Culture

This week I spoke with three people I know and asked them to define culture and diversity.

"Diversity means that there are a lot of different ways to live and that many people can live together with different ideas and morals and can help one another be more tolerant. Culture is the fuel behind diversity, it is essentially everything you do- all your behaviors, your values, your food, your traditions" (M. Night, personal communication, 27 May, 2017.

"Culture means the way you were raised by your family and by society, it defines you as a person. It includes things like the way you dress, your gender role, the food you eat, and how you raise children. Diversity is the idea that everyone has a unique personal culture and, in any area, there exists a level of diversity because of the people that are around you" (R. Hill, personal communication, 27 May, 2017).

"Culture stems from where you live geographically, your ethnicity and family history, your likes and dislikes, and more. It just means the way you live and how you navigate through society. As a teacher, I see children's cultures come out in their play on a daily basis. People sometimes think that children do not have culture, but in fact, they are learning culture by learning ways to behave and think. Diversity means that everyone has different values and ideals about how to live" (R. Frazier, personal communication, 27 May, 2017).

In our course, we have studied culture to mean the ways in which you live your life, including your behaviors, your values, your social identities, and more. My three contacts this week touched on each of these points, noting that culture means the way you live, demonstrating how "everything we do and think is related to culture" (Laureaute Education, Inc., 2011, 0:24). Janet Gonzales-Mena describes a set of unconscious rules that govern us and that are learned and inherited by the people around us, including perspectives, beliefs, world-views, food, music, customs, literature, and more (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011). Additionally, Smidt (2013) demonstrates culture as highly visible in the early years in the ways that children play and take on roles, something that Frazier discussed during my interview.

Some things that my interviewees did not discuss are things like raising your own children, clashing of cultures, dominant cultures, cultural alignment, and culture loss or cultural tension. Even when I spoke to an early childhood educator, Frazier did not mention any kind of issues that have arisen in recent years about cultures in the United States. Derman-Sparks & Edwards (2010) detail the challenges of the early childhood educator (and of parents and families) to help children maintain strong ties to their family cultures even when it does not align with a dominant culture.

What I am realizing is that people in dominant cultures may not have a lot of knowledge about the difficulties of raising children in today's society and helping them maintain strong social identities. For me, this is important knowledge to have because I eventually want to teach professionals in the early childhood field. Many professionals that choose to embark on careers in early childhood may not be aware that they are strongly aligned with a dominant culture and may not know the ways in which having this priviledge has changed their perspective. I hope to help new and young educators learn more about cultural loss and how to support family cultures in the classroom.

References

Derman-Sparks, L. & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, D.C.: NAEYC.

Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Culture and diversity [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
 
Smidt, S. (2006). The developing child in the 21st century: A global perspective on child development. New York, NY: Routledge.

Three objects

If there was a catastrophic event and I could only bring three objects with me to my new destination, I would bring my wedding and engagement rings, a dolphin figurine my mother gave me, and a glass Ball jar from the 1950's that my father-in-law gave me. These items are representative of my culture because each of them has a significant meaning to my past and my life.  The first item, my wedding rings, mean a lot to me because they represent the promise that my husband and I made to one another and they identify him as one of the most significant and supportive people in my life. These rings are important to me because they help me remember that I am supported and loved. Culturally, they represent my ideals about marriage and living a life together with a partner. Second, the dolphin my mom gave me, represents the love as a family we have for each other. For some reason, when I was very young, my mom (who is not my biological mom) began using dolphins to symbolize our family of two. We had pictures of two dolphins together a lot and we also had figures of two dolphins together. To her, these statues and photographs represented her and I. If I had to guess, I would guess that the dolphin is symbolic of swimming together and valuing intelligence and serenity for her, and this is how I would explain it to someone. Finally, the Ball jar that my father-in-law gave me represents the only family history I identify with, which is the history of my husband's family. As an adopted child, I never truly identified with either of my families until I was married, and then I aligned myself closely with my in-laws. The Ball jar was found by my father-in-law underneath the foundation of their house, and it is suspected that it was used for canning by my husband's relatives. It reminds me that my husband's family were farmers and worked hard for their food and living and that they were determined laborers. These three items are truly representative of my family's culture.

To be honest, I have never been a materialistic person, and if I was told that I could only keep one item, I would not be very upset. I would choose to keep my wedding/engagement rings and get rid of the jar and the dolphin. What is important to me is that my children hear the stories of their family rather than have concrete objects to remind them of their heritage. Since my heritage and culture is different from that of my birth family and my adoptive family, it is not very upsetting to me to lose touch with the objects that represent my own culture. I am satisfied with having memories of these objects instead, but I do understand how upsetting it might be to someone who held a strong attachment to objects to be told that they could not keep them.

This assignment has really made me aware of cultural differences. I suspect that many of my colleagues have items from their family's histories that they would choose to bring with them, and this highlights the diversity that is seen among even citizens of the same nation. While objects are not important to my cultural perspective, I do recognize the importance of objects to other people. I also remember looking at an article with pictures of Syrian refugees' belongings; many of these people carried only a backpack with toiletries inside to help them journey from  Syria to their destinations. I do not remember the location of this article, but if I find it, I will definitely post it to our doc sharing board. I do not think that many of these refugees carried with them cultural objects, but rather survivalist essentials.