1. Classrooms and Schools as Cultural Crossroads
Chapter 4
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2. Schools and Classrooms: Where Cultures Interact
In schools, as perhaps nowhere else in American society, people of many different backgrounds are forced to come together for significant periods of time.
When they arrive, they find a culture of the school itself that may be very different from their own familiar cultural milieux.
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3. Student Culture: Diverse in Many Ways
The bases for association and identity:
Cultural: ethnicity, race, gender, class
Academic: biology club, French club
Interest or Skill: choir, band, football
Social: cliques, gangs
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4. Teacher Culture: Predominantly Homogenous
75 percent female
Historically, working and middle class
Relatively low status in the adult social system of the school
85 percent European American
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5. Parent Culture Socioeconomic status of family First language of family
Increasingly recognized as an important role in education and the school's sense of community.
Can be influenced by:
Socioeconomic status of family
First language of family
Family organization
Immigrant or refugee status of families
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6. Culture of the School as a Whole
“Culture bound”; the culture to which most are bound is the dominant culture of European Americans
Overwhelmingly middle class in values
Its purpose is to transmit the cultural beliefs, values, and knowledge affiliated with the dominant society
Interested in social control
Often sees diversity as a problem, not a resource
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7. Teachers as Cultural Mediators
A new role for teachers: mediating cultural similarities and differences
Be knowledgeable about the role of culture in teaching and learning.
Be skillful in addressing the educational needs of diverse students.
Be prepared to engage students in content and activities that enable them to handle intercultural interactions with others.
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8. Acculturation and Identity
Acculturation refers to the changes that take place as a result of continuous firsthand contact between individuals of different cultures.
The degree of mobility and the degree of choice in acculturating groups are both important.
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9. High Degree of Mobility
Immigrants or Sojourners: those with a high degree of mobility who voluntarily make contact with new cultural groups
Refugees: those with a high degree of mobility but little or no choice in making contact with new cultural groups
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10. Low Degree of Mobility
Ethnic Groups: those with a low degree of mobility but a high degree of voluntary contact with others
Indigenous People: those with a low degree of mobility and a low degree of voluntary contact with others
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11. Willingness to Change Cultural Identity
Integration: People maintain relationships with other groups while at the same time maintaining their own cultural identity.
Assimilation: People maintain relationships with other groups but do not consider it of value to maintain their own cultural identity.
Where people value their own cultural identity but not relationships with other groups, separation (when by choice for both groups) or segregation (when forced on one group by another) may result.
Marginalization: People value neither their own identity nor relationships with other groups.
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12. Themes from Cross-Cultural Psychology
People tend to communicate their cultural identity to others in the broadest terms possible.
Because we are all multicultural, our cultural identity is dynamic and always changing.
Although culture is complex and variable, it is nevertheless patterned. 
Interactions with other cultures can be viewed as a resource for understanding.
Behavior should be judged in relation to its context.
Persons holding a multicultural perspective continually strive to find common ground between individuals.
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13. Stages in Cross-Cultural Interaction
Stage 1: Understanding Emotional Responses in Intercultural Interaction
Stage 2: Understanding the Cultural Basis of Unfamiliar Behavior
Stage 3: Making Adjustments and Reshaping Cultural Identity
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14. Stage 1: Understanding Emotional Responses
Anxiety—about appropriate behavior
Ambiguity—messages may be unclear
Disconfirmed Expectations—what we think will happen doesn’t
Belonging/Rejection—we don’t know the “rules”
Confronting Personal Prejudices—we may find that our previously held beliefs are inaccurate
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15. Stage 2: Understanding the Cultural Basis of Unfamiliar Behavior
Communication and Language Use: understanding verbal and nonverbal, facial expressions, gestures
Values: deeply held, they may be quite different
Rituals and Superstitions: may be viewed as “silly” to one group or another
Situational Behavior: the “rules” of behavior may vary in the same situation
cont.
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16. Roles: knowledge of appropriate role behavior may also vary across culture groups
Social Status: markers of high and low status with respect to roles may vary
Time and Space: differences in conceptions of time and space may vary, as well as differences in appropriate behavior regarding time (e.g. punctuality)
Relationship of the Group Versus the Individual: the importance of the individual and/or the group may be different across culture groups.
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17. Stage 3: Making Adjustments and Reshaping Cultural Identity
Changes and adjustments may occur in the following:
Categorization—the content and value of our categories
Differentiation—as we become more sophisticated, meaning is associated with more refined categories
Ingroups and Outgroups—redefining who’s “in” and who’s “out” in meaningful ways
Learning Style—adjustments and expansions in our ability to learn effectively
Attribution—broadening the basis on which we understand the behavior of others
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18. Identifying Commonalities
The goal of the culture-general model goes beyond simply negotiating differences.
It is intended to help individuals search for commonalities, to build bridges to one another, so that all may feel sufficiently comfortable, and so that they can confront differences with equanimity.
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19. Identifying Differences
Equally important to identifying differences between groups is the ability to identify differences within groups.
Such variations as social class, geographical location, sexual orientation, or religion are not easy to “see,” but may be important in the way individuals perceive the world and approach learning.
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