06/11/2019 response to Deep Culture in the Elementary Classroom

The topic of Deep Culture in the classroom is not an often discussed one, but very important nonetheless. Understanding it's concept become a fundamental part of the teacher's job, in order to assist the students in developing a "cross-cultural consciousness", and not only memorize single cultural events.

As professor Ivers said: "cultural instruction should be more than just piƱatas, mariachis, French bread and the Eiffel Tower. We need to go a little deeper, especially in the secondary grades". And he is correct, in the cross-cultural instruction, a teacher should go deeper in the culture. But how can a teacher go beyond memorizing single events and teach a "cross-cultural consciousness"?

The psychologist Albert Ellis (2001) suggested a formula, which is as follows: Event or circumstance - belief or culture - reaction. The instructor should use examples of an event, compare them to the culture being studied and observe what would be the reaction an individual in that culture. This becomes more practical to learn and make students become more sensitive to those changes.







Comments