I talked to four different people about what diversity and culture means to them. They all had similar responses. Their responses were:
Diversity
· Diversity is the different ethnicity, cultures, social economics, traditions and values.
· Diversity is different ways of life; cultural, social, economic, psychological. It is people coming together, working together.
· Diversity is things that are different about each other, ethnicity, race, demographics, age, and language.
· Diversity is race and cultures.
Culture
· Culture is an aspect of diversity, community values, likes, and dislikes. It can be broad like American culture or it can be regional, or community.
· Culture is the way of life. It is a group of people and the way they see and view the world.
· Culture is everything, demographics, the groups that you hang out with, economics, race, ethnicity, and age.
· Culture is people’s beliefs, the way they were raised, and backgrounds.
“The word culture refers to how particular groups of people live. It is the way we eat, sleep, talk, play, care for the sick, relate to one another, think about work, arrange our kitchens, and remember our dead. It includes the language we speak, the religion or spirituality we practice (or do not), and the clothing, housing, food and rituals/holidays with which we feel most comfortable” (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2012, p. 55). With this being said the people I talked to discussed culture as the way we see and view the world around us, our beliefs and our backgrounds. They mentioned all the big stuff that people often thinks about we talking about culture; however they did not mention any of the smaller aspects like the foods that we eat, where we sleep, and how we care for each other.
I think that diversity and culture goes hand in hand. Every culture is diverse meaning that it is different from other cultures. There is also diversity within cultural groups as no two people are the same.
Reference:
Derman-Sparks, L. and Edwards, J. (2012). Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves. Washington, DC; National Association for the Education of Young Children
Lucinda,
ReplyDeleteThe people I spoke to answered similarly, and also left out the deep culture ideas that you mentioned. I think that it is interesting that people who also work in the field, including social workers, sometimes miss out on noticing the details that truly make up culture.
Lea
Lucinda,
ReplyDeleteDeep culture are those things we cannot see on the surface. We need to remember to look past those "glasses" and dig deeper.
I agree with you; culture and diversity go hand in hand!!
You received some great definitions. I think many of us do not think of the small things that you mentioned when we are asked about culture. If we do not ask about those things you mentioned, we will not know. We need to remember to look beyond those “glasses” and find out as much as we can.
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