Q.2 How social and culture context influence upon teaching profession.
COURSE:: Professionalism in Teaching
Course code 8612
Level: B.Ed Solved Assignment
Answer:
Social and Culture Influence upon Teaching Profession.
Many years ago, a cold-hearted scientist placed 100 babies on an uninhabited but fertile island,
half of them boys, half girls. He provided only the minimum requirements to keep them alive.
He left them food and water, being careful not to be seen. He kept them from harm, when
possible. For years, the children received none of the trappings of a normal upbringing: no
language, no education, no culture. Later, he slowly began feeding and watering them less and
less, until eventually he gave them nothing at all.
After 20 years on the island, who are these people? Have they retained the thinking and sentient
qualities that make them undeniably human or are they merely hairless apes? Myriad possible
scenarios unfold — war, camaraderie, invention and language. Within a few hundred years, the
islanders might have even cultivated traditions and cultures.
Most likely, however, within that 20 years the only proof of the experiment would be the finding
of a few small bones on the now deserted coastline. The islanders would be dead.
— Excerpt from New Scientist “Island of wild children: Would they learn to be human?” by
Christopher Kemp
CULTURE AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
When humans grow up without culture, do they ultimately invent it? What role does culture
play in defining the individual? How does culture impact learning?
Paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall says “You cannot think of human beings as independent of
culture and their society. This goes back a long, long way before we were human. It goes back
millions and millions of years, back into our primate and mammal past. Even the most basic
aspects of our cognitive development depend on being raised by linguistic, articulate parents,
embedded within a rich and historical culture.”
According to her article, “Reflections on the Impact of Culture in the Classroom,” Giselle
Mora-Bourgeois says culture refers to the ways in which different groups of people organize
their daily lives within national or ethnic groups, urban neighborhoods, companies and
professions, and other settings. Culture includes what people actually do and what they
believe. Culture influences greatly how we see the world, how we try to understand it and
how we communicate with each other. Therefore, culture determines, to a great extent,
learning and teaching styles.
IMPACT OF CULTURE ON WORLDVIEW
In his Huff Post Education article “Examining the Impact of Culture on Academic
Performance,” Matthew Lynch. EdD says a person’s culture and upbringing has a profound
effect on how they see the world and how they process information. “The Geography of
Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently,” by Richard Nisbett, showed how the
Asian holistic view of the world differed from their American counterparts, who tended to
view the world in parts or distinct classes of objects defined by a set of rules.
In other words, the Asian children see the world in terms of the relationship b etween things,
whereas the American children see the world in terms of the objects as distinct entities. This information is helpful when we consider how cultural background might influence approach
to learning and school performance.
Theories exist to help explain differences in school performance among different racial and
ethnic groups.
CULTURE: PARENTS AND EDUCATORS
Parents and educators are aware of the disparities that exist under their own school house
roofs. Disparities exist in achievement, funding and readiness. But we cannot be expected to
sufficiently address any of these gaps without acknowledging the cultural gaps that continue
to exist between students and teachers.
Culture is often perceived as celebrated holidays and recipes, or religious traditions. But at the
root of it, culture is a unique experience. Cultural tendencies impact the way children
participate in education. To engage students effectively in the learning process, teachers must
know their students and their academic abilities individually, rather than relying on racial or
ethnic stereotypes or prior experience with other students of similar backgrounds.
The definition of normal school behavior can be based upon individualist and collectivist
cultures. Teachers who lack knowledge about a culture might misinterpret the behavior of a
child and inaccurately judge students as poorly behaved or disrespectful.
M.S. Rosenberg, D.L. Westling and J. McLeskey in “Special Education for Today’s Teachers: An
Introduction,” say that the influence of culture on the importance of education and
participation styles cannot be overestimated. Many Asian students, for example, tend to be
quiet in class, and making eye contact with teachers is considered inappropriate. In contrast,
most European American children are taught to value active classroom discussion and to look
teachers directly in the eye to show respect, while their teachers view students’ participation
as a sign of engagement and competence.
Parents from some Hispanic cultures tend to regard teachers as experts and will often defer
educational decision making to them, whereas European American parents are often more
actively involved in their children’s classrooms, are visible in the classrooms, or volunteer and
assist teachers These cultural differences in value and belief may cause educators to make inaccurate judgments regarding the value that non –European American families place on
education.
IMPACT ON EDUCATION
Educators understand that learners are not all the same. Pat Guild of the Johns Hopkins
School of Education says that too often, educators continue to treat all learners alike despite
the obvious cultural diversity within. Mora-Bourgeois adds that addressing cultural
differences in the teaching-learning process is both important and controversial. It is
important because we are confronted with an increasingly diverse population of students and
the wide achievement gap between minority and non-minority students. It is controversial
because we may fall into the trap of cultural stereotyping and making naive attempts to
explain achievement differences among our students.
Teachers remain the ultimate advocates for learning, yet many are not necessarily aware of
what their students deal with once the dismissal bell has rung. The Southern Poverty Law
Center’s Teaching Tolerance says that many teachers are white, middle class English speaking
individuals. While teachers typically are color blind — they teach with equity and without
discrimination — this practice does not always address cultural diversity. Teachers cannot
escape the fact that their communication “styles” reflect their cultural background. Much of
what they say, the way they say it, and their relationship with students, parents and colleagues
are deeply influenced by the way they have been socialized. Race and ethnicity often play
integral roles in children’s identities, and contribute to their behavior and their beliefs.
Recognizing this can help students succeed in a school culture where expectations and
communication are unfamiliar.
