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The Effect of Culture in Education

The American culture used to be considered a melting pot of ideas, values and norms. Contributors of the melting pot were people from different regions of the world who would blend their uniqueness into the larger homogenized American society. Nowadays, the melting pot metaphor is no longer an accurate depiction of our diverse society. We welcome multicultural diversity, and our society is more like tossed green salad.

Our classrooms are a microcosm of the American tossed green salad metaphor, with each student bringing diverse flavors from their own background into the learning environment. These flavors make them unique, and that uniqueness will affect their academic achievement. Some of the flavors that the students bring to the classroom are their learning styles, personalities, gender, behavioral propensities and their culture. Culture is defined as a group that shares common experiences.

Understanding the Impact of Culture on Education

All of the students in a given class are sharing the common experiences of their classroom, and thus they create their own unique classroom culture. However, within that classroom environment, each student also brings the cultural sensitivities from their home environment. It is due to this multicultural diversity that teachers would be well-served to use a culturally relevant pedagogy.

Culturally relevant teaching is a pedagogy that makes modifications in instructional strategies to account for diversity. and cooperative learning are two of the most effective strategies to engage students in culturally relevant learning. Reciprocal teaching occurs when students take turns leading the class discussion. This method invites students to use their cultural viewpoints to express the instructional material in their own words. is effective when group collaboration, as well as individual responsibility, is utilized for the completion of assignments. The outcome of cooperative learning goes beyond the completion of the task and is also teaching students to know and praise their own and each other's cultures.

However, culturally relevant teaching will only be effective if the teacher understands how non-verbal cues are seen by their students. In some cultures, it is considered rude, disrespectful and even confrontational for a student to make eye contact with authority figures. In other cultures, it is actually forbidden to shake hands with a stranger of the opposite gender.

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socialization & culture shock on education - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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The Effect of Culture, Socialization & Culture Shock on Education - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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The American culture used to be considered a melting pot of ideas, values and norms. Contributors of the melting pot were people from different regions of the world who would blend their uniqueness into the larger homogenized American society. Nowadays, the melting pot metaphor is no longer an accurate depiction of our diverse society.

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Ethnicity and Culture

It is not uncommon to hear someone claiming to be race-blind or color-blind. On one hand, it is good that we are moving away from things like the beating of Rodney King and into a more sensitive world. On the other hand, claiming to not see race and sometimes blatantly ignoring it can cause issues. If we are ignoring all race, ethnic, and cultural issues, then we are ignoring statistics because certain ethnic groups are prone to certain medical conditions or patterns in aging.

Culture can also have an impact on how a person ages. However, this isn't quite as easy to pin down as ethnicity. Sometimes the two overlap; sometimes there are subgroups that are difficult to define.

Let's examine a handful of the most obvious ways that a person's ethnicity and culture can affect them as they age.

Skin

Let's start somewhere simple and obvious: skin. Skin color is by far the most likely thing we will think of, and describe, when we discuss ethnicity. However, when you look closely, all that is different is the amount of melanin in the skin that gives it the darker tones. This darker and lighter tone can actually have a tremendous impact on what someone's skin looks like as they age.

Over time, skin loses elasticity due to the reduced production of collagen and elastin. This means it loses some of its fullness and bounce as you get older, leading to the trademark wrinkles. When you combine this with the damaging effects of sunlight on skin, then the wrinkles and skin damage is multiplied. However, if a person's ethnicity has a high level of melanin, then this absorbs the sun's radiation and reduces the damage. This is why people with darker skin seem to age so well.

When we look at culture, we see that groups who spend more time outside are often exposed to the sun more, and thus have more sun-damaged skin. Cultures that include farmers and those who tend to work outside tend to have some of the most damaged skin, while others emphasize staying inside or slathering on SPF 50 and tend to have less damaged skin.

General Health

Minority, ethnicity, culture, and lower socioeconomic status are often correlated together, so saying something about one effectively says something about the others. Lower socioeconomic status translates into an inability to access high-end medical treatment. It also tends to mean a diet higher in harmful chemicals and preservatives. This all combines to mean lower general health as a person ages due to the general wear on the body by these chemicals and an inability to access medical care that might be able to prevent some of these issues.

Furthermore, when we examine this over a lifetime, we see that minorities are often side-tracked into lower-paying professions that have a tendency to be harder on the body. Manual labor and grunt work offers the one-two punch of being back breaking and paying very little. In terms of sheer numbers, for every 100,000 black and white men, over 17,000 more white males will see age 65 than black males. Over 10,000 more white males will see age 85 than black males. This is a large enough difference to not just be due to random chance. It tells us that black men are less likely to see older age due to the aforementioned issues: lack of access to medical care, poorer health due to diet, and often more difficult and strenuous types of work.

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cultural & ethnic influences on aging - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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Cultural & Ethnic Influences on Aging - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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It is not uncommon to hear someone claiming to be race-blind or color-blind. On one hand, it is good that we are moving away from things like the beating of Rodney King and into a more sensitive world. On the other hand, claiming to not see race and sometimes blatantly ignoring it can cause issues.