Culture

1. Culture Julie Esparza Brown Director, Bilingual Teacher Pathway Program Portland State University

3. 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).

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

5. 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 Deep Culture

6. Can Culture Be Learned? What do you think?

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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 you’ve just read in two or three sentences? Is your summary like your neighbor’s summary?

10. 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

11. 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

12. Cultural Variables • Ten cultural variables form thefoundation 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 Individualism Competitiveness Structure Formality

13. Where We Learn Culture • Family • School • Religion • Media • Peers, Colleagues • History & Geography • Art, Literature & Music • Government

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

15. 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

16. 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 U.S.A. Majority Culture

17. 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 forachievement, action, work, and materials • Pride in direct and assertive interactional styles

18. 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

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

20. 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 • Family’s length of time in American and reason for immigrating are factors • Assimilation

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. Steps to Cross-cultural Competence • (Affective) Awareness of: • One’s 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

25. Communicating with Diverse Families • Use understandable language • Provide ample opportunity for parents to respond • Listen with empathy and understand feelings can change as parent’s understanding of programs increase • Use appropriate reading level

26. The New Three R’s NOT Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic, but: • Respect • Reciprocity • Responsiveness

27. Respect • Acknowledge differing perceptions and worldviews • Resist the urge to immediately change either person’s perspectives to match the others’ perspective

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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.

31. White Privilege in Schools: Is This Your Reality? • The color of my children’s 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.

32. White Privilege in Schools:Is 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 children’s 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.

33. Pineapple The following is an excerpt from Jonathan Kozol’s book, The Shame of the Nation. Pineapple is a third grade African-American girl from the South Bronx. So it surprised me…when Pineapple asked me something that no other child of her age in the South Bronx had ever asked of me before. “What’s 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 don’t know,” I replied. “Over there – where other people are,” she finally said.

34. 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

35. A Hidden Culture:The 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??

36. 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.

37. 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

38. 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”

39. The Benefits of Diversity “(C)ognitive diversity is essential to good decision making. The positive case for diversity is that it expands a group’s 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)

41. 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