Challenge 4: How to cope with cultural dilemmas in an increasingly globalized world?
Program of the day:
Program of the day:
1) Presentation
2) The central concepts: concept of culture and concept of dilemma
3) Example of cultural dilemmas,
4) Work with cases
5) Discussion
6) Summing up
7) Answer the challenge
Presentation:
ð Research and development
Mindmap:
The central concepts: the concept of culture and concept of dilemma:
Reading the text: body ritual among the Nacirema
Comments!
Where are they from?
ð Canadian, Mexican, between central America to northern America
ð Nacirema: American. The writing is rewriting a known culture to a whole other different “ culture”
We are actually seeing a lot of stereotypic things like plastic surgery, people that don't have health insurance,People are getting a colour in the sun, they are giving a lot of attention to their appearences...
These are Known things about America ( stereotypes). Another way, that we discovered that this " culture" was "America" is because their cultural hero is “ Washington” but spelled backwards.
This text is an example of how we talk about people of other cultures… We make a stereotype out of every culture. I'm actually surprised of this! Normally when we read this kind of text, we read it from the Western point of view. The Western give comments about the southern or eastern part. And now we are reading an observation of " a western culture" out of the point of view of the Eastern part. They are also stereotyping our culture.
The 3 concept of culture: Evolutionary, relativistic and complex.
We have discussed differen angles about culture.
1) The evolutionary concept of culture: you are trying to change the culture.
- Some cultures are better and more right than others.
They are told that the Western culture is the best one! ( which of course isn't! )
- Some cultures rank higher than others on a” developing ladder”
Ranking professions, the ones who are on top of the ladder, they’ll probably develop much easier and much more than other cultures. They’re going to be civilized.
- The goal ( at least from those on the top of the ladder ) must always go up the ladder
2) The relativistic concept of culture: everything is part of the individual's own culture.
- All cultures are equal! They are equal in their own kind of way !
- Cultures as homogenic islands
It's not dynamic but it's static
- Cultural relativims is the principle that an individuals human beliefs and activities should be understood by others in terms of that individual’s own culture
Its very human to categorize "things/ persons" and you are using tools to categorize but we have to unlearn this. It's not useful to rank cultures and to put our Western culture up on the ladder.
Comment!
It's not useful to say that every culture is equal. You have to have a wide knowledge about the other cultures that exist. It’s impossible to understand other cultures because you will never be a part of that culture. Individual differences are being ignored. You start to generalize and then you start making stereotypes.
Problems with the evolutionary and the relativistic concept of culture are:
ð Individual differences are being ignored: we can’t do this, it’s impossible for the concept of culture.
ð The local context is ignored!
Each time a person reacts in a different kind of way then that you would see as " normal" , you will blame this behaviour on it's culture. You'll say " It's because of his culture that he’s behaving this way! " It's not right to say this. You have to have some kind of diagnose before you can conclude something. The kid might have physical or mental handicaps, maybe the "home" situation is all messed up They are blaming it on the culture because they don’t want to do anything about his problems/ behaviour.
We talked about a Model from a certain scientist that talks about the freedom of kids:
He says the following: In Western cultures you get more freedom while growing up. But Foreign pupils have a lot of freedom in the beginning, but while they are growing up, their freedom is being limited.
Comment!
I don't think you have to see this as a limitation of your freedom. Every person can do some things and can't do some things. When you get older, you have to get a job and you'll automaticly receive more responsibilities. You have responsabilities towards your family, kids, job, ... Each culture has their own " primary" principes.
The complex concept of culture:
- Culture is not something you have
- Culture is created among people , when they interact
- Culture is tacit knowledge, the meaning and values that we share- but we don’t know it before hand
- Everyone in a culture does know share the same values.
- Cultures may not be seen as fx national cultures ( homogenic)
- Always differences within cultures, there can be certain dominating logics, but not everyone agrees to that logic
- The culture are constantly moving and there will always be negotiations
- We are moving between different cultures
Task:
- Why is it important to be aware of and have knowledge about the concept of culture when working as a social worker or a teacher?
Because sometimes you'll see a certain situation and you won't know how to give a good " respond" . What you may see as something " bad", you have to take into account that another culture will also see this as a " bad" thing. You have to have a good knowledge about other cultures so that you can respond properly without offending nearby persons. If you respond in a bad way, it might cause some damage to your own " life". If you have the knowledge, you can use this knowledge to search for solutions that is acceptable for the other culture but also for your own culture.
- What challenge do you see in the concept of culture?
First of all, i think we have to get rid of the prejudice. A lot of people don't know much about different cultures and this leads to stereotypes. The challenge is to step aside from these stereotypes and try to understand or get to know different cultures. I think it's also important for us not to see the western culture as the "BEST" culture. Each culture has their own way of living, and we have to respect that! Who are we to tell other persons, how to live their life? Sometimes we think that the Western culture is the " way of living" but we don't know this. We aren't a part of another culture, so we can't tell the difference.
First of all, i think we have to get rid of the prejudice. A lot of people don't know much about different cultures and this leads to stereotypes. The challenge is to step aside from these stereotypes and try to understand or get to know different cultures. I think it's also important for us not to see the western culture as the "BEST" culture. Each culture has their own way of living, and we have to respect that! Who are we to tell other persons, how to live their life? Sometimes we think that the Western culture is the " way of living" but we don't know this. We aren't a part of another culture, so we can't tell the difference.
- Is the concept useful when we talk about human differences?
Yes or no? Why?
I think it's useful to use these concepts to get a better view on the human differences but it's not always easy to understand these concepts. When you are talking about these different cultures, you can use these concepts to form your conclusion on how to react on different cultures. We have to take into account that not every person has the same culture. We have to accept the differen cultures and these concepts can help us with this.
I think it's useful to use these concepts to get a better view on the human differences but it's not always easy to understand these concepts. When you are talking about these different cultures, you can use these concepts to form your conclusion on how to react on different cultures. We have to take into account that not every person has the same culture. We have to accept the differen cultures and these concepts can help us with this.
- How is the concept used within your professional?
We find these cultural concepts very important because the chance of getting a multicultural class in Belgium is very high. In our class, we try to break free of al prejudice and we learn the pupils to be very respectful towards another culture. First, we learn them a lot of their own culture, because you can only respect another culture, if you have a great knowledge about your own culture. We organise a lot of multicultural events. These events creates a big attention towards other cultures. Kids get the chance to present their culture to other classmates. Pupils of a young age are very interested in other cultures.
We find these cultural concepts very important because the chance of getting a multicultural class in Belgium is very high. In our class, we try to break free of al prejudice and we learn the pupils to be very respectful towards another culture. First, we learn them a lot of their own culture, because you can only respect another culture, if you have a great knowledge about your own culture. We organise a lot of multicultural events. These events creates a big attention towards other cultures. Kids get the chance to present their culture to other classmates. Pupils of a young age are very interested in other cultures.
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| I'm teaching in a multicultural class... |
Reflection:
I found the text about " Nacirema" very interesting to read. It looked like a whole new " other culture" that i've never heard off but when we discussed the text, everything became clear. This was actually a culture we all know about, it was Amercia. This is a good example of making stereotypes. The author wrote about " American things" and he wrote this in an other perspectif, so it was hard for us to discover what he was really talking about. The concepts of Evolution were very interesting, but it's not easy to understand. If you know these concepts very well, than you'll be able to react better on the way of living of another culture. You'll know what your limits are and what you "can and can't do " when you're being confronted with another culture.
