Teaching About Culture in a Changing World

By Emily M. Schell, Ed.D. Executive Director, California Global Education Project at University of San Diego

The term culture means many things to many people. It is the food, clothing, and celebrations of a group of people. It is the knowledge, history, values, and beliefs of the people. It is the rituals, traditions, and ways of being of people. Not to mention the art, music, and literature or stories. Cultural groups may share the same language, religion, and/or governmental system. They may share the same land.

When I was a student, we learned about each other’s cultures by sharing examples of clothing, art, and food from our personal cultural heritage. We described a cultural holiday or celebration, named a country of origin for these cultural elements, and demonstrated the language in a greeting. When these examples came together, we called it a multicultural fair, displayed national flags, and pointed out locations on a world map. In many schools today, this continues to be a common practice (or tradition) and limits student learning about cultures to the lowest level of multicultural education — the contributions approach (Banks, 2019). Today’s students require more to understand the complexities of our world and they are certainly capable of learning about cultures through transformative and social action approaches.

A clear and consistent definition can present challenges when we ask students to apply the term culture to their own personal contexts or to a region of the world experiencing change. More and more, every region is experiencing some kind of change in response to the climate crisis, economic challenges, civil unrest, advanced technologies, media, violence, and more. Therefore, we must keep an open mind while engaging students in studies of culture so that their learning is meaningful, relevant, dynamic, and authentic. Here are some ideas for making that happen in your classroom:

Cultural Iceberg Model

Present the analogy of an iceberg to students by drawing an iceberg with the waterline showing one-third of the iceberg above water and two-thirds below the surface. Label the top part of the iceberg “Behavior” and explain that this can be considered cultural expression, or the ways in which a group’s culture might be seen by people. Allow students to identify what is often viewable in a cultural group (e.g., clothing, games, food, art, language, music). You might ask students for some examples of these viewable aspects of one’s culture (i.e., saris, mancala, kimchi, calligraphy, French, opera).

Next, label the bottom part of the iceberg “Beliefs, Values, Thought Patterns” and explain that these are elements of a group’s culture that underlie, or inform, the behaviors of that culture. Invite students to identify what may not be easily seen in a person from that culture, but is foundational for what is expressed in that culture (e.g., family structure, gender roles, work ethic, world view, concept of justice). Again, you might ask students to share some examples.

Discuss with students the messages presented in this model. Encourage them to consider that we cannot understand a culture by only looking at what is within view. It is through the suspension of judgment, spending of time, and building of relationships with those outside of our cultural groups that we learn what values and beliefs explain visible behaviors and choices. Also, by using this model, we can all become more self-reflective and inquire of others in our cultural groups to better understand the shared values, philosophies, and histories of our own cultures. (Hall, 1976)

Try out this free, downloadable worksheet to explore culture in your classroom:

Cause and Effect of Cultural Change

Pose the question to students, “What might cause changes in cultural behaviors or values and beliefs?” Encourage students to think about the ways cultural groups might move beyond established physical borders or communicate with those from outside of their cultural group using technologies or other forms of media. Additional questions to ask might include, “What happens when people learn about different ways of making food, different forms of transportation, different kinds of dance, or different styles of architecture?” and “How might cultural groups adapt to limited or no longer available resources to sustain their practices?”

Now ask students to consider the effects of cultural change. Ask, “How might you feel if something you have practiced all your life is suddenly changed?” Provide examples, such as praying in an online group rather than in a local temple, or visiting your grandparents in a retirement home rather than living with them in one house. Encourage students to discuss how they would feel if this change occurred in their life, and how they might feel if they watched these changes happen to people in another cultural group. Prompt students to consider that oftentimes, the underlying values and beliefs remain intact while cultural behaviors change. However, there are times when cultural groups are confronted with necessary changes to their traditional values and beliefs that relate to such issues as rights of passage, gender roles, arranged marriages, views on childbirth, healthcare, and education.

Cultural Identity and Artifacts

In order for students to view concepts, issues, events, and themes from the perspectives of diverse ethnic and cultural groups as described in the Transformation Approach of multicultural education, they must develop an understanding and appreciation for their own cultural identity as well as that of others. Students can be invited to find an artifact from their culture to bring to class or photograph and share along with a description of how this artifact represents cultural behaviors, values, and/or beliefs. In sharing circles, students can discuss comparisons, themes, and patterns they observe across artifacts while posing questions to better understand the cultural identities of classmates. This is a different approach from putting cultural artifacts on display as representative of one’s culture and provides opportunities for cross-cultural exchange and relationship building.

Emily M. Schell, Ed.D., is Executive Director of the California Global Education Project at University of San Diego’s School of Leadership and Education Sciences. She is on the Executive Committee of the California Environmental Literacy Initiative, Ambassador to HundrED, and an author for McGraw Hill’s IMPACT Social Studies program. Dr. Schell is a former teacher, principal, and Social Studies Resource Teacher for San Diego Unified, K-12 History-Social Science Coordinator for San Diego County Office of Education, Liaison for National Geographic Education, and Teacher Education Faculty at San Diego State University. She earned her B.A. in Diversified Liberal Arts and Ed.D. in Leadership Studies at University of San Diego, and M.S. in Journalism at Northwestern University. Dr. Schell combines her years of experience and interests in social studies, geography, and interdisciplinary education to promote global education as a way to support student agency and social justice.

References

Banks, J. A. (2019). An introduction to multicultural education (6th edition). New York: Pearson.

Hall, E. T. (1976) Beyond culture. New York: Doubleday.