Linda Krouse
Week 3
ED 6164
This week we were asked to talk to three people about culture and diversity. How do they define culture and diversity. I asked my daughter who just graduated from college with a degree in Political Science. She defines culture as "the shared experience of living." and diversity is" having a different experience of living."
In speaking with my friend who has over thirty years of experience working with developmentally disabled people and family therapy she defines culture as a paradigm one experiences on a more individual level. It is not always about race, gender or religion but has largely to do with how one was raised or the expectations someone has for others. Diversity is the distinct qualities that set us apart from one another.
As I think about culture and diversity myself I am seeing the deeper culture with in my own experience. Experiences that I take for granted with out thinking about them. How I greet my children or how I interact with my friends. How I do both with people I don't know and people I work with. Of course on social media I have a plethora of diverse friends. I have people who are on the autism spectrum. I know people who are on some sort of spiritual journey. I have authors or lesbian fiction and reads of same. My own social behavior has gone through an evolution over the years. When I was working with adults with autism I learned to model social behavior. I began to say hello and how are you and stop and listen to what the response was. Being on the spectrum myself I had a hard time looking people in the eye and speaking first. My modes operands was to look down and nod as I passed. But I had to learn this and it's been a good skill to have developed. I still have to make myself do this now but it gets easier as time goes on.
Culture and diversity is something I think about a great deal but doing the readings in this course has broadened my horizons. I look forward to delving deeper into it as I continue teaching in early childhood education and becoming more socially active in my community.
Have a good week everyone. Thanks for dropping by
this is a blog created for my MS in Early Childhood Studies at Walden University
Linda,
ReplyDeleteYou had interviewees that were very insightful! I appreciate your perspective as someone who worked with adults with varying abilities. I agree with you that in order to learn more about the diversity and culture of others, we must stop and listen objectively and without bias. I also agree that the content of this course has opened more doors for all of us. The question then becomes, what will we do with it?