ED 608 OnlineProf. Hough

Group BChristina McIntyreJoseph Carmona

Group B will address the following four areas in the order they appear.

1) What is culture?

2) What characterizes culture?

3) Are all cultures equally functional?

4) Why study the cultural foundations of education?

What is Culture?

Culture: The system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning.

-www.umanitoba.ca

What is Culture?

Culture is…1. The whole of humanity’s intellectual,

social, technological, political, moral, religious, and aesthetic accomplishments.

2. Goal oriented (an approach people use to conquer obstacles).

3. An integrated set of norms or standards by which human behaviors, beliefs, and thinking are organized.

What is Culture?

“Culture is best seen not as complexes of concrete behavior patters… but as a set of control mechanisms… for governing behavior.”

-Clifford Geertz (1973)

“Culture is like a map. A map just isn’t the territory but an abstract description of the trends toward uniformity in the words, deeds, and artifacts of a human group.”

- Clyde Kluckhohn (1968)

What Characterizes Culture?

• Culture:  is a shared, learned, symbolic system of values, beliefs and attitudes that shapes and influences perception and behavior -- an abstract "mental blueprint" or "mental code."

• Must be studied "indirectly" by studying behavior, customs, material culture (artifacts, tools, technology), language, etc.

1)  Learned.   Process of learning one's culture is called  enculturation.

2)  Shared by the members of a society.  No "culture of  one."

3)  Patterned.  People in a society live and think in ways  that form definite patterns.

What Characterizes Culture?

4)  Mutually constructed through a constant process of social interaction.

5)  Symbolic.   Culture, language and thought are based on symbols and symbolic meanings.

6)  Arbitrary.   Not based on "natural laws" external to humans, but created by humans according to the "whims" of the society.  Example: standards of beauty.

7)  Internalized. Habitual. Taken for granted. Perceived as "natural.“

-www2.eou.edu

Are all cultures equally functional?

• Some cultures may be more effective and less maladaptive than others.

• Cultures can be compared with each other in terms of the degree to which they are functional.

• Cultural patterns producing the least number of self-defeating consequences may be considered the most functional.

Are all cultures equally functional?

• Ample evidence exists to suggest that some cultural practices, particularly in highly technological societies, despite fulfilling immediate needs, often have counterproductive long-term consequences.

Pai, Adler& Shadiow(p. 36-37)

Why study the cultural foundations of education?

• Because studying cultural foundations (bases) of education may give us a critical tool with which we can more accurately assess our work as educators and facilitate the development of more effective and just educational strategies and resource allocations to assure optimal learning for all.

Why study the cultural foundations of education?

• Because not only will you be teaching learners who come to school from varied cultural backgrounds and experiences, but you will also be teaching about cultures.

Why study the cultural foundations of education?

• Because education is used to relay cultural content to the next generation, the structure of the educational system, the role of the school, and the teacher-learner relationship reflect the social organization and the cultural norms of the society.

• Because no part of the educative process, neither its contents nor its products, is free from cultural influence.

- Pai, Adler & Shadiow