Term Paper on "Culture Identity in Schools"

Term Paper 4 pages (1162 words) Sources: 4 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Cultural Identity in Schools

Whether they admit to or not, schools promote cultural identity. Promoting cultural identity in an ethnically and religiously diverse country like the United States poses significant political and ethical problems. Beyond the basic tenet of religious tolerance and freedom of expression, the United States government does not officiate pedagogy. State and national educational standards may mention curricular objectives but rarely touch upon the importance of how cultural identity is imparted in schools, and how cultural identity should be promoted in a multicultural nation. The American cultural identity is generally promoted through social events like the Pledge of Allegiance, and through curricular content in history, social studies, or literature courses. In public schools children develop a cultural identity in a constructivist manner: gathering pieces from peers, family, and school teachers. Constructivist theories therefore explain cultural identity development best. The "radical relativism" that constructivism entails can be used to stimulate multicultural dialogues (Mazzotti 1999). Therefore, educators should become aware of how their classroom environments, curriculum, and teaching style impacts cultural identity formation. Inclusion, tolerance, and multiculturalism enrich the curricular framework, promote positive social values, and stimulate enriching dialogue for students.

Ultimately, educators cannot deny their political role. Teachers are not merely instruments that deliver prefabricated curricular content. Similarly, students do not simply soak up facts and figures in school; they construct their identities and their worldviews from what they learn in the classroom. Educators are not robots who spew out names, dates, rules of grammar, and mathematical formulas, even when they are beholden to meeting state assessment standards.

Teachers, like parents and peers, play an instrumental role in child identity development. As a result, teachers also have the ability to change culture itself. Culture is not an objective reality like an object that can be investigated by science. Rather, culture is created through social institutions and public schools may be the most significant social institution in the construction of culture. The educators who select curriculum material possess power: power to shape values, norms, and ways of seeing the world. Educators foster social values, teaching beyond the boundaries of their curriculum. The social and political role of the public teacher rests on the ability to effectively promote cultural identity through dialogue. Dialogue enables critical and creative thinking, allowing students to take part in their own identity construction. When public schools encourage dialogue, they acknowledge their role in creating -- constructing -- social change and cultural realities (Giroux 1999).

The kind of cultural identity schools should promote is dynamic and multifaceted. It must be changeable and adaptable, and it must be viewable from many different angles and perspectives. However, public schools have become too concerned with absolutes: true/false realities that are easy to measure and grade. Standardized testing is rigid, but culture itself is not. School should better reflect the organic development of culture. Similarly, a cultural identity is not static; culture is an amalgamation of impulses that shift throughout time.

Thus, the process of finding the common thread of what is American, or French, or Chinese must be open to debate and discussion. Culture is also highly relative: cultures view themselves differently than they are viewed by others. Any cultural identity promoted in public schools should avoid xenophobia while at the same time acknowledging the unique histories and artistic expressions that distinguish that culture from another.

Cultures are also viewed differently from differential groups of outsiders. Political, historic, and philosophical differences may exacerbate stereotypes, biases, and other distorted lenses through… READ MORE

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