Cultural Awareness Presentation

CULTURAL AWARENESS TRAINING

Unity in Diversity

Dr. Lee Brown

University of British Columbia

Chief Phil Lane Jr.

Four Worlds International Institute

CULTUREAll people have culture - it is how human beings make sense of the world. Culture shapes how people think, learn and solve problems, what they value and respect, what attracts and delights them, what offends them and their sense of what is appropriate. More deeply, culture is the soil in which the tree of identity has its roots. Culture is manifest in human relations, systems of organization, technology, arts, politics, economics, community life - all the things that humans do.

A Metaphor for Culture

MusicFolklore

Primary Culture

highly patterned

implicit rules of behavior

hidden cultural grammar

LanguageLawsFood

Visible Culture

CustomsArtifacts and Behaviour

Beliefs and Values

Assumptions

Relationships

PRIMARY LEVEL CULTURE

….There is an underlying, hidden level of culture that is highly patterned – a set of unspoken, implicit rules of behavior and thought that controls everything we do. This hidden cultural grammar defines the way in which people view the world, determines their values, and establishes the basic tempo and rhythms of life. Most of us are either totally unaware or else only peripherally aware of this. I call these hidden paradigms primary level culture.

E.T. Hall

PRIMARY LEVEL CULTURE

Tempo of work

Concept of Justice

Cooperation

Family relations

Timing

Social interaction

Nature of friendshipLeadership

Handling emotions

Fairness

Money

Problem solving

Decision making

Gender roles

Space

Authority relationshipsEducation

Group vs individual

OTHER METAPHORS FOR CULTURE

The collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group from another - the software of the mind

The eyes through which we see the world

Cultural Diversity

Universals

• Play

• Education

• Marriage

• Food

• Clothing

• Pray/worship

• Art

Specifics

TIMING

Anglo-Saxon A

B

Latin A

B

Asian A

B

TONE

Anglo-Saxon

Latin

Asian

COMMUNICATING ACROSS CULTURES

Sender tone and timing

non-verbal

spoken word

Receiver

CULTURAL EXPERIENCEHistorical experiences shape cultural patterns which evolve as collective habits of response to circumstances.

Human potentiality is expressed through these cultural patterns.

CULTURAL ALIENATION

All systems are cultural artifacts, they are the product of specific cultural values, relationships and attitudes.

Individuals from the culture in which the system is rooted can function well within the system. Individuals from other cultures may find the system to be foreign, alienating, and not at all comfortable.

In an effort to preserve its ways of doing things, the system can become inhospitable to the “foreign” individual.

CULTURAL DISTORTIONS

Some parts of culture are organized around natural laws and lead to well-being.

Some parts of culture develop in response to trauma and cause problems in human systems.

These distortions get pasted down historically and become a hidden curriculum - an agenda at a deeply unconscious level.

These distortions create blind spots that lead to stereotyping and prejudice.

CULTURAL SELF-AWARENESS

Examine your own culture - what parts of it are life-enhancing and life preserving and what parts of it are distortions and need to be changed.

EQUALITY VS EQUITY

•Equality = Sameness• When we treat people equally we ignore differences

•Equity = Fairness• When we treat people equitably we recognize differences

DIVERSITY

Tolerating differences is not enough. We have to cherish differences, seek them out and cultivate them. This makes our lives, our departments, our organizations better – it makes us more creative, more adaptable, more efficient, more enjoyable.

STEREOTYPES

The capacity to generalize is essential to human intelligence. Overgeneralizations, on the other hand, can be very dangerous because they are based on faulty or partial information. Overgeneralizations that are used to describe people are called stereotypes. Stereotypes cause us to judge people before we have the opportunity to get to know them.

PREJUDICE

To pre-judge a person is to judge them on the basis of stereotypes which have been formed with inaccurate or incomplete information. When people act on the basis of prejudice, their actions discriminate against thee people or groups

Putting it Together

StereotypesBeliefs based on faulty or partial

information

PrejudiceAttitudes and

values arising from beliefs

Discrimination

Action on the basis of attitudes and

values

THEORIES OF PREJUDICE

The Prejudiced Personality

Certain people, because of their upbringing, their insecurities and their fears, tend to be more prejudiced than others

THEORIES OF PREJUDICE

Learned Prejudice

By unquestioningly accepting the values and attitudes of the people around us, we can sometimes learn to be prejudiced.

THEORIES OF PREJUDICE

Culture The culture into which we are born determines much of the way we see the world, even though we aren’t aware of it.Cultural differences can cause prejudice because people don’t understand the way those of other cultures dress, worship, eat, etc.

THEORIES OF PREJUDICE

Frustration and Scapegoating People who are frustrated or angry often take out their feelings on a helpless and innocent victim.

THEORIES OF PREJUDICEEconomic CompetitionWhen there is competition for limited resources the dominant or most powerful group in society will exploit the weaker groups in order to gain material advantage. They will often invent a good reason for doing so - one which shows why the exploited “deserve what they get.

THEORIES OF PREJUDICE

1. Prejudiced personality2. Learned prejudice3. Cultural differences4. Frustration and scapegoating5. Economic competition

TYPES OF PREJUDICE

Type Focus Example

Race Physical characteristics (skin colour, hair texture, stature)

African, First Nations, Asian

Class Income, clothes, location, education, occupation

Welfare recipients

Gender Male, Female, Sexual orientation

Women, homosexuals

Age Calendar years since birth Elders, children, teenagers

Type Focus Example

Physical Physical appearance Handicapped, “good looking”

Religion Style or method of worship, religious affiliation

Sikhs, Muslims, Jewish, etc.

National Place of origin, citizenship Newfoundlanders, Arabs, Americans

Cultural Language, food, clothing, art, family organization

Ukrainians, French Canadians

TYPES OF PREJUDICE

The Vicious Cycle

Rationalization

Frame of Reference

Overgeneralization & stereotyping

Prejudice and Discrimination

Self-fulfilling prophecy

THE NEW CULTURE

The Golden Rule

Treat others and we would want to be treated

The Platinum Rule

Treat others as they would want to be treated