In this challenge we learned about cultures and the dilemmas that they can cause in certain situations.
It was also interesting to see that there is an evolution in the concept of culture. Not so long ago certain cultures thought that they were more than others. They saw themselves as an heigher step on the social ladder.
These days, most of this thinking has been disappeared. The 'modern' concept of culture is one of equality but with the including differences between the different cultures.
What is culture to me??
Why is it important to be aware of and have knowledge about the concept of culture when working as a social worker or as a teacher?
It's very important because the world becomes smaller and smaller. Everywhere we go, we always get confrontated with other cultures.
For example in my country 'Belgium' we have a lot of different cultures.
Our country is actually based on different 'cultures'. We have a Flemish part where we speak Flemish, a part where they speak French, a part where they speak German and then we have a region around Brussels where they speak French and Flemish.
Above that Belgium and especially Brussels is the centre of the EU. That means that we also have a lot of EU-citizens who have moved to our country. As you can see Belgium is a multicultural country.
So, also in my country it is very important to have knowledge about the different cultures and about the concept of culture and how, when and why we categorise people. I think that in Belgium the teachers have to pay more attention to this in the classes because we have now a lot of political problems because of a few cultural dilemmas.
If we don't teach about cultures in the schools I think that the end of Belgium is near!!
Because if the current generation is not capable to get along with the others, how will the future generation in an increasing globalising world??!!
What challenges do you see in the concept of culture?
I think that one of the challenges is to avoid that people are going to see their culture as the best or more worth as other cultures. Another thing is that it may happen that we are going to put people in boxes based on their cultures. This may lead to stereotypes.
Is the contept usefull when we talk about human differences?
Of course we have to respect the human differences but the human-being needs also some structures in his thinking and brains. It's necessary that we make categories of everything what we see, feel, smell, ... Because if we don't to this, our brain has to deal with too much information and it will not work in a proper way anymore.
But we have to be carefull with the above mentioned things!!
It's also impossible to ignore that certain people of a certain country or region in the world share a certain culture.
Of course human-beings are a lot more than their culture or origin but it makes a part of their identity that can not be hidden easily.
How is the concept used within your profession?
In my education we pay a lot of attention to the complex concept and the relativistic concept of culture.
We 'learn' that everybody and every culture is equal but that there are also some differences between people and their cultures. Human-beings have culture, culture doens't have you. I mean with this that persons are more than just a culture.
In our teacher education they also learn us how to work around the different cultures which are represented in our classes and how to avoid or deal with cultural dilemmas.
Reflection:
This lesson made me think about my own culture and the relation to the other cultures.
For example the groupwork in which we had to discuss about different cases of cultural dilemma was very interested. I noticed that we had the intention to change the culture of another to our own traditions. Sometimes we do this even without knowing. This made me realize that I have to be carefull with this.
Who says that my culture and values are better than the others??? This is difficult because we always judge on the background of our own values!!
