Perspectives on Culture and Diversity

I contacted several friends and colleagues  asking them for their definitions of culture and diversity. The first defines culture as family background or their heritage, ethnicity, race, and gender and diversity as the differences among culture.  The second defines culture as the beliefs and customs of an individual, or a group of people, or of a society and diversity as the differences among individuals, groups of people, and societies. She adds that diversity also involves incorporating the different cultures into a group of people or society.  The third defines culture as the heritage, traditions, and beliefs of a particular group of people and diversity as recognizing unique qualities or characteristics of people or groups.   If I were to combine these definitions,  I would come to the definition of culture as family background, heritage, ethnicity, race, customs, traditions, and beliefs of an individual, group of people, or society.  Diversity’s definition would be recognizing the differences, unique qualities, or characteristics among the various cultures of people, groups, or society and perhaps incorporating the differences into a group of people or society.

Our readings includes aspects of family background, heritage, ethnicity, race, gender, customs, traditions, and beliefs in defining culture (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). These aspects are closely intertwined with culture playing important roles in who people are. However, they do not give a complete picture of a person’s culture. My friends and colleagues omitted aspects of culture that our readings do discuss including language, economic status, class, gender and sexual orientation, abilities/disabilities, religion, values, relationships, migration, work, and ideas about education, health care, roles, expressing emotion, to name a few (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). 

To see who families and children truly are and understand them, we must move beyond surface culture such as artifacts, dress, foods, holidays and aspects that are easily identifiable (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). We  must realize that their culture influences everything about them including their lifestyle, how they think, attitudes, and behaviors, how/where they live, their work, organizational affiliations, family and community relationships, ideas about education, health care, gender roles, roles of children, parenting practices, recreation, religious practices, expressing emotion, ways of communicating and interacting with others, and more (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). 

The cultural group that we belong to begins shaping the way we live at birth through a process called cultural socialization.  As we grow, we learn how to name, describe, and feel about our cultural membership. As we mature, enter adulthood, and establish an adult life and family, we  choose aspects of our cultural socialization that we wish to continue, modify, or reject (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). Therefore, time, place, and historical context are also aspects of culture.

Yashika Wilson’s who is a colleague shared her ideas with me on culture a few months ago. I feel that it sums up our discussion on defining culture quite well and is in line with our text regarding the dimensions of culture discussed in the preceding paragraph.  Ms. Yashika states (2016),

            “…Culture is similar to the sticky side of masking tape. In life there are traits that we are born with, traditions we become accustomed to ,things instilled in us, and things we've learned.      Additionally as we grow and adapt to our environment, there are other things that we accurate and we add those things to the sticky side of the masking tape and it too becomes a part of who we are; thus accumulatively becoming the total make up of our culture" (Yashika Wilson, personal communication).  

Now for a word about diversity.  The combined definition of diversity from  my friends and colleagues would be the differences, unique qualities, or characteristics among the various cultures of people, groups, or society. They all acknowledge the importance of  recognizing and incorporating the differences  - for example in early childhood education.

It is worth noting that everyone has culture that influences their way of life, thinking, attitudes, and behaviors.  Children come to our classrooms from all walks of life and are becoming more and more diverse. While there are similarities, many differences exist due to the complexities of culture and the many differences that lie within the culture of our children and families. When we begin to recognize the differences in deep culture that exist, this is when issues related to diversity will raise its ugly neck. Even then we must realize that it is the differences that create unique abilities, qualities, and characteristics in each individual, group, or society. Diversity is rich, a benefit, and a necessity (Laureate Education, 2011). A deep understanding of culture and its relation to diversity is the first step in creating environments that will lead to helping all children and families feel visible, valued, accepted, and empowered.

References

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

 Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Culture and diversity [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Wilson, Y. (2016). Personal Conversation. Yashika Wilson, MA in Early Childhood/Educational Psychology