Background
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resources | Bibliography | Appendix
Chapter
6
Developing Cultural Understanding
By Carolyn Duffy and Tiina Matikainen
Chapter 6, Developing Cultural Understanding, provides students with knowledge and activities to enhance their awareness of cultural patterns among the different cultures of the world. Being aware of the differences that exist between cultures and knowing how to act when we are faced with puzzling cross-cultural situations are important skills for harmonious intercultural relations. Cross-cultural research shows that we can examine all cultures by using a basic taxonomy of cultural behaviors which allows us to see the differences and similarities that exist between cultures.
In this lesson students will learn about basic attitudes different cultures have towards three cultural value dimensions: the role of the individual in a society, power distance, and time orientation. Students will then apply this knowledge in activities which require them to decide how to act in cross-cultural situations based on the information they have learned about that culture’s values. Teachers can use the proposed lesson alone or expand it by adding additional content and activities in related lessons. The Internet resources given at the end of the chapter provide information and ideas for further expansion of this topic in subsequent lessons.
Background InformationThe culture in which each of us lives influences and shapes our feelings, attitudes, and responses to our experiences and interactions with others. Because of our culture, each of us has knowledge, beliefs, values, views, and behaviors that we share with others who have the same cultural heritage. These past experiences, handed down from generation to generation, influence our values of what is attractive and what is ugly, what is acceptable behavior and what is not, and what is right and what is wrong. Our culture also teaches us how to interpret the world. From our culture we learn such things as how close to stand to strangers, when to speak and when to be silent, how to greet friends and strangers, and how to display anger appropriately. Because each culture will have a unique way of approaching these situations, we find great diversity in cultural behaviors throughout the world.
Learning about cultural diversity provides students with knowledge and skills for more effective communication in intercultural situations. Samovar and Lee (1997) suggest that the first step in being a good intercultural communicator is to know your own culture and to know yourself - in other words, reflect thoughtfully on how you perceive things and how you act on those perceptions. Secondly, the more we know about the different cultural beliefs, values, and attitudes of our global neighbors, the better prepared we will be to recognize and to understand the differences in their cultural behaviors. The knowledge of cultural differences and self-knowledge of how we usually respond to those differences can make us aware of hidden prejudices and stereotypes that are barriers to tolerance, understanding, and good communication.
The cultural behaviors of people from the same country can be referred to collectively as cultural patterns, which are clusters of interrelated cultural orientations. The common cultural patterns that hold for the entire country represent the dominant culture in a heterogeneous society. It is important to remember that even within a homogeneous culture, the dominant cultural pattern does not necessarily apply to everyone living in that culture. Our perception of the world does not develop only because of our culture; many other factors contribute to the development of our individual views. When we refer to a dominant cultural pattern we are referring to the patterns that foreigners are most likely to encounter. We also need to remember that culture is dynamic and that as the needs and values of individuals change, the cultural patterns will change also. One example of such a change is the status of women in the United States culture. After World War II, women began to work outside the home and started to share the previously male role of family provider. At the same time, family roles shifted to accommodate the working wife and mother, and men had to assume more responsibility for maintaining the home, like helping to cook, clean, and care for children.
Value dimensions that have a significant impact on all cultures are individualism- collectivism, power distance, and time orientation. Hofstede (1980) has developed a taxonomy (a classification system) that identifies value dimensions that are influenced and modified by culture and includes individualism-collectivism and power distance, among others. Within his taxonomy, in individualistic cultures each individual is the most important part of the social structure and each individual is valued for his unique persona. People are concerned with their own personal goals and work towards fulfilling those goals. In an individualistic culture, people do not often possess loyalty to any groups. In collective cultures, on the other hand, individuals are very loyal to all the groups they are part of, including the workplace, their family and their community. Within collectivism, people are concerned with the groups’ ideas and goals, and act in ways that fulfill the groups’ purposes rather than the individual’s. Samovar and Lee (1997) note that while individualism and collectivism can be treated as separate dominant cultural patterns and that it is helpful to do so, all people and cultures have both individual and collective dispositions.
According to Hofstede’s (1980) classification system, a second value-dimension that varies with different cultures is power distance; some cultures have high-power distances and others have low-power distances. High-power distance cultures believe that authority is essential in social structure and that strict social classes and hierarchies exist in these countries. In low-power cultures people believe in equality, and the people with power interact with the people without power on an equal level.
Kluckhohn (1961) offers a second taxonomy that classifies a culture’s orientation to time. In our world, we have cultures that are past-oriented, present-oriented, or future-oriented. Each of these different attitudes describes the degree to which the culture values the past, the present, or the future. Cultures place emphasis on the events that have happened or will happen during the period that they view as important. The cultural patterns that have been identified by cross-cultural research will be further explored in Chapter 7.
