Integrating South Asian Indian and Latin American Culture into Education - Research Paper Example

?Understanding Cultures: South Asian Indian and Hispanic A. Introduction This study is purposely meant to explore and understand the cultures of South Asian Indians and Hispanics to pave the way for a greater appreciation and acceptance of their cultures with the ultimate purpose of making it useful in building a harmonious multi-culturally diverse school and society. These two cultures are chosen mainly because of their richness and diversity. Added to this, they illustrate two different faces of the globe as they lie geographically on opposite sides of the globe: Indians in Asia and Hispanics in Latin America. The theme of the study centres on family life, holidays and festivals, and languages spoken, because these impact on how people mingle and interact with other people. Family is universally accepted as the basic unit of society. Hence in understanding culture, studying family life is important. Specifically, the study centres on family structure, roles, and ideals. Similarly, studying their holidays and festivals is also important, because this manifests their beliefs and values. In fact, holidays which could be religious, political, or cultural in nature are observed because people find some things important, memorable, or sacred on them. The primary interest of the study here is to understand the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ in order to know their beliefs. Lastly, studying their language is also important because this manifests the diversity of the culture and the origin of the people. Here, the study generally centres on the questions of ‘what’, ‘who’, and ‘from where’. B. Two Cultures Studied 1. South Asian Indian Culture India, as described in India’s official government portal, My India My Pride (2012)– a secondary source for the study of the Indian culture – is among the world’s oldest civilizations with rich culture and heritage it has gained from its more than 4000 years of existence. Comprised of 28 states and seven territories, India, according to a secondary source for the study of the Indian culture, Zimmerman (2013), is unsurprisingly South Asia’s largest single nation. Its society is sharply hierarchical, known for its caste system. Hierarchy, as explained by Jacobson (2004) – the primary source for the study of the Indian culture, is determined mainly by gender and age. Hence, the male is higher than the female and the older male is higher than the younger male. Hierarchy is very evident not only in caste groups but even in family and kinship groups. It is based on this hierarchy that family members are accorded with respect. The high regard of Indian family in hierarchy makes family in India more fascinating. Family life. Traditional Indian family structure is best described as closely knitted, extended, and patriarchal. Indians regard the family to mean not only the father, mother, and siblings as commonly understood, but also their grandparents with all of them living under the same roof, working, sharing common income, eating, celebrating, and worshipping together. As the family further expands they divide into smaller units and become joint families continuing the same patterns of family life. (Jacobson, 2004) The father heads the family. This does not simply mean that the father is the bread-winner of the family. Rather to Indians, this also means that the male family member sustains the extended family. Hence, a married Indian male brings home his wife to be part of his natal household. Thus, the wife has to live with her in-laws together with her children. This also means that the transition of leadership goes from the father to the eldest son, and not to the mother. While the eldest male heads the family, his wife is in-charged to supervise their daughters-in-law and younger children. Thus, the older generation takes good care of the younger generation, which the latter repays in return. Such family roles put boys at higher esteem than girls. Besides, marriage in Indians is traditionally decided by the socio-economic status of the girl. (Jacobson, 2004) Indians are family oriented. It is from the family that they learned the essential themes of the Indian culture. Their family ideals rest on loyalty, integrity and unity. It is the deep sense of family loyalty that trusting their kin is very strong among Indians. And, it is in achieving family unity that husband-wife and parent-children relationships are de-emphasized. Hence, it would be highly improper for spouses to openly show their affection inside the household. (Jacobson, 2004) Holidays and festivals. Due to its highly diverse cultural make-up, it is unsurprising to note India having an unusual large number of holidays and festivals to celebrate, with 71 this 2013, another primary source for the study of the Indian culture, Brepols (2013) notes. These holidays are categorised either as gazetted or restricted holidays to denote the nature of observance. Gazetted holidays are those proclaimed by the government, thus requiring compulsory observance from everyone in the area; whereas restricted holidays are optional holidays that are related usually to ethnic origin. Hence, businesses go as usual except for those affected by the holiday. Since restricted holidays are not compulsory, workers are given the discretion to choose at least two from the many restricted holidays to celebrate. (Brepols, 2013) According to Singh (2010) – a secondary source for this aspect of Indian culture, a government employee in India earns a total of 183 day-leave annually: “30 days earned leave, 20 days of medical leave, 104 weeksend off, 12 gazetted holidays, two restricted holidays, and 15 causal leave” (p.29). Of the many holidays in India, only three are national holidays. Meaning, these are observed all throughout India. These national holidays, Karabin and Mahapatra (2009) – another secondary source for this aspect of Indian culture – are the Republic Day (January 26) – the signing of the national Constitution, Independence Day (August 15) – the day when India became a sovereign state, and Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday (October 2) – the birth of India’s Father. However, various states and regions of India also observe their own local festivals as dictated by the prevailing religious and linguistic demographics in the area. Other public holidays observed by many are: “Islamic New Year (Muharram), Maha Shivaratri, Ram Navami, Mahavir Jayanti, Milad un Nabi (The Prophet's Birthday), Good Friday, Buddha Purnima (Buddha Day), Janmashtami, Ramazan (End of Ramadan), Guru Nanak Jayanti, Bakrid (Feast of Sacrifice), and Christmas Day” (Brepols, 2013, p.1). Observably, most holidays in India are religious observances, illustrating India’s effort to accommodate its rich religious tapestry for peaceful coexistence. Language. India’s spoken language is as diverse as its cultural and genetic make-up. However, the number of languages varies in count. The Indian census put it at 114 of which 22 have at least 1 million speakers. But if further specified, this increases to 216 dialects with more or less 10,000 speakers. It is also estimated that 850 languages are spoken daily in India. But according to a government official website – the Federal Research Division (2004) – another primary source for the study of Indian culture, more than 1,600 dialects are being spoken in India. Despite the variations in number, one thing is evident, that India is highly linguistically diverse. This is unsurprising because each of the 28 states of India has their own official languages. In fact, some even have more than one official language. However, another secondary source for this aspect of the Indian culture, the Kwintessential (2012) explains that not all languages in India are recognized by the Federal government. For example, the Federal government officially recognised all the three official languages of Bihar in east India, namely Hindi, Urdu, and Bengali, but only one of the official languages of Sikkim in east India is recognised. At the national level, the official language that most Indians commonly speak and mutually comprehend is Hindi – spoken by 40.2% of the population. But in the realm of business and politics, English shares the same official status with Hindi. Hence, Hindi and English are compulsory subjects in universities and colleges in most Indian states and territories. Other than these two official languages, 21 more languages including those mostly spoken, namely Assamese, Bengali – spoken by 8.3% of the population , Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithali, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi – spoken by 7.5% of the population, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil – spoken by 6.3% of the population, Telugu – spoken by 7.9 % of the population, and Urdu are constitutionally recognised for various purposes that are mainly political and educational. (Federal Research Division, 2004) 2. Hispanic Culture Hispanic, as the primary source for the study of the Hispanic culture, Montalban-Andersen (1998) explains, is not a racial or national term; it has always been multi-racial. Neither is it an ethnocentric term like ‘American’. Rather, he furthers, Hispanic is more of an ethnonym, encompassing countries with cultures closely related to Spain, not England. These countries, as enumerated in the Spanish Manual (2010) – a secondary source for this aspect of the Hispanic culture –are all in Latin America, except for Guinea Ecuatorial – a small West African nation, hence the misuse of Latino for Hispanic. These are Argentina, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba, Chile, El Salvador, Colombia, Honduras, Uruguay, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Peru, Paraguay, Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, Guatemala, and Ecuador. However, Hispanic and Spanish culture are different. According to the Explore Hispanic Culture (2012) – another primary source for the study of the Hispanic culture, the former represents the heritage and traditions of all Hispanic countries, hence broader than the latter, which only pertains to those of the people of Spain. Family life. Hispanic family structure, another primary source for the study of the Hispanic culture, specifically the family, Clark (2013) describes, is extended that goes beyond kinship, including not only grandparents and other kin, but even friends, neighbours, and important community organisations like the church. Central to Hispanic concept of family is familism which denotes family obligations, family support and emotional closeness, and family referent. According to a secondary source for this aspect of the Hispanic culture, Desmond and Lopez-Turley (2009), familism is very strong among Hispanic, specifically Hispanic-Whites that youths tend not to pursue college because they dislike the idea of being far from their families. Roles in Hispanic families are defined along patriarchal culture and belief in machismo. Man is superior over the woman. The father heads the family and is the authority. Hence, he is expected to be strong and responsible and a good provider to and protector of his family. The mother on the other hand takes care of domestic concerns. Parents are expected to take good care of their children. In turn, they expect their children to be responsible and cooperative, obedient to authorities, emotionally restrained, and to take good care of their parents when they grow old. (Clark, 2013) However, another secondary source for this aspect of the Hispanic culture, Morales-Jones (1998) notes that the pillars of Hispanic families are the grandparents who actively interfere in child-rearing. Such importance given to grandparents gives them their self-worth as they grow older. The family ideals of Hispanics are their high regard for collectivism, interdependence and their children’s happiness and enjoyment. Parents prefer attending events where they can bring along their children. (Clark, 2013) According to another secondary source for this aspect of the Hispanic culture, Gilliard, Moore and Lemieux (2007), children are considered family jewels. For most Hispanics, the family is a lifetime commitment. According to Morales-Jones (1998), a family for Hispanics will always be a family through thick and thin. She furthers that they also value education because they regard education as a means to achieve financial stability that will enable them not to become independent but to help their extended family. Holidays and festivals. Hispanic culture is very rich in holidays and festivals, widely ranging from religious to patriotic or from popular to unique (Explore Hispanic Culture, 2012). According to Celebralavida.com (2011) – a primary source for the study of this aspect of the Hispanic culture, these holidays and festivals can be categorised into three themes: family – e.g., birthdays or anniversaries; history – e.g., independence days or hero’s days; and religion – e.g., Christmas day or feast days of patron saints. According to a government official website – the Natural Resource Conservation Service (n.d.), which is one of the primary sources for the study of this aspect of the Hispanic culture, the emergence of many religious holidays and festivals of Hispanics is the heavy influence of Catholicism. The three primary sources of the study of this aspect of the Hispanic culture (Celebralavida.com., 2011; Explore Hispanic Culture, 2012; NRCS, n.d.) similarly note that Hispanics value their holidays and festivals because these get them closer to their families, kin, friends, neighbours, and community. Not all holidays and festivals are observed by all. Historical days, like those referring to their sovereignty, such as Independence Day, Constitution Day, Flag Day, and the like are observed only by those affected by the event or person. For example, February 27 is only celebrated in the Dominican Republic because this is their Independence Day; March 22 is only celebrated in Puerto Rico because it is their Emancipation Day, and more. Aside from the Kid’s Day (April 30), Worker’s Day (May 1), Mother’s Day (May 10) and Columbus Day (October 12), the holidays and festivals commonly observed by all Hispanics are religious in natures, namely New Year’s Day (January 1) – feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God; Valentine’s Day (February 14) – the feast of St. Valentine and a day of love; Holy Week (March/April) – the commemoration of the passion and death of Christ in the Calvary; Las Posadas (December 16-24) – a nine-day celebration that re-enacts the Biblical journey of Mary and Joseph in their search for a place to give birth to Jesus (December 16-24), and Christmas day (December 25) – the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Saviour of the world. (Celebralavida.com., 2011; Explore Hispanic Culture, 2012; NRCS, n.d.) Language. The primary source for the study of the Hispanic culture specifically in language, Montalban-Andersen (1998) explains that Spanish is the official language of Hispanic countries. Hence, Hispanics speak Spanish naturally without going through formal schooling. He furthers that together with the Roman Catholic religion, the Spanish language is one of the most enduring and essential cultural bond that defines and unites Hispanics. To further understand the Hispanic language, another primary source for the study of the Hispanic language, Veinte Mundos (n.d.) writes that the spread of the Spanish language in America was a result of the discoveries of Christopher Columbus which was instrumental in the subsequent Spanish conquest of South and Central America in the later part of the 15th century. Most of the Spanish colonisers then were from southern Spain, particularly Andalucia and Extremadura. This explains why Latin American Spanish pronounces sounds similarly with that of southern Spain. Though they can also be easily differentiated from their pronunciation of the letter ‘z’ and the use of the Spanish term ‘usted/es’. European Spanish pronounces ‘z’ as ‘th’, but Latin American Spanish pronounces it as ‘s’. European Spanish uses ‘usted/es’ as the polite form, but Latin American Spanish uses it as the normal form; they rarely use ‘vosotros’. Other American and indigenous languages and expressions, particularly by African slaves, have in the course of history influenced Latin American Spanish, resulting to differences in their particular accents, words, and expressions, which usually become a source of miscommunications between them. (Veinte Mundos, n.d.) For example, the Spanish dialect Lunfardo spoken in Argentina and Uruguay is essentially southern Italian (Montalban-Andersen, 1998). Thus over the past five centuries, the Spanish language diversified in Latin America. Its diversification, a secondary source for the study of the Hispanic language, Lipski (2007) describes, is attributable to the unique combination of language contacts that are both coincidental and deliberate, such as the peninsular roots of the Latin American Spanish, the influence of other indigenous languages (i.e., languages spoken in the American Spanish colonies; African slaves; later migrant languages mainly Italian, English, Cantonese Chinese, and Afro-European creoles languages of the Caribbean), and the catalytic effect of the emerging cities of modern Spanish America. C. Findings and Conclusion Although geographically set apart the South Asian Indian and Hispanic cultures are notably similar in their concept of family, family structure, regard of women, attitude to holidays and festivals, and composition. Both cultures perceive family along the concept of familism and regard the family to be the priority. Hence, both cultures have extended and patriarchal family structures. They also similarly regard women to be lower than men as evident in their division of family roles: The father is the authority; while the mother is the caretaker and support. Both cultures are also lovers of holidays and festivals, both having so many to celebrate. Both are also composed of diverse cultures, with India having so many ethnic groups and Hispanic including different Spanish speaking countries. On the other hand, their differences are most notable in their cultural reference, language, number and nature of holidays and festivals, and composition. While the reference of Indian denotes race and nationality, the reference of Hispanic is not, but rather of Spanish speaking countries in Latin America and West Africa. While Indians are known for their highly diverse ethnic languages, Hispanics are known for their Spanish mother tongue. While Indians have hundreds of holidays and festivals to celebrate as an accommodation of all their ethnic groups with varied religious beliefs, the predominantly Catholic Hispanics have only to deal with those important to Catholicism. And, while Indians are composed of different ethnicities; Hispanics are composed of different nationalities. The result of this study is applicable in the classroom in various ways. First, the teacher can properly approach Indian and Hispanic students in the conduct of classroom activities by knowing both what are offensive and acceptable to them. Second, the teacher gets an idea in preparing her lessons – both in determining the topic and activity interesting to Indian and Hispanic students. Third, the teacher can deconstruct in her/his Indian and Hispanic students the lower regard of both cultures on women by using meritocracy in the classroom. Fourth, the teacher can exploit the love of both cultures for holidays and festivals by assigning Indian and Hispanic students in conceptualising and organising classroom festivities. And fifth, the teacher learns as to what other cultures do Indians and Hispanics could work best and worst, thus enabling lesser problems in the classroom and allowing better output. D. References Primary Sources: Government Sources Federal Research Division. (2004). Country Profile: India. Library of Congress. Retrieved December 4, 2013, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/India.pdf. National Resource Conservation Services. (n.d.). Hispanic holidays. United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved December 4, 2013, http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/de/about/?cid=nrcs144p2_024762. Primary Sources: Internet Sources Brepols. (2013). Holidays in India. Brepols.com. Retrieved December 4, 2013, http://www.brepols.com/static/cms_page_media/40/Holidays_in_INDIA_2013.pdf. Celebralavida.com. (2011). Hispanic celebrations and Hispanic holidays. Retrieved December 4, 2013, http://www.celebralavida.com/hispanic_celebrations.html. Clark, J. M. (2013). Importance of family structure in Hispanic families. LiveStrong.com. Retrieved December 4, 2013, http://www.livestrong.com/article/1005977-importance-family-structure-hispanic-families/#ixzz2mWVNtuqB. Explore Hispanic Culture. (2012). Hispanic culture. Retrieved December 4, 2013, http://www.explore-hispanic-culture.com/hispanic-holidays.html. Jacobson, D. (2004). Indian society and ways of living. Asia Society. Retrieved December 4, 2013, http://asiasociety.org/countries/traditions/indian-society-and-ways-living. Montalban-Andersen, R. A. (1998). What is Hispanic? Legal definition vs. racist definition. The Web of Culture. Retrieved December 4, 2013, http://homepages.wmich.edu/~ppastran/3170/3170what_is_hispanic.pdf. Veinte Mundos. (n.d.). Spanish speaking countries. Retrieved December 4, 2013, http://www.veintemundos.com/en/spanish/. Secondary Sources: Non-Internet Sources Desmond, M. & Lopez Turley, R. N. (2009). The role of familism in explaining the Hispanic-White college application gap. Social Problems, 56 (2), 311-334. Gilliard, J.L., Moore, R.A., & Lemieux, J.J. (2007). “In Hispanic culture, the children are the jewels of the family”: an investigation of home and community culture in a bilingual early care and education center serving migrant and seasonal farm worker families. Early Childhood Research and Practice, 9 (2). Retrieved from http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v9n2/gilliard.html. Karabin, A. & Mahapatra, A. (2009). South India. Melbourne, Australia: Lonely Planet. Morales-Jones, C. A. (1998). Understanding Hispanic culture. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, Summer, 13-17. Singh, J. (2010). India, democracy and disappointments. India: Gyan Publishing House. Secondary Sources: Internet Sources Kwintessential. (2012). India – language, culture, customs and etiquette. Retrieved December 4, 2013, http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/india-country-profile.html. Lipski, J. M. (2007). Castile and the hydra: the diversification of Spanish in Latin America. The Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved December 4, 2013, http://www.personal.psu.edu/jml34/hydra.pdf. Spanish Manual. (2010). Spanish culture, traditions, and language manual. Retrieved December 4, 2013, http://languagemanuals.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/5/3/4853169/spanishmanual.pdf. Zimmerman, KA. (2013). Indian culture: traditions and customs of India. Live Science. Retrieved December 4, 2013, from http://www.livescience.com/28634-indian-culture.html. Secondary Sources: Government Sources My India My Pride. (2012). Know India: National Portal of India. Retrieved December 4, 2013, http://knowindia.gov.in/default.php. E. Evaluation: Personal and Professional Relevance The method used in this research is purely library and Internet research, utilising note-taking by highlighting in different colours useful information. To search for materials, keywords used were culture, family life, festivals and holidays, added with South Asia Indian and, Hispanic, then Latino. This is to differentiate Asian Indians from American Indians and to clarify if Hispanic and Latino are synonymous terms. I started searching for government websites. Only three were found and were not extensive in their descriptions of the cultures studied. So I went on to search the Internet. Here, many materials came up. I browsed each and chose the materials having the richest descriptions of the cultures studied. Since, there was no single material discussing all the aspects of culture studied – family, language, and holiday and festivals – each of these aspects of culture is separately searched in the Internet. Hence, there is a primary source for almost each of the culture aspects studied. To make sure that the Internet sources are accurate in their descriptions, a library search was conducted using two online libraries: the Google books library and the Questia library. Though there were various materials regarding the two cultures studied, mostly do not fit the information I needed for the study. From the Questia library, I only found one useful secondary source – Morales-Jones, C. A. (1998) and from the Google books library I found another two secondary sources – Karabin, A. & Mahapatra, A. (2009) and Singh, J. (2010). The most important sources were from official government sites: Federal Research Division (2004), My India My Pride (2012), and NRCS (n.d.), because although their information was not substantive, theirs were still official. Another important sources were those from journals: Desmond & Lopez-Turley (2009), Gilliard et al. (2007), and Morales-Jones (1998) because they are results of actual research studies. These were taken from the Internet and the online Questia Library. But most useful were the Internet sources: Brepols, 2013, Clark, 2013, Explore Hispanic Culture, 2012, Kwintessential, 2012, Celebralavida.com, 2011, Jacobson, 2004, and Montalban-Andersen, 1998, because they provided rich information that helped me understand Indians and Hispanics. Therefore, sources were selected for their richness in information and clarity of presentation. These materials were saved in two separate folders: Indian and Hispanic and within each folder were three specific folders: family, holidays & festivals, and language. As materials were read, I highlighted in different colours the information I found most useful: yellow for the basic information, green for the supporting information like data, and blue for explanations. This colour coding helped me get back easily to the information I needed. Only the information perceived to be confirmed by other sources was taken. Concepts that were not clear were given additional research time. For example, familism was searched for its meaning; the terms Hispanics and Latinos were also researched for their difference; the terms gazetted and restricted holidays were also searched for their difference because this was not clear in the primary sources. Once everything was clarified, important points were noted then summarised, giving due credit to the corresponding author. Doing this seemingly simple research is actually tedious yet inspiring, because I learned about two fascinating cultures. Professionally, this study is important to me because it provided me important things to consider in making my classroom teaching effective, such as activities offending to them, activities interesting to them, their holidays and festivals and their problems. Hence, I will avoid discussing religious beliefs because Indian and Hispanic cultures greatly differ in their religious beliefs. Doing so will only create heated arguments and could build deeper animosity between them. Instead, I will exploit the similar love of the Indian and Hispanic cultures for colourful celebrations to make my Indian and Hispanic students work together to develop acceptance between them. For example, I can combine my Indian and Hispanic students in groups to conceptualise colourful celebrations in the class (e.g. birthdays, teacher’s day). This will not only make them combine their colourful cultures, but will also develop their creativity. I can also utilise their similar love for colours to develop good decorations for the classroom. By making them work together into something that they both love, they can overcome their differences and become more accepting to one another. Moreover, I will also deal with the problem besetting both cultures. Specifically both cultures share the same low regard for women – something that must be addressed. Hence, I will encourage greater leading classroom roles for my Indian and Hispanic girl students, such as leading a team, reporting a specific topic, leading a song, being an officer of the day, and others to empower and enable them prove themselves with the end goal of gradually deconstructing in both cultures the low regard for women. Allowing healthy competition between boys and girls will not only help diminish gender discrimination but at the same time will also help them develop respect for one another and improve their class relationships and performances. Personally, this study broadened my understanding of people. It made me realise that there are peculiarities in every culture as there is best in each of them. Meaning, there is no such thing as one best culture, because cultures have their own context in which they should be understood. As such, this study helped me appreciate and accept Indian and Hispanic cultures. It also reminded me not to feel superior over other cultures, because as I may find theirs peculiar, they may also find mine peculiar, too. Therefore this study impressed on me the beauty of being different, but that can only be achieved if we learn to respect each other’s culture. Thus, I can say that this seemingly simple study made me a better person. Read More