Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

 

My assignment for this week was to take the opportunity and talk with friends and family and get a perspective of how they view diversity and culture.

Evangeline Leak – Friend – A Nurse

Diversity – I view diversity as differences as well as similarities in people.  Diversity not only views what we see on the surface but what we see underneath and within the surface. 

Culture – Culture is a set of behavioral patterns, traditions, values, experiences and assumptions that a social groups shares.  All cultures are different, yet similar in some ways.  Most times everything we do is influenced by culture. 

 

Clarissa Monley – Sister

Diversity – Various types of people who share different viewpoints and ideas.  This exchange allows them to see other sides of issues which are important to them. The differences may include gender, ethnic background, race, religion and language. 

Culture – A culture is a group of people who share behaviors that are learned and handed down through the generations.  Cultures are responsive to various social realities around them.  

 

Jacqueline Foland – A different race

Diversity – My opinion of diversity is various differences in cultures.  It could be social, physical, or even intellectual.  Things such as level of education, opinions, or just basically a natural understanding of things.  Other examples could be skin color, gender, clothing, or in some societies for example wearing hats are not seen as being respectful, but disrespectful. 

Culture - A group of people who share knowledge, traditions, behaviors and values that are inherited from generation to generation. 

 

The people that I talked to all basically had somewhat the same view of diversity and culture.  Most of them spoke of the surface aspect of culture and diversity and not anything beneath that.   All aspects of culture and diversity that I have studied so far in this course were included in the answers that I received.  Some examples included diversity meaning skin color, clothing, language, etc., and culture meaning different people who hand down family traditions throughout generations.

Deep culture was omitted from any of the responses that I received. Deep culture involves elements that deal with feelings and attitudes we learn by being a member of a specific group.  It also involves the thoughts and beliefs, the personal values, and the subtle gradations of interpersonal relationships as expressed in actions and words, by day-by-day details of life as it is lived. 

After hearing other people’s meanings of diversity and culture, I have come to realize that basically we all generally view the aspects of diversity and culture in pretty much the same way.  The people I talked with see the general aspects whereas before taking this class that was all that I saw.  I now have a deeper understanding of both, which will allow me to broaden my learning strategies when working with children and families from various cultures.