Cultural Sensitivity Vs Cultural Identity in Education

Being consistently cognizant of the need to maintain a culturally sensitive curriculum and instruction for students, I recently began an in depth analysis into the comprehension of diverse cultures of people and several underlying concepts.

I found that culture means different things to different people, regardless of their cultural background. “Culture” though construed as being applicable to groups of people based on background, ethnicity or whatever, is really an individual thing, a very complex concept…… I am from an ethnic minority group, out of a huge variation of others who have similar or different backgrounds, skin color, beliefs, etc. When the concept is narrowed to people with similar backgrounds as I, I have found that what is identified as the group culture might differ from mine in several ways. For example, maintaining eye contact and its differing perceptions or even circumcision.

How do you then build a culturally sound and sensitive instruction for me, without being stereotypical ? How are you then effective, when the very culture you identify as your students’ is the aspect that he or she mostly abhors and does not claim as his own ….

I invite an intellectual discuss on how to effectively address the clash between cultural identity and cultural sensitivity in education.

What does culture mean to you ?

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.