Exploring cultural identities

• Global
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 3

Exploring cultural identity in the classroom

R.A.W. de Jong

Global Perspectives teacher- Aprendizes

2023

By the end of the session, you will have:

• Reflected and raised self-awareness about your own identity
• Explored the terms ‘culture’ and ‘cultural identity’ and their significance in child development
  
• I can express and support opinions about the overall similarity or difference of people
  
• I can explore the variety of cultures I belong to, and their effect on my life.
  

• Think of yourself as an individual

• Create an identity mind map of yourself, describing what makes you, you!
  

Image credit: https://www.theadventboston.org/power-for-publicans-pharisees/

me

Image credit: https://mjspace.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/mindmap-designer/

In pairs, pick out the most important aspects that make you who you are. 

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What is cultural identity, and how important is it to you?

• Do you remember a time when you felt a connection with someone who shared your cultural background?
• Describe that feeling.
  
• What made you feel connected to that person?
  

• Think of a time when you met someone/ was part of a group of people who belonged to another culture and did not share your cultural background. 

How did you feel?

• Close your eyes and think of your school/class/group you work with: focus on the diversity within that group.

Activity

• Recall a particular interaction with/of that group.
  

By the end of the session, you will have:

• I can judge things/ cultures to be collectivist or individualist, on Power distance, on Masculinity- femininity, and on Uncertainty avoidance
  
• Identified challenging situations and suggested recommendations to support diverse cultural identities in school
  
• Discussed the notions of ‘diversity’, ‘inclusion’ and ‘cultural appropriation’ while trying to sustain cultural identity of individual/s.
  
• I can outline the key requirements of the Team Project
  
• I can follow a prescribed project process
  
• I can collaborate effectively with my classmates to complete a Mini Team Project
  

Cultural dimensions 

6D model of national cultures, G. Hofstede

Geert Hofstede, assisted by others, came up with six basic issues that society needs to come to term with in order to organize itself. These are called dimensions of culture. Each of them has been expressed on a scale that runs roughly from 0 to 100.

Dimension maps of the world: Individualism

Each dimension has been derived by comparing many, but not all, countries in the world. The findings can be summarized into six world maps of the distribution of that dimension. Of course, in reality there can be quite a bit of within-country variation; these maps should be seen as rough 'climate maps' of culture.

Mini team project

• In small groups, work through the case study given to you and devise strategies to help the learner adjust to the school culture while demonstrating respect for the child’s home culture.  Write an advice to the school board/ director.
• Make a group presentation  (10 minutes)