- "Culture to me is following the traditions in the country you were born or where your parents were born. For example eating foods, dressing from the country, listening to the music, speaking the language. Diverse to me means being open minded to other peoples cultures around them" (Ms. Betsy, May 22, 2013).
- "Diversity means inclusion to me. Accepting others, like people with disabilities. When I think of culture, I think of the way you were raised. The food and holiday traditions that are shared in your family" (Ms. Clover, May 21, 2013).
- "Culture to me is the way that society acts. Diversity is the difference in people" (Mr. Paul, May 24, 2013).
After discussing these definitions with my co-workers, I believe that people think more about surface cultures instead of deep cultures. Since this course I now look more closely about the deep cultures of my own family. If I had to ask others about their definitions again I would ask more open-ended questions, so people would think deeper about their cultures. Before this course, I saw more of the surface cultures like many individuals but I have learned that their is so much more about someone's culture that needs to be shared.
Lorren,
ReplyDeleteI ended up with the same insight that you did! As I collected the definitions from the three people that I asked, I discovered that a lot of people will immediately define surface culture, rather than looking at the deeper aspects of culture. I was like you, where prior to this course, I would have offered a definition similar to surface culture. I think that we tend to focus on surface culture because we don't stop to think about the deeper elements that we experience everyday. It's only when we stop to think about what truly influences our culture or when we experience oppression that the deeper culture starts to surface.
Thanks for sharing!
Erin
Lorren,
ReplyDeleteWithout a doubt most of us think of culture in the more visible aspect of it. Culture is a very personal identity that we sometimes can identify with or not. Moreover, diversity as the term implies, is being diverse, different, several perspectives of something, diversity is necessary in order for culture to survive.
Elisa
Wow I see the growth in you as I do in myself. I feel as if this is a psychology class. (LOL) I am glad to know we are all on the same page as far as diversity and culture goes. Imagine where we will be in five weeks.
ReplyDeleteYour blog was really interesting. I too, believe that others only really see basic culture. They don't see "deep" culture,as we now see it! We can attribute that to this course.
ReplyDelete