Multiculturalism in the Modern Society - Assignment Example

Multiculturalism in the Modern Society Respond to the following ment: Unless teachers learn and respect the culture of their students, it will be impossible to teach them. Globalization made the teachers face the problem of teaching students from different cultures. There are many cultures in the world and they differ much from each other. This is the reason why people feel cultural shock when they come to another country. In order to exist in another country one should learn the culture of this state. However, immigrants are not ready to absorb another culture at once, moreover they do not want to lose their cultural identity. Thus, many subsocieties or subcultures appear in the United States. The children of these groups go to school and teachers have to teach them taking into account cultural differences. It is important for teachers to understand that students from different cultures may have different understanding of the material given in class. Thus, it is very essential for a teacher who is working in multicultural environment with children from different cultures to learn the culture of his/her students. In order to teach color students a teacher should understand five important concepts: “culture, cultural identity, pluralism, equality and social justice” (Gollnick &Chinn, p.13). Students will appreciate the fact that a teacher respects their own culture, so the link between a teacher and students will be easily established and it will be possible to teach them. 2. By 2020 children of color will represent over 50% of all students in schools. What will the teaching staff look like? In the modern American society the number of people from different cultures grows rapidly. Immigrants come to the United States with different purposes and many of them immigrate in order to receive a good education. The number of children of color in schools grows, adult immigrants come to study in the Universities, many of them receive a profession of a teacher. Thus, by 2020 the number of color teachers in schools will also grow and it is not bad as it will make a teaching process easier. It will be easy for children to adapt in another environment and learn about another culture if they see that their teacher also went through this, managed to get a good education and to receive a good job. The communication between people from different cultures will be much more pleasant if their teacher is also a member of subculture. It is very important to give ethnical minorities an opportunity to teach and it is obvious that by 2020 many students and schoolchildren whose families moved to the United States will become teachers. It will be easier for them to work with ethnical minorities as they not only already know their culture and the problems they face, but they also have learned the culture of the United States. Also children will be able to see that Americans and the representatives of ethnic minorities can successfully work together, if they see the members of their own subsociety in the teacher’s staff. This will strengthen the connection between the representatives of different cultures and this connection is very important to be established if they decided to live in the same society. 3. Is there a difference between enculturation and socialization, why or why not? I think that there is a difference between enculturation and socialization. This difference can be explained by the definition and the essence of these two terms. Enculturation, as I understand it, is a process of confluence with the surrounding environment that a person goes through when he appears in the society with the unknown culture. Enculturation is the first steps made by the person whose task is to learn how to live in the society he appeared in. He learns the values, principles, rules and first of all the language of the new environment. These steps are the most important as they help people unite because a person can’t exist separate from other people. People can exist only in connection with each other and enculturation means the establishment of this connection. Socialization in its turn is also a process of adaptation in different culture, but this process is based on the learning from others, adults in particular. This process usually happens in schools where teachers help color students learn the principles of the country they came to. The process includes training that can have positive and negative character, here we can see positive and negative socialization. Positive socialization prescribes positive attitude towards students, kind motivation, rewards. Negative in its turn means training that involves hard criticism, imposing different values, punishment. In order to avoid negative socialization, it is necessary to prepare teachers specially for the work with color students. 4. How do ethnocentrism, the dominant group and meritocracy intertwine? Explain and give examples. The relations between the dominant group and minorities are always difficult. Certainly, when you come to another country, you should adapt to its culture. That does not mean that you should lose your cultural identity, but you also can’t impose your own values if they contradict with the values of the dominant group, we can’t go with our own rules to someone else’s monastery. Ethnocentrism prescribes evaluating other people through one’s own cultural values and it defines the values of the dominant group. However, it does not mean that people from the dominant group and minorities can’t be united. Fortunately, there are values, which are the same in different cultures. People always respect those who work hard, receive good education and express positive attitude towards other people regardless their nationality. US society is a meritocracy that allows people move from one social class to another if they make some achievements in their life. For example if a person who comes to the Unites States to study first experience difficulties connected with cultural shock and racial discrimination, then when he/she gets a good education and receives a good job for example, of a teacher, he becomes a respected person in the American society. Everything depends on the person’s own efforts. 5. How do prejudice, discrimination and the privilege intertwine? Explain and give examples. Discrimination and prejudice have always been closely connected. Prejudice is primarily based on the strict and usually illogical opinions, which the privileged group has about the members of unprivileged group. This provokes racial, gender or ethnic discrimination. For example, men as a privileged group have a lot of prejudices about women. Or white people can have many prejudices about blacks. Certainly, these prejudices do not have and can’t have any grounds as all the people are equal and thus should have equal rights. But unfortunately in every society there are underprivileged and privileged groups and the latter propagate prejudices just because they do not want to lose their privileges. 6. Explain the difference between immigrants and involuntary immigrants. Who and Why? Speaking about immigrants we can’t but mention voluntary and involuntary immigrants. Voluntary immigrants are people who made their own decision to move to another country. The purposes can be different: some people want to improve their financial situation, others are looking for better educational opportunities. They can be forced by the circumstances but not by other people. Involuntary migration has another nature. Involuntary immigrants could not have any opportunity to make their own decision, they were forced to come to another country. The main cause of involuntary migration is slavery. Many blacks appeared in the United States because their ancestors were slaves. Certainly, now these people should be definitely treated as Americans. 7. During the 1960’s magazines and other publication for Blacks surfaced, why was there a need? Black literature has its niche in the American literature, but if to trace its history, we can see that before 1960s it was not actively published. There can be traced a considerable raise in the publishing of African-American literature in 1960s-1070s. There were serious reasons for that as in 1960s the struggle against discrimination found its reflection in laws. There were several acts issued such as Civil Rights Act (1964), voting Rights Act (1965), Civil Rights Act (1968). Moreover, many black students entered higher educational institutions in 1960s-1970s. Thus, there was a need to publish African-American literature that was written previously but was not published because of racial discrimination. Moreover, publishers also benefited from publishing of black literature as it improved their reputation. In 1960s African-American literature that told people about the real life of blacks received its niche in American literature and became culturally valuable. 8. Blacks tried to assimilate after slavery, why was this almost impossible for some blacks and easier for other blacks? Include the color caste system and colorism in your response. Before and after slavery white people always had more privileges than black. But this division was not final. Living in the same country black and white people had common children and their blood mixed. Thus, some rules were created by white people: if a person had a white skin but then appeared that his grandfather was black, this person automatically lost his/her privileges as he was not considered to be “white” any more. Black people were classified according to caste system that always existed. According to this system, blacks were divided into light-skinned, brown-skinned and black skinned. Even when blacks were slaves, they were treated according to this division. Light-skinned blacks were given more pleasant work in houses, while dark-skinned had to work outside. After slavery was abolished in 1865, blacks also had different opportunities. Light-skinned blacks could get more prestigious position in the society than dark-skinned. Notwithstanding that slavery was abolished, people still were full of irrational prejudices and many years had passed until the influence of these prejudices was mitigated. 9. What were the results of the 2010 CNN “doll test” as compared to the test in the video As the truth comes from the mouth of babies, our children can help us determine what attitude towards the color of the skin we have for now. A famous “doll test” is the easiest way to determine the children’s attitude. Children are just asked to choose between two dolls, a white-skinned doll and a black-skinned doll. There are many videos found in the Internet with previous tests. And all of them have the same results: white-skinned children certainly say that a white-skinned doll is more beautiful, however, when black-skinned children are asked the same question, they also say that white-skinned doll is beautiful and dark-skinned one is ugly! The 2010 CNN “doll test” disproved the results of these videos as it brought quite different results. Little white-skinned children who participated in the test when asked what doll is ugly chose black-skinned, while black-skinned children said that white-skinned doll is ugly and black skinned is beautiful. 10. The term of “acting white” is used to describe who and why? The term “acting white” is rather controversial. It appeared in 1990s and was thought out by black young men. The purpose of the term is also not completely determined, but it is possible to state that it is used by blacks, especially among young African-American men, to define other blacks who in their opinion try to behave like whites. “Acting white” is accused in betraying his/her own culture. The heart of the problem was quite strange: many blacks did not want other blacks to study! If a person spend much time in the library and has good marks, they consider him to be a betrayer! Certainly, such attitude is not right as it only makes the gap between blacks and whites wider. Black people on the contrary should try to get better position in the society and in the United States there are a lot of opportunities for that. In the US one can easily cross the social boundaries as the country is democratic. The appearance of the term “acting white” testifies again that the process of fighting with all the types of discrimination is very difficult, especially if it is complicated by the irrational incomprehension and reluctance of the unprivileged group. Nobody can help you change anything in your life if you do not want to do it yourself. References Gollnick, Donna M., Chinn, Philip C. (2008).Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society. 8th edition, Prentice Hall Read More