For my assignment this
week, I asked four individuals how they would define diversity and culture.
First person’s definitions:
Culture to me is a
person’s background, history and traditions
Diversity is
differences in race, gender, culture, religion and sexuality.
Second person’s definitions:
My definition of
culture is knowing about different Countries and how they do things.
Diversity is the
differences between people, how they dress, style their hair, their religion
and just being different.
Third person’s definitions:
Culture is the
uniqueness of a particular group that distinguishes them from another group
such as attitude, beliefs, environment and practices
Diversity is different
entities or an eclectic group of something.
Fourth person’s definitions:
Culture is the way a
group of people act or believe.
Diversity is a group of
people made up of various ethnicities.
After reviewing what
the four individuals gave me as their definitions of culture and diversity, I
noticed that three of the four defined culture as the reason why a group acts
the way that they do. One of the four describes culture as being the individual
background history and traditions. Both
are correct, but, I found it interesting that only one looked at it from an
individual perspective. Like Janet
Gonzalez-Mena (Laureate Education, 2011) stated, that culture is a set of
unconscious rules that tends to govern everything that we do. The four individuals that I spoke with
mentioned good characteristics and some mentioned characteristics that would be
under the tip of the iceberg, but, most were closely related to the tip of the
iceberg (Laureate Education, 2011). For example,
person number two mentioned knowing how people do things in other countries,
this makes me think of the food, costumes and the music they listen too (Laureate
Education, 2011). In my opinion the answers that person number
one and number three shared were more from the unconscious level, which would
fall on the part of the iceberg we don’t see, known as the unconscious rules
that govern us such as attitudes, beliefs, history and person’s background (Laureate
Education., 2011). By thinking about other people’s definitions
of culture and diversity, it has made me realize that it appears that many
individuals share the same thoughts on what characteristics come into play when
we think about culture and diversity. Further,
it made me want to share with the four individuals, the way Janet Gonzalez-Mena
explained culture. As our society
continues to become more diverse it is important to understand all aspects of
culture in order to ensure that we are providing children with the opportunity
to feel welcome, valued and an important part of the early childhood program that they are
enrolled in.
Reference:
Laureate
Education (Producer). (2011). Culture and diversity [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://class.waldenu.edu
I agree that one way culture can be defined is the way groups acts the way they do. This can be from different experiences that people were exposed to such as socially or something genetically that they have inherited.
ReplyDeleteHi Randee, You are so very correct in stating, "As our society continues to become more diverse it is important to understand all aspects of culture in order to ensure that we are providing children with the opportunity to feel welcome". I also feel as early childhood professionals we must be prepared and knowledgeable in understanding culture and diversity in order to teach and support cultural differences in our students and families and supporting home languages. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHello Randee,
ReplyDeleteAs I reflected on the interviews and my colleagues interviews, I noticed that many of define culture and diversity as the "tip of the iceberg". We describe diversity and culture based on what is seen without the true understanding of culture. Since I have been enrolled in this course, I am learning that culture is built within an individual. It is more so personal and it travels way beyond the outer appearance.