Perspectives on Diversity and
Culture
I surveyed my 3 co-teachers for
their definitions of diversity and culture.
One is in her 20's and is engaged to and has a child with a man who was
adopted from Brazil at age 3 and speaks some Portuguese. Another is in her 30's and comes from a
family that has owned a German food restaurant for 100 years. The third is in her 50's and comes from an
Irish heritage.
All of their definitions of culture included the words beliefs,
customs and lifestyle. They also included traditional dress and language. All of their definitions of diversity included
differences or uniqueness in a wide variety of aspects and that these
differences may all exist together in one setting.
My dad is
70 years old. His definition of culture
included "a way of life, a way of working, a way of maintaining family
values and a way of solving conflicts.
The first word that popped into his mind when he heard diversity was
"The Ohio State University".
That would be the most diverse place he could think of. He went on to say different cultures, religions
and points of view. Reverse
discrimination also came to mind since the first efforts at diversifying in his
life time seemed that way. The pendulum
swung to where the dominant culture no longer got the promotions in the auto
industry.
The different
reactions of different age groups was most interesting to me. In the world of early childhood culture and
diversity are fairly common words. My
dad was at a loss at first to define diversity and his thoughts leaned more
toward the negative side. My goal for
this world would be that people develop an interest in understanding others
cultures in a deeper way. I hope that
diversity will be viewed as a beautiful thing in our future world, without
anyone feeling left out.
I appreciate that you asked people from a variety of ages. I am not surprised that your father had the reaction he did to defining diversity. My parents are ages 68 and 70 and both had similar responses. Our age is a factor in the way we define culture and diversity. This is apparent in the friends and family you surveyed.
ReplyDeleteWendy,
ReplyDeleteI have seen, so far with, reading other people's ideas and definition of culture and diversity, that for the most part our definitions contain very similar vocabulary and that we all seem to understand the aspects of culture and diversity to a certain extent. What is most interesting is that as you read the different definitions, you also see some of their culture and diversity come into play. Great post!