Chapter 4

Classrooms and Schools as Cultural Crossroads

 McGraw-Hill/Irwin  ©2012 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

4-2

Schools and Classrooms: Where Cultures Interact

• In schools, as perhaps nowhere else in American society, people of many different backgrounds are forced to come together for significant periods of time.

• When they arrive, they find a culture of the school itself that may be very different from their own familiar cultural milieux.

 

4-3

Student Culture: Diverse in Many Ways

• The bases for association and identity:o Cultural: ethnicity, race, gender, classo Academic: biology club, French clubo Interest or Skill: choir, band, footballo Social: cliques, gangs

 

4-4

Teacher Culture: Predominantly Homogenous

• 75 percent female• Historically, working and middle class• Relatively low status in the adult social system of

the school• 85 percent European American

 

4-5

Parent Culture

• Increasingly recognized as an important role in education and the school's sense of community.

• Can be influenced by: o Socioeconomic status of familyo First language of familyo Family organizationo Immigrant or refugee status of families

 

4-6

Culture of the School as a Whole

• “Culture bound”; the culture to which most are bound is the dominant culture of European Americans

• Overwhelmingly middle class in values• Its purpose is to transmit the cultural beliefs,

values, and knowledge affiliated with the dominant society

• Interested in social control• Often sees diversity as a problem, not a resource

 

4-7

Teachers as Cultural Mediators

• A new role for teachers: mediating cultural similarities and differenceso Be knowledgeable about the role of culture in teaching and

learning.o Be skillful in addressing the educational needs of diverse

students.o Be prepared to engage students in content and activities that

enable them to handle intercultural interactions with others.

 

4-8

Diagram of the U-Curve Hypothesis

 

4-9

The U-Curve Hypothesis

• Honeymoon:o Excitement at dealing with

new people; preconceived notions

• Hostility:o Frustration when

preconceived notions do not produce desired results

• Humor:o If frustrations are

conquered, understanding begins and one can laugh at one’s mistakes

• Home:o One’s own cultural identity

has been altered; one feels “at home”

 

4-10

Reshaping Identity Takes Time

• It may be as long as two years; if a new language is involved, it may take up to seven.

• It is difficult, though not at all impossible, to alter deeply held beliefs about others.

• If we are to take full advantage of our diverse people, both teachers and students need to think seriously about reshaping our own cultural identities.

 

4-11

Acculturation and Identity

• Acculturation refers to the changes that take place as a result of continuous firsthand contact between individuals of different cultures.

• The degree of mobility and the degree of choice in acculturating groups are both important.

 

4-12

High Degree of Mobility

• Immigrants or Sojourners: those with a high degree of mobility who voluntarily make contact with new cultural groups

• Refugees: those with a high degree of mobility but little or no choice in making contact with new cultural groups

 

4-13

Low Degree of Mobility

• Ethnic Groups: those with a low degree of mobility but a high degree of voluntary contact with others

• Indigenous People: those with a low degree of mobility and a low degree of voluntary contact with others

 

4-14

Willingness to Change Cultural Identity

• Integration: People maintain relationships with other groups while at the same time maintaining their own cultural identity.

• Assimilation: People maintain relationships with other groups but do not consider it of value to maintain their own cultural identity.

• Where people value their own cultural identity but not relationships with other groups, separation (when by choice for both groups) or segregation (when forced on one group by another) may result.

• Marginalization: People value neither their own identity nor relationships with other groups.

 

4-15

Themes from Cross-Cultural Psychology

• People tend to communicate their cultural identity to others in the broadest terms possible.

• Because we are all multicultural, our cultural identity is dynamic and always changing.

• Although culture is complex and variable, it is nevertheless patterned. 

• Interactions with other cultures can be viewed as a resource for understanding.

• Behavior should be judged in relation to its context.• Persons holding a multicultural perspective continually

strive to find common ground between individuals.

 

4-16

Stages in Cross-Cultural Interaction

• Stage 1: Understanding Emotional Responses in Intercultural Interaction

• Stage 2: Understanding the Cultural Basis of Unfamiliar Behavior

• Stage 3: Making Adjustments and Reshaping Cultural Identity

 

4-17

Stage 1: Understanding Emotional Responses

• Anxiety—about appropriate behavior• Ambiguity—messages may be unclear• Disconfirmed Expectations—what we think will

happen doesn’t• Belonging/Rejection—we don’t know the “rules”• Confronting Personal Prejudices—we may find

that our previously held beliefs are inaccurate

 

4-18

Stage 2: Understanding the Cultural Basis of Unfamiliar Behavior

• Communication and Language Use: understanding verbal and nonverbal, facial expressions, gestures

• Values: deeply held, they may be quite different• Rituals and Superstitions: may be viewed as

“silly” to one group or another• Situational Behavior: the “rules” of behavior may

vary in the same situationcont.

 

4-19

• Roles: knowledge of appropriate role behavior may also vary across culture groups

• Social Status: markers of high and low status with respect to roles may vary

• Time and Space: differences in conceptions of time and space may vary, as well as differences in appropriate behavior regarding time (e.g. punctuality)

• Relationship of the Group Versus the Individual: the importance of the individual and/or the group may be different across culture groups.

 

4-20

Stage 3: Making Adjustments and Reshaping Cultural Identity

• Changes and adjustments may occur in the following:o Categorization—the content and value of our categorieso Differentiation—as we become more sophisticated, meaning is

associated with more refined categorieso Ingroups and Outgroups—redefining who’s “in” and who’s “out”

in meaningful wayso Learning Style—adjustments and expansions in our ability to

learn effectivelyo Attribution—broadening the basis on which we understand the

behavior of others

 

4-21

Identifying Commonalities

• The goal of the culture-general model goes beyond simply negotiating differences.

• It is intended to help individuals search for commonalities, to build bridges to one another, so that all may feel sufficiently comfortable, and so that they can confront differences with equanimity.

 

4-22

Identifying Differences

• Equally important to identifying differences between groups is the ability to identify differences within groups.

• Such variations as social class, geographical location, sexual orientation, or religion are not easy to “see,” but may be important in the way individuals perceive the world and approach learning.