All about cultures

After reading the Culture and Education article I think it is important for each of us to identify our own cultures before we can continue to think about other cultures. How are we supposed to determine if our cultural ideals and beliefs will influence our classroom expectations if we do not know that our own culture is? If we are able to see how our actions and behaviors are different from our students then we are then able to find ways to change how we operate and what we expect from our students. I also think that setting up a clear classroom culture is important. For the most part I think elementary majors have learned all about developing a classroom constitution and other ways to insure that students feel they have roles and responsibilities in the classroom, which will allow for students to be more comfortable in the room. This has got to be done in secondary classrooms as well, with some modifications since we will be seeing at least 5 different sets of students each day. By creating a concrete classroom culture then students will hopefully feel more comfortable to be able to participate and learn. I think that by trying to fuse our culture with the cultures of our students we will be able to create a more comfortable learning environment.

There were also two other points from the article that I thought were very interesting. First the author says that cultures are always hybrids. This is more evident today than ever before. I am sure that people have influences from multiple cultures which combine to create their own individual culture. The individuality of each of our cultures is what allows us to bring different things to the table and makes life more interesting. Second the author stated that culture is heavily influenced by a persons location, experiences, and social class. I have felt for a long time that while a persons culture is extremely important a persons socioeconomic standing has an equal part in creating their world view. It is important that as educators we do not fail to overlook the influence that these factors play in regards to our students.