A to Z: Cultural Perspectives in Education

Vaughan M. Blaney
Director

BSc(UNB,Canada), BEd(UNB,Canada), TEFLA(University of Cambridge), MEd(HKU, Hong Kong)

Book: "A to Z: Cultural Perspectives in Education"

The Letter 'Z'...

Zany poetry

Thought-provoking art

Each has different tastes

Yet all comes from the heart

Zealously we maintain our differences, still all can agree that we:

• feel a zap if we touch electricity
• know zucchini is healthy
• have a zodiac sign
• know that a zither is a musical instrument
• like to draw a zigzag pattern
• realize zero means ‘none’
• know that zaire is the monetary unit in Zaire
• think zinnia is an unusual name for a plant
• recognize a zorilla as an animal from Africa
• know how to print the letter Z

We found that culture/person exchanges are mediated not only by language, visual means or actions but also, at a subconscious level, by an affectively charged conglomerate of representations, figures and experiential memories that we called background thinking. When a person speaks or thinks about any meaningful group, men, women, Black, White or whatever, the content of emotional memories, desires, interests is subconsciously activated at the periphery of consciousness.

We could describe background thinking in the area of personal and social identity, as a compression, experienced subconsciously, of all the contexts in which words, representations, or actions dealing with Self, Alter and society have occurred under conditions of affective arousal. When we display this “compressed material” through the method of representational contextualization, we find an invariant structure that I have called the affective-representational circuit, and the content of this structure, evolves in a continuous resonance with the world.

Zavalloni, Marisa

A to Z: Cultural Perspectives in Education

Vaughan M. Blaney
Director

BSc(UNB,Canada), BEd(UNB,Canada), TEFLA(University of Cambridge), MEd(HKU, Hong Kong)

Book: "A to Z: Cultural Perspectives in Education"

The Letter 'Y'...

You can see that we are different

Your culture, my face

But when we learn to get along

Our world becomes a better place

You and I and others are different – that is plain to see – still all can agree that we:

• live in the same year
• wake-up to a yesterday
• tend to yackety-yack to one another during recess
• yawn when we are tired
• enjoy trying a yoyo
• think our favourite foods are yummy
• know what is young and what is old
• shout yes when the teacher asks if we can help
• believe the sun is yellow
• know how to print the letter Y

In my view, the most significant contributions made by transnational institutions like McDonald’s is that people can use them as bridges to other cultures. In the present case, it is American culture that makes the Beijing McDonald’s ultimately attractive to Chinese consumers. The customers want a “taste” of America, and the outcome of their pursuit is the creation of a Chinese version of American fast food culture. McDonald’s success in Beijing can therefore be understood only in the context of this localization process. Given the centuries-long development of Chinese cuisine, it is only natural that foreign foods have undergone the transformative process of localization. It is also tempting to predict that, twenty years from now, the “American” associations that McDonald’s carries today will become but dim memories for older residents. A new generation of Beijing consumers may treat the Big Mac, fries, and shakes simply as local products.

Yan, Yunxiang

A to Z: Cultural Perspectives in Education

Vaughan M. Blaney
Director

BSc(UNB,Canada), BEd(UNB,Canada), TEFLA(University of Cambridge), MEd(HKU, Hong Kong)

Book: "A to Z: Cultural Perspectives in Education"

The Letter 'X'...

Xian’s 祖父母 live with his family

Judy’s far from home

With your grandparents in your heart

You’ll never be alone

Xerox copies of one another we are not, still all can agree that we:

• know that xi is a letter in the Greek alphabet
• like the sound of a xylophone
• know that Merry Xmas means Merry Christmas
• know that Xhosa is a language
• have an X-chromosome
• know that xenon is one of the elements on Earth
• know that an x-ray machine can be found in a hospital
• think that xeranthemum is a big world for a flower
• know that xenophobia is often compared to racism
• know how to print the letter X

The emerging research on popular culture in relation to literacy sheds light on how students interact outside of school with print and no-nprint texts that are uniquely meaningful to them in a cultural and linguistic way (Alvermann & Hagood, 2000; Alvermann, Moon, & Hagood, 1999; Buckingham, 1993; Buckingham & Sefton-Green, 1994; Chandler, 1999; Finders, 1997; Gee, 2000; Lewis, 1998; Luke, 1998). Dyson’s (1993, 1997) work with teachers who supported diverse students’ integration of popular culture into their reading and writing experiences at school suggests a crucial role for popular culture in students’ acquisition and exercise of skills in multiple literacies (ie. print and non-print text such as icons, images, and multimedia found on the internet and in TV shows, music and music videos…etc.). If these teachers had focused on teaching traditional print literacy and had not allowed their students to write and act out stories about superheroes, popular songs, and so on, the students’ rich literacy knowledge might not have been apparent. Thus, it seems important that teacher education courses emphasize the need for preservice and inservice teachers to become knowledgeable about their students’ experiences with popular culture, to examine the multiple literacies involved in interactions with popular culture, and to explore ways to integrate popular culture into teaching.

Xu, Hong Shelley

A to Z: Cultural Perspectives in Education

Vaughan M. Blaney
Director
BSc(UNB,Canada), BEd(UNB,Canada), TEFLA(University of Cambridge), MEd(HKU, Hong Kong)

Book: "A to Z: Cultural Perspectives in Education"

The Letter 'W'...

Welcome, bow, namaste, smile, nod

Kiss on the cheek, noses together, mano po

Pat on the head, annyong ha shimnikka

All of these to say hello

With all our differences, all can still agree that we:

• wish for joy in the world
• love to wake-up to a golden sunrise
• know right from wrong
• work to the best of our abilities in class
• believe our teacher is wise
• like to win in games
• brush our teeth to keep them white
• wear our very best on special occasions
• try to never waste our food
• know how to print the letter W

From the very beginning of anthropology as an academic discipline, debates about the meaning of culture have united and divided anthropologists. Of late, the tone of this debate has become especially strident, separating the good from the bad, the enlightened from the ignorant. In its earlier usage culture was defined by most anthropologists as a shared set of beliefs, customs, and ideas that held people together in coherent groups. In recent decades, however, the notion of coherence has come under attack by ethnosemanticists, who have discovered that people in supposedly close-knit groups (bands of hunters, factory workers, bureaucrats) do not share a single system of knowledge. Culture, therefore is not something that people inherit as an undifferentiated bloc of knowledge from their ancestors. Culture is a set of ideas, reactions, and expectations that is constantly changing as people and groups themselves change.

Watson, James

A to Z: Cultural Perspectives in Education

Vaughan M. Blaney
Director
BSc(UNB,Canada), BEd(UNB,Canada), TEFLA(University of Cambridge), MEd(HKU, Hong Kong)

Book: "A to Z: Cultural Perspectives in Education"

The Letter 'V'...

Vermicelli, rice, kimchi, balut
Potatoes, spaghetti, sushi, dim sum
Poutin rapee, curry, kærnemælkskoldskål
We all have our favourites – yum, yum

Variety is obvious in our class, still all can agree that we:

• love to have fun when we are on vacation
• value education
• vow to do our best in class
• have a ‘voice’ in the world
• enjoy watching a cartoon video
• have blood passing through our veins
• feel a little fear when listening to vampire stories
• believe in the importance of voting on issues
• like to visit friends
• know how to print the letter V

I teach an introductory graduate course titled Multicultural Perspectives with an enrolment of about 25 students per quarter. We explore ways in which race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, gender, exceptionality, and social class collide and influence beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours. My goal is to equip students with the foundational knowledge, attitudes, and abilities to work effectively in diverse communities …


Educators must create and nurture a sense of safety in controversy-driven courses before learning can happen. Creating a safe place that motivates students to take risks for their personal and professional growth involves at least seven elements: collegiality, empowerment, role modeling, preparation, shared purpose, reflection, and commitment. These elements are the building blocks of a safe classroom. They are prerequisites to a positive class atmosphere where students’ capacity to take risks are maximized. Each element is realized through a number of strategies which make the elements come alive.

Valerio, Nina L.

A to Z: Cultural Perspectives in Education

Vaughan M. Blaney
Director
BSc(UNB,Canada), BEd(UNB,Canada), TEFLA(University of Cambridge), MEd(HKU, Hong Kong)

Book: "A to Z: Cultural Perspectives in Education"

The Letter 'U'...

Uniting in the future in many different ways

There will be marriages, weddings, and wonderful things

Arranged, sehra, tea-ceremony, ketubah, pamanhikan

Tsyhanshchyna, zaffa, karamu, and golden rings

Unbelievable are all our differences, still all can agree that we:

• ultimately want to be good students
• stand united in class
• once had an umbilical cord
• ask the teacher for help when we are uncertain
• feel adventuresome when searching for the undiscovered
• sometimes undervalue our personal strengths
• know we are an important part of the universe
• often look high for a UFO
• try to uphold our values
• know how to print the letter U

Teaching a multicultural or diversity-related course can create a tremendous challenge, and if not carefully approached, can generate and escalate students’ defensiveness and negative dispositions, which can contribute to defeating the whole purpose of multicultural education. Greenman & Kimmel (1995) note, “the road to multicultural education is paved with good intentions, but rutted with potholes of resistance”. My personal odyssey sheds some insights. As I look back on that first experience of teaching multicultural education, I can safely say that the students rejected the ideas I presented because they felt impacted by the issues which they perceived scapegoated the white race of which a vast majority of them claimed membership and because they were determined to protect their cultural hegemony, which resulted in defensive attitudinal behavior …

… those of us in teacher education who teach multicultural education courses will continue to struggle with ways to prepare preservice teachers who are inexperienced and parochial in their worldview and who exhibit high levels of defensiveness when enrolled in multicultural/diversity courses. Yet, in each class, I do believe that the multicultural experience surprisingly touches some and makes a difference in their lives.

Ukpokodu, Nelly

A to Z: Cultural Perspectives in Education

Vaughan M. Blaney
Director
BSc(UNB,Canada), BEd(UNB,Canada), TEFLA(University of Cambridge), MEd(HKU, Hong Kong)

Book: "A to Z: Cultural Perspectives in Education"

The Letter 'T'...

Turning to my classmates

Listening to our sound

Laughter, love and learning

Music all around

Though we are very different, all can agree that we:  

• can tell time 
• would like to see a tyrannosaurus rex 
• stay safely at home when there is a typhoon
• know that it is always best to tell the truth
• recognize some things that are taboo
• have become aware of the word ‘terrorism’
• love our teacher
• know to give before we take
• recognize that we live in a world of advanced technology
• know how to print the letter T

Aspects of self (private, public, and collective) are differentially sampled in different cultures, depending on the complexity, level of individualism, and looseness of the culture. The more complex, individualistic, and loose the culture, the more likely it is that people will sample the private self and the less likely it is that they will sample the collective self. When people sample the collective self, they are more likely to be influenced by the norms, role definitions, and values of the particular collective, than when they do not sample the collective self. When they are so influenced by a collective, they are likely to behave in ways considered appropriate by members of that collective. The more they sample the private self, the more their behavior can be accounted for by exchange theory and can be described as an exchange relationship. The more they sample the collective self, the less their behavior can be accounted for by exchange theory; it can be described as a communal relationship. However, social behavior is more likely to be communal when the target of that behavior is an ingroup member than when the target is an outgroup member … When the culture is both collectivist and tight, the public self is particularly likely to be sampled. In short, a major determinant of social behavior is the kind of self that operates in the particular culture. 



Triandis, Harry C.