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Teaching Diverse Populations  EDG 2701 Unit I Lesson II What is Culture?
Personal Information Joseph D. McNair Associate Professor, Senior jmcnair@mdc.edu			Links Course Syllabus
Introduction to the Lesson The purpose of the second lesson in this unit is to introduce the education student to the concept of culture.  Culture, according to Van Maanen and Laurent (1993)  provides members with images of their basic concerns, principles, ethics, and bodies of manners, rituals, ideologies, strategies, and tactics of self-survival including certain notions of good deeds and bad, various forms of folklore and legends. […] The way we give logic to the world begins at birth with the gestures, words, tone of voice, noises, colors, smells, and body contact we experience. [...] Our culture is what is familiar, recognizable, habitual. It is `what goes without saying’ A thorough understanding of what culture is and what culture does is essential to an understanding of the learning process, how paradigms are formed and  and how paradigms are changed or shifted.  Students will be exposed in this unit to such overarching concepts as enculturation, acculturation, cultural diffusion, cultural relativism, cultural filters and ethnocentricism. Students will be able to access a glossary of important cultural terminology.  Students will also be able to define and examine culture through at least two (2) different paradigms, a traditional mainstream academic paradigm of culture e.g. Conrad Kottak and William Haviland and a transformational academic paradigm, Wade Nobles and Marimba Ani. This lesson was developed to address elements of competency #3 on the barriers to understanding diversity for education majors who are taking EDG 2701 in partial fulfillment of the graduation requirements for an Associate of Arts degree in Teaching (Elementary), Teaching (Secondary), Early Childhood and Exceptional Education. Competency #3 reads (in part) as follows: "The student will examine barriers to understanding diversity by Demonstrating that cultural differences among students and teachers are natural and inevitable and should be celebrated. Reviewing one's own viewpoint and value system, and compare and contrast these with the viewpoints and values of others from diverse backgrounds. Defining the concept of a cultural filter and explain how it affects the way a person or a group perceives reality. Defining the concept of transformation (including paradigms and paradigm shifts) and explain how it affects the way a person or a group reduces or eliminates prejudice and discrimination. (A complete list of all the competencies for EDF 1005 is provided below by clicking on the link titled competencies)
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