Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I wrote to three friends who are all culturally different from me in one way or another. I was very interested in hearing their definitions of the terms culture and diversity.

1. The first person I asked was our school's Centerstone behavior therapist, Barbara. Barbara works with children who have behavior problems and she works with them at school, does home visits and is just a wonderful person to work with. She sees all sorts of family culture so I was really interested in hearing her definitions of culture and diversity. This was Barbara's response:

"Well, culture to me is a set of beliefs that a set of people share regardless of age, race or sex. 

Diversity, to me, is differences within a group that sets one apart from the rest. Most young people these days are very diverse in the way the live and their belief system. 

We have our own culture in our school versus others that work with children in a different capacity. We even have several cultures within our school from administration to the cafeteria workers."

I found it interesting how she discussed the culture in our school versus others. That goes along with what we have learned about in our course. Just like there is family culture and culture between professions.  In our field, schools and early childhood facilities have different cultures, even if we live in the same town. For example, because I teach in a very low-income area of town, the culture at our school might be different from the areas of town that have higher-incomes. 

Speaking of which, I found it interesting while at an inservice this past week, I was sitting with a teacher who works in a school on the "rich side of town." We were discussing parent-volunteers and I was mentioning how we don't get too many at our school because they are working several jobs or may not have the transportation. The teacher from the rich part of town said that she didn't get much either b/c the parents are busy working to afford the big houses and way of living. I never even thought of it that way! 

2. The second person I asked was one of my best friends from college, Jim. Jim now lives in New Orleans and works at an art studio.  He's very talented in art and gets along great with everyone. I'm sure he is surrounded by much diversity and culture where he lives so I was curious to hear how he defines culture. His response was:

"Culture is made up of the creations that surround us. Culture is man made. Whether it be religion, movies, or french fries, it's the things that we created by being intelligent beings that we surround ourselves with daily. That's why culture changes between different groups of people. Different groups of people surround themselves with different man-made things. And sub-cultures are broken up from there. Diversity is the difference between these groups of people. The easiest way to identify that diversity is perhaps the different sub-culture creations that suround these groups. However, diversity isn't always man-made. Diversity can be cultural, can be by heritage, where we live, the color of our skin. Diversity is just our differences, and a portion of that is our differences in culture."

I was interested in his definition of culture in that it's manmade. Especially the part where he stated culture changed between different groups of people. That is so true. For example, when I'm with my family, we usually are seated in the living room talking and watching TV. But when I am visiting my best friend's family, we will sit out on the porch and listen to music or sit around a bonfire and talk. There is typically more conversation with the later group. Culture has to do with everything we do (Family Cultures: Dynamic Interactions). I believe he is spot on with his definition of diversity. I even discussed in my first discussion post about how diversity has subgroups. Such as we can be diverse by our relationships... this would be things like: mother, parent, teenagers, widow, etc. A subgroup within mothers would be a mother who is apart of the group "mothers against drunk driving" (Deaux, 2008).

3. The 3rd person who I asked was my best friend Andrea. She is also a teacher and we've been friends since childhood. She said

"To me, culture is one's background based on traditions, religion, beliefs, and upbringing. Culture helps define who we are and why we behave the way we do. Diversity is recognizing there are differences between other's cultures (beliefs, traditions, & upbringings). It is becoming increasingly more important in our society to learn about and respect the diverse cultures that make up our diverse country. We are a country built upon diverse cultures and it's critical to respect that."

When Andrea said "Culture helps define who we are and why we behave the way we do" made me think of the podcast we watched in week 2. Nadiyah (in the podcast) discussed that culture has a wide-range of meaning because culture has to do with everything we do (Family Cultures: Dynamic Interactions).

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I also noticed that some aspects of the term "culture" have been omitted from their definitions. Culture is a much more broad term than most realize. It's not only religion, traditions and beliefs. It everything we do. The week 2 podcasts discussed how culture is also how we behave and react in certain situations, how we present ourselves, how we greet others, etc. It's so broad, it really has to do with everything about us (Family Cultures: Dynamic Interactions).

Thinking about other people’s definitions of culture and diversity has influenced my own thinking about these topics in that I have realized how much my understanding of the terms have changed in the 3 weeks I have been in this course. I also discovered that between all three responses, when giving me their definition of diversity, the word DIFFERENCES popped up every time. I even underlined them to point it out. I now think of the words diverse and differences almost like synonyms. I believe diversity is not something that should be shunned or ignored. It is a part of life and that I need to expose children to much diversity in my care so that they grow up to be accepting individuals of other's diversity or differences from him or herself.

Resources 

Producer Unknown. Family Cultures: Dynamic Interactions [Video Podcast]. (Date Unknown). Retrieved on July 10, 2013 from the Resources section of week 2 of Walden University's EDUC 6164 class at https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2F webapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_3397 499_1%26url%3D

Deaux, K. (2001). Social identity. In J. Worell (Ed.), Encyclopedia of women and gender (Vols. 1–2, pp. 1–9). Maryland Heights, MO: Academic Press.