Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I asked three of my friends, two women and one man. Both of the women were African American and the man was from Africa. Here are their responses to their definition to culture and diversity:

 Culture

Alicia: A group and their thought feelings and emotions about life and our society.

Charles: The way people do from background; example in india their culture before getting married is to buy gold and lof of things that different from others. In Africa some people don't wear shoes the day they wed.

Theresa: A set of behaviors generally accepted by the group in which they live or a society or group of people that form from different beliefs experiences or values.

 

Diversity

Alicia: The difference or being different

Charles: The different background of people; example black man from Africa

Theresa: Differences among people or differences of anything such as different types of motorcycles, different types of flowers, different types of houses, and different types of people etc.

My reflection
Which aspects of culture and diversity that I have studied in this course are included in the answers I received—and what are some examples? Theresa mentioned the difference between objects and people and Charles mentioned how different other countries are when it came to weddings. In chapter 5 it starts out with this statement, "The word culture refers to how particular groups of people live" (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010, p.55). This one statement sums up what all my friends were saying. 

Which aspects have been omitted—and what are some examples of such omission? They didn't mention gender, relationships, or children. Chapter 5 states, "Every day, in every action, we express our particular group culture and our individual relationship to our culture; nothing is more important within a culture than how its children are raised" (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010, p.55).

In what ways has thinking about other people’s definitions of culture and diversity influenced my own thinking about these topics? I was surprised by their answers, these are well educated individuals, I wouldn't change my definition of culture based on theirs. I would take into consideration the different culture of India and Africa, I didn't know that about those cultures.

Reference
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).

My Family culture

• A description of the three items you would choose

1) Bible
2) pictures
3) food

• How you would explain to others what each of these items means to you

1) My family is very involved in church, our faith is important to us, nothing to joke or play around with.
2) We love pictures, we take pictures all the time, having these pictures will help remind of the fun times and loved one.
3)We love to eat, everytime we get together, we are eating, whether it's a cookout or going to to restaurant.

• Your feelings if, upon arrival, you were told that you could only keep one personal item and have to give up the other two items you brought with you

I would be hurt broken, but I wouldn't have a choice but to decide which one I will take with me. I would rather be able to have one item, than none.

• Any insights you gained about yourself, your family culture, diversity, and/or cultural differences in general, as a result of this exercise,

No new insights were discovered during this exercise, I still believe in my beliefs and my family culture.