Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Reflections on my Cultural Worldview

The following post is in response to the writing prompt below on Culturally Responsive Teaching.
We are using the book Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond (2015).

What did you learn about how your cultural experiences shaped your worldview?
Would you characterize your cultural background as individualist or collectivist based on the definitions in Chapter 2?
I’m an army brat. My cultural experience and background is distinctly different from the rest of my family except maybe my sister. I grew up with the culture of my immediate family, the military, and Germany. Each has its own distinct culture that shaped my worldview. I grew up acutely aware of culture. Also of note, the culture of my childhood is distinctly different than my current culture.

I long realized that culture is something peoples have that you need to learn about before traveling to the country of that culture. I have visited over 15 countries. Many required preparation before visiting in order to avoid culture shock and know how to avoid cultural faux pas. I recall in Grafenwoehr Elementary school we had Host Nation class in which we learned about the German culture. The class was mainly about surface and shallow culture: holidays, language, and social expectations. Learning all this about German culture attuned me to the idea that there were many cultures (often within a larger predominant culture) and how important it was to understand and be respectful of those cultures while in their space. I became very adaptable in managing being in and out of different cultures.

The deep culture I developed was an amalgamation of coping mechanisms for being within cultures. My mental model developed into traits that allowed for my ability to adapt culturally. Things like trying foods (surface culture), never taking pictures of foreign military personnel or equipment (shallow), and how some cultures don’t “discipline” their children (deep) all were things I had to understand and place in my mental model. Most culture education I received when traveling involved the surface culture of the place being visited along with some delving into shallow culture. Nothing beats host families for really getting a feel for a culture. Traveling, touring, and staying in hotels only allows one to delve so deep into a culture. Staying with a family enables you to experience the food, music, and environment (shallow) but also have meaningful conversations and exchange of ideas (deep). There are challenges, however. One challenge is that each of you are representing your own culture and country. I know I took much care to represent my country (culture?) in a positive manner and explain when I was speaking for myself and when there were differences within my own culture. An example conversation could have gone:

Host father asks, “What do Americans think of X, Y, Z?”
I would respond, “Americans have differing opinions such as A, B, and C. I personally feel A.”

Another challenge is determining which things are family and local differences between your culture and theirs. For instance, your experience staying with a rural family will give you a different cultural perspective on a larger culture than staying in an urban area. Certain things may cross these cultural boundaries such as language (shallow), but other cultural aspects may be different such as their relationship to nature (deep). 

Drawing generalizations from one cultural experience is risky. Consider how difficult narrowing down American culture is. It is so voluminous! I helped sponsor an exchange program that hosted Dutch students and we wanted the Dutch students to experience American culture. What was culturally specific to America and specifically to our specific area of upstate NY? We arranged activities involving making S’mores, visiting historical locations, and picking apples. We baked pumpkin pies and some visited the mall. These were mainly surface culture events but the relationships and discussions (as is the main point with cultural exchange programs) are what were important. We wanted to delve deeper into that deep culture. These are the experiences I know shaped my worldview and wished to import on some of my students. As much as we are different culturally there are also so many similarities. 

And that is a summation of my worldview. It’s not about the differences but about the similarities. People everywhere love their kids. People everywhere love to play games. People everywhere love a good story and a good joke (though humor does differ). People everywhere love to gather with friends and family for food and fun. That’s it. These fundamentals cross all barriers it seems. All deep culture has these similarities. It does not matter if they are individualistic or collectivist. I remember someone remarking about the culture of East Germany. They regretted the lack of trust in your neighbor and inability to easily travel. The speaker reminded the listener, though, that the flowers were still beautiful, happy weddings occurred, and the joys of life continued. We need to remember that even in cultures we may view negatively, life goes on and certain joys of life continue. 

Germany is more collectivist than American. The United States is the most individualistic culture in my opinion and was founded as such. Our country was founded on individual rights and that continues to be a driving force in society and politics. Germany, being more socialist is indeed more collectivist. Most Germans see little problem in helping each other pay for college. Businesses are much more heavily regulated for a perceived common good. I grew up in this society and thought it worked pretty well. My culture shock came when I began my college education stateside and was flabbergasted at the opposition to what I had grown up viewing as normal collectivist ideas being washed as evil. I did grow to understand that I do have many cultural perspectives that are individualistic. There need to be limits, for example, on how far the government can go at regulating my life (or business). Honestly, I didn’t think much about my views on this until I began voting and working. I now have the lens of individualistic and collectivist to consider when evaluating cultural norms.

I consider my cultural background a mix of individualistic and collectivist. I have long valued teamwork, family, and community. Through scouting and my experience with the military I understood that accomplishing goals requires the help of others and the work of teams of people. That knowledge, however, did not extend to my understanding of school work and academics. I wrongly believed that all that people accomplished academically was in social isolation. People did well in school, I thought, due to hard work and natural intelligence. Only after I graduated from college did I reflect, talk to others, and realize I had it all wrong. My individualistic view could not be further from the truth. Those that did great in college got where they did by working with others, talking to professors, getting help when needed, and networking. They weren’t just isolated in a room studying like I was. I did not have my friend who was an excellent writer, for instance, review my papers before submission. I considered it cheating at the time. Looking back I realize that was wrong. Collaboration is a hallmark of success. My cultural viewpoint as either individualistic or collectivist continues to evolve and I am often not sure what direction I lean.

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