are filtered or checked as
  individuals go about daily life (Hanson, 1992)
  and is constantly evolving.

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Five Cultural Factors

• Bennett (1990) identifies five cultural factors
  that influence learning
• Childhood socialization childrearing practices
• Sociocultural tightness high- and low-context
  cultures
• Ecological adaptation learning styles or the way
  in which individuals receive and process
  information
• Biological effects nutrition, physical
  development, and brain development
• Language pronunciation, vocabulary, rhythm,
  pacing, inflection spoken and unspoken language,
  direct and indirect communication styles.

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Making Meaning

• Read this passage one time only
• Rocky slowly got up from the mat, planning his
  escape. He hesitated a moment and thought.
  Things were not going well. What bothered him
  most was being held, especially since the charge
  against him had been weak. He considered his
  present situation. The lock that held him was
  strong but he thought he could break it. He
  knew, however, that his timing would have to be
  perfect. Rocky was aware that it was because of
  his early roughness that he had been penalized so
  severely much too severely from his point of
  view. The situation was becoming frustrating
  the pressure had been grinding on him for too
  long. He was being ridden unmercifully. Rocky
  was getting angry now. He felt he was ready to
  make his move. He knew that his success or
  failure would depend on what he did in the next
  few seconds.
• Summarize what youve just read in two or three
  sentences?
• Is your summary like your neighbors summary?

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Generalizations vs. Stereotypes

• Generalizations
• Categorizing most members of a group as having
  similar characteristics
• Based on research or widespread observation
• Flexible and open to new information

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Generalizations vs. Stereotypes

• Stereotypes
• Categorizing all members of a group as having the
  same characteristics
• May or may not be based on fact
• Tend to be inflexible and closed to new
  information

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Cultural Variables

• Ten cultural variables form the foundation for
  most of our behavior and influence interpersonal
  behavior. Many of these variables are common
  across both majority and non-majority groups, but
  some of them differ. These differences might be
  quite subtle, yet very troublesome.

Nature Time Action Communication Space Power Indiv
idualism Competitiveness Structure Formality
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Where We Learn Culture

• Family
• School
• Religion
• Media
• Peers, Colleagues
• History Geography
• Art, Literature Music
• Government

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Cultural Learning

• Cultural understanding in ones first culture is
  typically established by age 5
• Children learn new cultural patterns more easily
  than adults
• Values are determined by ones first culture and
  may have to be revised to be effective in a
  second culture
• Understanding ones first culture intro-duces
  errors in interpreting the second
• Long-standing behavior patterns are typically
  used to express ones deepest values

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Cultural Differences

• Within-group differences are as great as
  across-group differences
• No cultural, ethnic, linguistic, or racial group
  is monolithic
• There is a wide variation in attitudes, beliefs
  and behaviors within cultures

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U.S.A. Majority Culture

• Nature
• Time
• Action
• Communication
• Space
• Power
• Individualism
• Competitivenes
• Structure
• Formality

• must be controlled
• single-focused,present/future
• active, doing
• low context
• private
• equality
• Individualistic
• competitive
• high structure
• informal

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Dominant American Values

• Individuality and privacy are important
• Belief in equality of all individuals
• Informality in interactions preferred
• Emphasis on future, change and progress
• Belief in the general goodness of humanity
• Emphasis on time and punctuality
• High regard for achievement, action, work, and
  materials
• Pride in direct and assertive interactional
  styles

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Acculturation

• The process of adapting to a new cultural
  environment as students move from one culture to
  another
• Often progresses through these phases
• Honeymoon
• Disorientation
• Fatigue
• Recovery
• Reconciliation

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Variables Affecting Acculturation

• Amount of time spent in the process
• Quantity and quality of interactions
  (communication)
• Ethnicity or national origin
• Language proficiency

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Types of Acculturation

• Type A High Acculturation, Low Ethnic Identity
• Lifestyles, values, language and culture are
  mainstream
• May integrate almost totally into majority
  culture
• Occurs over generations
• Familys length of time in American and reason
  for immigrating are factors
• Assimilation

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Types of Acculturation

• Type B High Acculturation, High Ethnic Identity
• Individual is essentially bicultural
• Comfortable and knowledgeable about both cultures
• Has friends and belongs to organizations in each
  culture
• Integration

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Types of Acculturation

• Type C Low Acculturation, High Ethnic Identity
• Individual retains high degree of ethnic
  practices
• Expresses little desire or fear of cross-cultural
  adaptation
• Rejection

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Types of Acculturation

• Type D Low Acculturation, Low Ethnic Identity
• Includes dropouts
• Alienated from both the ethnic and majority
  cultural communities
• May be drawn into an alternative culture (i.e.,
  gangs)
• Deculturation

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Steps to Cross-cultural Competence

• (Affective) Awareness of
• Ones own cultural values
• Cultural differences
• (Cognitive) Knowledge about
• Other cultures
• Impact of ethnicity on behavior
• (Behavioral) Skills in
• Cross-cultural communication and inter-action
  strategies
• Adapting strategies to fit cultural context of a
  situation

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Communicating with Diverse Families

• Use understandable language
• Provide ample opportunity for parents to respond
• Listen with empathy and understand feelings can
  change as parents understanding of programs
  increase
• Use appropriate reading level

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The New Three Rs

• NOT Reading, Riting and Rithmetic, but
• Respect
• Reciprocity
• Responsiveness

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Respect

• Acknowledge differing perceptions and worldviews
• Resist the urge to immediately change either
  persons perspectives to match the others
  perspective

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Reciprocity

• Builds on respect
• Seeks to balance the power between the two
  cultures
• Acknowledges that the experiences and perceptions
  of every person is of equal value
• Recognizes that not one view point needs to
  dominate or exclude a different point of view
• Ensuring that every interaction is about giving
  and receiving

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Responsiveness

• Be open to allowing others to uncover and display
  who they are rather than shaping them into who we
  want them to be
• Reframe assumptions and stereotypes into
  hypothesis
• Test the hypothesis and ask questions, begin
  dialogues communicate
• Be willing to not know how to act or what to say

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White Privilege in Schools Is This Your
Reality?

• Whatever topics my children choose to study, they
  are confident that they will find materials that
  link people of their race to the accomplishments
  in those areas.
• My children know that they will always see faces
  like their own liberally represented in the
  textbooks, posters, films, and other materials in
  the hallways, classrooms and media centers of
  their schools.

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White Privilege in Schools Is This Your
Reality?

• The color of my childrens skin causes most
  adults in school offices, classrooms and hallways
  to have neutral or positive assumptions about
  them.
• My children know that the vast majority of adults
  in their schools will be of their same racial
  background, even in classrooms where many or most
  of their fellow students are of races different
  from their own.

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White Privilege in SchoolsIs This Your Reality?

• When I visit their schools, my children know that
  school staff members will reserve judgment about
  my economic class, my level of education and my
  reason for being in the school until I make them
  known.
• I take for granted that the tests used to judge
  my childrens achievement and to determine
  placement in special classes have been developed
  with groups that included significant numbers of
  students who share our racial history and culture.

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Pineapple

• The following is an excerpt from Jonathan Kozols
  book, The Shame of the Nation. Pineapple is a
  third grade African-American girl from the South
  Bronx.
• So it surprised mewhen Pineapple asked me
  something that no other child of her age in the
  South Bronx had ever asked of me before.
• Whats it like, she asked me,over there where
  you live?
• Over where? I asked.
• Over you know, she said with another bit of
  awkwardness and hesitation in her eyes.
• I asked her, Do you mean in Massachusetts?
• You know, she said.
• I dont know, I replied.
• Over there where other people are, she
  finally said.

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Cultural Groups

• What cultural groups are you a part of?
• Remember
• Within-group differences are as great as
  across-group differences
• No cultural, ethnic, linguistic, or racial group
  is monolithic
• There is a wide variation in attitudes, beliefs
  and behaviors within cultures

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A Hidden CultureThe Culture of Poverty

• Oregon ranks 28th among states in the percent of
  children who are poor.
• More than 1 in 10 children is poor in Oregon.
• 14.7 of children under the age of 18 in Oregon
  are poor.
• Do you know how to effectively communicate to a
  person who shares your racial background lives in
  poverty??

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Cultural Survival Skills

• Do you have these skills?
• I know which churches and sections of town have
  the best rummage sales.
• I know which rummage sales have bag sales and
  when.
• I know how to get someone out of jail.
• I know how to physically fight and defend myself
  physically.

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Cultural Survival Skills

• Do you have these skills?
• I know how to keep my clothes from being stolen
  at the laundromat.
• I know how to live without a checking account.
• I know how to live without electricity and a
  phone.
• I can entertain a group of friends with my
  personality and my stories.
• Source Ruby Payne

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The Benefits of Culturally Congruent Education

• The school climate is open, receptive, and
  reflective of students positive cultural values,
  norms and home language.
• Difference is not seen as a deficit and no
  students are placed at-risk but are rather
  at-promise

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The Benefits of Diversity

• (C)ognitive diversity is essential to good
  decision making. The positive case for diversity
  is that it expands a groups set of possible
  solutions and allows the group to conceptualize
  problems in novel ways Homogenous groups are
  often victims of what the psychologist Irvin
  Janis called groupthink.
• Surowiecki (2004)

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Closing Thoughts

• Culture is akin to being the observer through
  the one-way mirror everything we see is from our
  own perspective. It is only when we join the
  observed on the other side that it is possible to
  see ourselves and others clearly
• Lynch and Hanson