Running head: CULTURAL DIVERSITY 1

Cultural Diversity

Delia Pauley

Ivy Tech Community College

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Cultural diversity matters for so many reasons. It has been proven that the more

diversity there is in a society, the better we are at solving problems. Life brings about

many problems today and will in our future. The more we know the better we will do.

The more diverse groups of people bring the most knowledge. We each have our own

unique sets of information and backgrounds. When we come together and share our

information, each from a different perspective, we have so many more sets of knowledge

to draw from, when trying to tackle problems of today.

Different societies live in different regions of the world and have unique

environmental complexities to adjust to and this difference in culture is a another reason

that cultural diversity matters. Each area of the world has different environmental factors

that people have to deal with. The culture that lives in one environment will have

adjusted to the environmental factors of that region while another will have a totally

different set of circumstances to work with. The diversity in environment and the

adaptations that humans make to their unique environment is beneficial to other cultures.

When we bring people together from these different environments the can help each other

as well as build on that foundation of knowledge that is now much larger than it was with

just one society. If we did not have that unique perspective and understanding of

cultures from other environments we would not have made the advances in medicines

and biotechnology that we have made to advance the span of human life. Again, the

uniqueness of each cultures benefits human life.

Many things can be done to prevent the loss of cultural diversity. The lessons in

our schools are embedded in culture. School children all over the world are learning

through the culture of the books they are learning from. Much of this is the American
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textbook, one culture. In Peru, a culture has taken one school day a week to teach

students about their culture. They learn how to live in their society. They learn from

their elders about the skills they need to live in their community. They learn how to be

proud about their culture. Now these children are better prepared because they draw

from the worldview and knowledge base of their own community and the knowledge of

the other cultures they learn from. This is one way of preventing a culture from dyeing

out and teaching it to the next generation.

Another way to prevent the loss of diversity is for our cultures to celebrate and

acknowledge the differences between us. This way people will be proud of their culture

and want to learn more about it and teach to their children. Many families try to teach

their children to be like the world so they can have success and benefit from being part of

the bigger society. If we recognize the importance of the many unique cultures, families

will value their uniqueness more and pass those cultural differences through the

generations.

Conscious and subconscious behaviors drive bias. We all have blind spots. Our

blind spots can prevent us from being inclusive of all humans. We are all different and

our nature is to surround ourselves with people who are like us. As humans we also have

a deep need to feel included. Physiologically we tend to have more empathetic and

sympathetic thoughts for people who are like ourselves rather than those who are

different. This is a subconscious bias. Consciously we may think that we are unbiased

because we dont want to treat people badly, or differently, based on differences.

However, we all have biases that we need to overcome, because society has engrained

those biases in us. They have been embedded in us since we were born, through our
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culture. Our brain distorts the reflection of what we see. So, even though we dont want

to be bias, we all have a natural tendency to do so in some form or another.

We can overcome this bias. We need to think about what it is that might be a

blind spot to us. Are we treating people who are not like us differently? Are we being

nicer to someone because of how they look? Or are we being indifferent because of their

looks? We need to always be asking ourselves the questions that challenge us to be

better. We also need to remember the old saying, treat others as you want to be treated.

Finally, the more we expose ourselves to other cultures and situations that challenge us,

the more chances we will have to expose our own bias. These opportunities will also

help us to learn how to be more comfortable with people who are different than

ourselves. I think the more we are around people who are different, the more we are

aware of the similarities that we have. The videos that I watched talked about the fact

that we have an affinity to have more compassion and empathy for those who are like

ourselves. I think that the more we realize the similarities between us and a person of

another culture, the more we will have better feelings toward people of another culture.

This could bridge the gap in our bias and we could, at least partially, become less bias.

Society affects our culture and behaviors. From the time we are born girls are

pink and boys are blue. As we grow older woman and men have different acceptable

roles in society. Even when we know these gender roles are a stereotype, we still fall into

the same behaviors that we have grown up in. The cultural messages are deeply

ingrained in us. They are invisible forces that direct what we do and how we think, even

when we know deep inside that some of those messages are very wrong. Implicit bias

is our unconscious tendency to be discriminatory to people who are different than we are.
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TV shows, the news, friends and family can all play a role in stereotyping people based

on color, sex, religion, or culture. Fear plays a big role today in cultural bias. Today,

fear of terrorists has taken over the minds of many people in America and the world

around us. The fact that the terrorists are of a general ethnic and religious background

has created a bias to other people who share the same ethnicity and religion. Consciously

we want to say that we are not stereotyping people with that background but

subconsciously we are fearful. This may contribute to our behavior when engaging with

people who have similar ethnic and religious backgrounds. Some people do this

consciously, knowing that they are discriminating against people. Others say they are not

discriminating but can subconsciously act different or have fear of someone, even though

they dont want to. All of this bias can be helped by engaging and learning from people

in that society. I think the more we are with people who are different from ourselves the

more we can understand that each person of every culture is unique and we will be less

likely to stereotype people by the color of their skin, ethnicity or religion.

It is so important that teachers have experiences that challenge our bias and

stereotypes as well as introduce us to new cultures. We need to expose our implicit bias

to ourselves so that we are aware of where we may be prejudice or discriminatory based

on bias. The only way to do this is to engage with people who are different than us. We

also need to engage in these experiences in order to learn about the different cultures and

become more familiar with some of the uniqueness that each culture can bring to a

classroom. The information we learn could help us to assess background knowledge

from a student or could help us recognize some unique quality that a student could bring

to a classroom because of his or her background. As teachers it is important to

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understand the students environment outside of the classroom. Having a general

knowledge about the many cultures that are represented in our classrooms benefits us in

our understanding of the child and the family they belong. Different cultures have

different attitudes and values towards education of children. Understanding the families

influence on a students education will help a teacher to communicate better with the

family and assist the student in receiving the best education possible.

The videos were extremely interesting and made me question my own bias that I

dont realize I have. It really helps to understand that we all have an affinity for bias.

Acknowledging this and seeing how engrained it is in our thinking process makes

looking for it an easy thing to do, because you cant deny it. I realize how important it is

to continually challenge myself as a person and a teacher to look for opportunities to

grown in my understanding of other cultures. Every classroom represents many different

cultures. I want dont want to let my bias affect any child in my classroom in a negative

manner. My hope is that I can provide every opportunity to celebrate and learn from all

the unique cultures of my class.

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References

Adichie, C. (n.d.). The Danger of a Single Story (Stereotyping). Retrieved from

http://breakingprejudice.org/teaching/podcasts/the-danger-of-a-single-story

(stereotyping).html

Bennet-Alexander, D., T. (2015, May 05). Practical diversity: taking inclusion from

theory to practice | Dawn Bennett-Alexander | TEDxUGA. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExcDNly1DbI&app=desktop

Bourrelle, J., (2015, July 10). How Culture Drives Behaviours | Julien S. Bourrelle |

TEDxTrondheim. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-Yy6poJ2zs&app=desktop

Gavin, M. (2014, November 07). Why cultural diversity matters | Michael Gavin |

TEDxCSU. Retrieved from https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=48RoRi0ddRU

Turnbull, H. (2013, September 18). Inclusion, Exclusion, Illusion and Collusion :

Helen Turnbull at TEDxDelrayBeach. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdV8OpXhl2g&app=desktop

The Culture Inside. (2017, June 07). Retrieved from

http://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/532950995/the-culture-inside