After asking three people about
their perspective on diversity and culture, I received a variety of
answers. The perspectives of each person
are below:
1. This perspective is from a female in her mid-late 50’s, who is an
elementary school teacher.
“I've had varying views
about culture. My first thoughts growing up were that it connected to ethnicity
where someone for example came from, their country. You know living in the area
in which I grew up in the 70's wasn't diverse at all. I don't even remember
diversity until I really started working at a bank in Montgomery County,
Maryland. I know that I have had racial biases. My children have shown me
through their lives to see things differently.
Also now being in education I've come to view it
as a multitude of different things. It's the environment that someone lives in,
it’s their religion, their values, their traditions, the way they dress, the
foods they eat, the books they read, their political views, their race, their
economic status, the way they see themselves in relation to others.
The kids attended a very diverse high school. I
remember talking with my son one day and he said that he really liked it
because you didn't have to have everyone as your best friend but you definitely
learned to tolerate others that weren't "like" you. It was more
representative of what the rest of the real world was like. You can't live in a
bubble. You don't have to accept everyone's beliefs or cultural differences but
respecting them is important. The only exception to that for me is if it's a
safety or health concern. Everyone needs to be safe and feel safe.
This country was formed
from a melting pot of immigrates and we are still that if not more.”
2.
This perspective is from
a male in his early 20’s.
“Culture is what you are like, what group you’re in, like Black,
White or Hispanic. Diversity is being different than others I guess.”
3.
This perspective is from
a female in her mid-20’s who is also an elementary school teacher.
“Culture is different ethnicities, religions, races, and
traditions. Diversity is kids with those
differences in the classroom. We have to
learn about their culture to help them learn best in our classroom.”
I feel that the second and third perspectives are the way that
most people view culture and diversity.
There is a basic idea about what it includes, but not a full
comprehension of what culture truly is. I believe the first response is exactly
what we have been studying in this course.
It is clear that this person has a deep understanding and appreciation
for culture and diversity and has even had personal experiences related to
cultural differences. She said, “. It's the environment that someone lives in,
it’s their religion, their values, their traditions, the way they dress, the
foods they eat, the books they read, their political views, their race, their
economic status, the way they see themselves in relation to others.” This is what we have been learning about
during this course, that culture is ingrained in us; it is how we live and
function every day, it is in everything that we do. I thought she captured this very well in her
explanation.
In the perspectives, diversity
was explained as “being different”, which is true, but no one was able to
elaborate on the concept. The failed to
identify the many different ways in which we can be diverse including, age,
gender, sexual orientation, and occupation.
Diverse is seen as being different, but often times the specific ways
that people can be different can be overlooked.
There is so much diversity even within the diverse groups that I
mentioned above. Diversity does include
differences, but it is what makes each of us an individual.
After reading these three
responses, I feel that at the beginning of this course, I was more like the
second and third perspectives. I had a
basic idea of culture and diversity, but had absolutely no idea how deep they
go. I think that the more educated one
is on this topic, the more one is able to comprehend just how profound these
topics are. I certainly relate more to
the first definition of culture because I have studied and learned about
culture and diversity over the past three weeks. I appreciate the knowledge that I have gained
because in the education field, if I don’t understand what culture and
diversity are, I will certainly have a difficult time meeting the cultural and
diverse needs of children and families.
