The Need for Cultural Education

The Importance of Cultural Education

I.             What is culture?

Culture is the customary ways in which humans live. For example; diet, family forms and processes, social organizations, and religions. Culture is socially shared and transmitted patterns of values, norms, and beliefs that are indicated in everyday practices (Kroeber & Kluckhohn, 1952, p. 484).

Culture is the characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. However, for anthropologists and other behavioral scientists, culture is the full range of learned human behavior patterns. Other definitions of culture are:

• Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.
• Culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people.
• Culture is communication, communication is culture.
• Culture in its broadest sense is cultivated behavior; that is the totality of a person's learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior through social learning.
• A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.
• Culture is symbolic communication. Some of its symbols include a group's skills, knowledge, attitudes, values, and motives. The meanings of the symbols are learned and deliberately perpetuated in a society through its institutions.
• Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other hand, as conditioning influences upon further action.
• Culture is the sum of total of the learned behavior of a group of people that are generally considered to be the tradition of that people and are transmitted from generation to generation.
• Culture is a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another.

II.           Culture and ethnicity

The cultural heritage, or aspects of culture, that a group shares and attempts to hand down from one generation to the next through learning. There are 12 Aspects of culture namely:

• History-time period and conditions under which a group migrated or immigrated.
• Social Status Factors – education, occupation, income
• Social Group Interaction Patterns: Intra-group (within group relations) and Inter-group (between-group relations)
• Value Orientation – standards by which members of a culture judge their personal actions and those of others.
• Language and Communication: Verbal and Nonverbal
• Family Life Processes – gender roles, family dynamics
• Healing Beliefs and Practices – attitudes and beliefs about health.
• Religion – spiritual beliefs and practices
• Art and Expressive Forms – art, music, stories, dance, etc.
• Diet/Foods – preferred food eaten by groups.
• Recreation – activities, sports for leisure, etc.
• Clothing – types, styles, and extent of body coverings

III.         Our Culture is linked to our identity

Culture includes everything an individual finds meaningful, beliefs, values, perceptions, assumptions, and framework about reality. Culture is developed through social interaction with family and others in your environment.

IV.         Cultural Awareness is important because…

It is impossible to appreciate the impact of culture on the lives of others, particularly clients, if one is out of touch with his or her own cultural background.” “Many people never acknowledge how their day-to-day behaviors have been shaped by cultural norms and values and reinforced by families, peers, and social institutions. How one defines ‘family’, identifies desirable life goals, views problems, and even says hello are all influenced by the culture in which one functions” (Cross, 1988, p.2).

V.           Culture easily lost

Culture is a powerful human tool for survival, but it is a fragile phenomenon.  It is constantly changing and easily lost because it exists only in our minds.  Our written languages, governments, buildings, and other man-made things are merely the products of culture. 

VI.         Why cultural education matters?

Anthropologists, philosophers, psychologists, and sociologists of education point out that cultural education is essential to occur in places other than school (Bekerman & Kopelowitz, 2008, p. 343).

We believe that exploring culture helps people to understand the human experience, learning from the past, understanding the present and giving us resources to imagine and shape the future.

‘Culture’ is a very broad term and includes philosophy, music, literature, history, arts, religion, archaeology, science, economics, politics, media – and other subjects from cultures across the world. Studying these subjects enriches our lives and helps us to think creatively and critically as well as providing a basis for thinking about moral and ethical questions.

According to Freed-Garrod (Bekerman & Kopelowitz, 2008, p. 344), forms of conversation, song, storytelling and dialogue play an important role in transmitting culture. As previously mentioned, cultural education encompasses formal educational institutions as well as informal institutions, everyday life with family, friends, or society, and also multiple media.

We believe that exploring culture helps people to understand the human experience, learning from the past, understanding the present and giving us resources to imagine and shape the future.

VII.       Three particular sets of benefits of Cultural Education:

Cultural education that teaches children about heritage and diverse groups and practices is integrated into the national primary school social studies curriculum.

Cultural education defines the nature of cultural identities and reinforces certain values and meanings of cultural difference, which influences youth ideas about themselves and the world around them. In this form of education, culture can be identified as an identity marker, a commodity, a possession, and an entity threatened by globalization.

·        The direct educational benefits to children through the acquisition of knowledge and skills from Cultural Education subjects.

·        The additional benefits to wider economy of providing children with an excellent Cultural Education that in turn creates the workforce of the future, helping to drive forward the country’s growth agenda. 

·        The wider benefits to our society as a whole of developing an understanding of our common cultural heritage.

VIII.     Three particular elements that were common throughout the best examples of cultural education.

The first is knowledge based and teaches children about the best of what has been created and is currently being created (for example great literature, art, architecture, film, music and drama). It introduces young people to a broader range of cultural thought and creativity than they would be likely to encounter in their lives outside of school.

The second element of an excellent cultural education centres on the development of children’s analytical and critical faculties. Learning how to think both creatively and critically and to express their views articulately are important attributes for any young person. Studying cultural education subjects helps to develop a child’s personality, abilities and imagination.

The third element is skills based and teaches children how to participate in and to create new culture for themselves (for example designing a product, drawing, composing music, directing a play, choreographing a dance piece, or making a short film). Cultural education activities outside the school environment also enable young people to gain new perspectives.

Parents, extended family members, or knowledgeable persons in the heritage culture tell stories or folklore which are from their heritage country. Those stories include the philosophy of the heritage country, as well as the cultural values, behaviors, or beliefs. This tradition of expressing their ideas, values, norms, beliefs, superstitions, and culture orally to pass them on to their children is a traditional education system.

Education, heritage, and tourism are interconnected. However, tourism processes are much broader and more complex. Tourism education to explore issues related to national ideologies about cultural diversity, heritage, and citizenship, and negotiations of this by teachers and youth.

IX.        Promoters of Cultural Education

Group of ambassadors (authors, poets, actors, architects, archaeologists, art historians, artists, craftsmen, film-makers, dancers, musicians, performers and curators) would publicly promote the value of Cultural Education. It is important that strong relationship with cultural practitioners to be maintained. Forming an advisory group of top level practitioners who are household names and well respected for their particular area of expertise be recruited to champion Cultural Education to the public at large. is

We want children to grow up with a sense of real pride in their local area, founded on a deep understanding of its heritage and its place in the national story. All children and young people should know about our national icons and understand the key points in our history that have shaped our national character and culture.

Pupils will use heritage resources like local history societies and archives as well as their local museums.The programme aspires to ensure that:  (a) children are proud of where they live, (b) children understand their local heritage and how it relates to the national story;

an advisory group of top level practitioners, who are household names and well respected for their particular areas of expertise, be recruited to champion Cultural Education to the public at large

It is vitally important that government maintains a strong relationship with cultural practitioners, so it is suggested that an advisory group of top level practitioners, who are household names and well respected for their particular areas of expertise, be recruited to champion Cultural Education to the public at large.