READ | TEACHING @ | INTERNATIONAL
culture and cross-cultural issues | academic culture | second language anxiety | communication skills
Culture & Cross-Cultural Issues
An understanding of culture can help you develop important skills to enhance your ability to teach in U.S. classrooms. As you fulfill your responsibilities as an international faculty member or teaching associate, you will learn and adopt some of the culture of this country both in and out of the classroom. You will find that, in some ways, U.S. culture is very similar to your own. In other ways, you will find that there are fundamental differences between this country and your home. Reflecting on and understanding these similarities and differences are important. Doing so will help you have more accurate expectations of your students and of your interactions with them.
Culture
The term “culture” refers to the systems of knowledge shared by a group of people, including a group’s values, beliefs, attitudes, notions of appropriate behavior, statuses, role expectations, and worldview (notions of time, space, and cosmology). Culture also includes material objects and knowledge about their purpose and use. Culture is understood to be a symbol-rich template that shapes human consciousness and behavior.In contrast to the equally present biological influences on human thought, feeling, and action, a fundamental feature of culture is that it is learned. This learning takes place from the first moments of life, as humans begin to be socialized into the ways of their people. Humans learn the words of objects, such as “ball” and “desk,” as well as the abstract objects that go with certain words, such as “love” and “authority.” While this process is easy to observe in the very young, socialization is a lifelong process.
Humans experience socialization every time they enter a new social situation. For example, first-year college students must learn a new set of values, beliefs, and attitudes that may differ from those to which they had previously been accustomed. You are likely to be exposed to new values and attitudes as well, as you gain experience teaching in U.S. college classrooms.
Through communication and imitation, culture is reproduced across time and space. First-year college students, for example, come to share the pre-existing culture of the university they attend. In time, you will come to share a sense of the culture of Ohio State. Culture also changes, however, and people must continuously adapt to new cultural knowledge. Because people must learn new systems of knowledge when they enter new situations, most people are potentially multicultural (Cushner & Brislin 1996).
Even within a single dominant culture, all humans are socialized by multiple groups such as the family, school, and workplace, as well as along many sub-cultural lines such as gender, ethnicity, social class, and religion. The norms, values, and beliefs experienced in the family are likely to be somewhat different from those experienced at the workplace. Thus, all people are likely to have prior experience moving between social realities and their attendant sets of meanings. That experience can serve as a practical foundation for cross-cultural interaction by reminding us how important context is in shaping our understanding. Behavior that is acceptable in one’s own private home, for example, may not be acceptable at work.
Both work and school are places where the values, beliefs, and expectations of a culture are transmitted to members of a society. As someone whose workplace is school, you are in a particularly fertile position for understanding the behavior of others within a larger cultural context. Conflicts in the classroom may arise as a result of misunderstanding these differences.
Confusion and conflict can arise among people engaging in cross-cultural interaction. One reason is that the culture one is born into is generally taken for granted as reality. The anthropological term “ethnocentrism”refers to the way that people’s central stance toward reality is shaped by their social group. While it is not the only source of cross-cultural challenge, understanding the implications of ethnocentrism may help facilitate cultural adjustment and ease the experience of “culture shock.”
 previous page |
