I know that there are many definitions of "Culture" mainly because when I googled "definition of Culture," there were thousands of results. Years ago, I arrived at my own definition (narrowed down and way over simplified) that I use in my classroom when I teach about the connections between students, their artwork and "their culture."
"Culture is the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices of groups of people."
When I ask my students to think about culture they will often think of cultural traits or stereotypes that they do not possess. I find it annoying when at the fairly rural high school that I teach, students will make sure to tell me that, "they aren't country"...whatever that means. Just joking. I know what that means.
Did you notice what I did there? In the last paragraph. When attempting to discuss "Culture" I exposed my own cultural bias. (Here's a recap:I find it annoying when at the fairly rural high school that I teach, students will make sure to tell me that, "they aren't country"...whatever that means.) The only thing this sentence is missing is an Eye Roll emoji! The fact is, I grew up in a rural area and would go out of my way to act .....get this...."not country" The cultural bias is that country people are not smart or drive tractors or....anyway, Neither of those things are true about most people I know that grew up in rural areas. (Most people. There I go again...okay, now insert the eye roll emoji....)
Conversation?...
Fellow Facilitators:
I'm interested in your ideas:
1.) What is your definition(s) of culture? (All answers general and specific welcome)
2.) Do you have any specific examples of cultural biases other than the obvious such as racism, agism, religionism and classism, etc..
3.) Any specific Cultural biases that you may have overcome and how?
2 comments:
Hi hi! I reached out to my colleague who works at the Mathers Museum to see what their definition of culture is, and she sent this back: "Culture is a set of shared values and beliefs that impact how people live in the world. People can exist in multiple cultures at the same time, and everyone has a culture." -- it looks like this is really similar to the definition you came up with!
I'm not sure if you're differentiating between cultural bias and implicit bias (I can see an argument for both how they are distinct and how they are related) but I found this recent article helpful when thinking through how to frame a bias-based approach to exploring injustice/indoctrination etc.: https://medium.com/national-equity-project/implicit-bias-structural-racism-6c52cf0f4a92?fbclid=IwAR2WawHPVruAX0Zfl5MVPbiPkqK1imiZgjQ2PmLFHYKOhQUxawdy3qlJs-o
Thank you so much for the comment. It's cool that the Mathers Museum definition and mine are very similar. To answer your question about whether or not we are differentiating between cultural bias and implicit bias, I would say, "I don't know, that is a great question!" I appreciate the link you shared and also this comment has sent me down a rabbit hole of great articles and resources for my partner and I to explore. I will report back with feedback. Thanks Again. (Also I wanted to mention that I loved your groups poetry slam last year!)
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