Abstract
According to Hays (1996, 2008), “ADDRESSING” model, consideration of age, developmental disabilities, acquired disabilities, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, indigenous group membership, nationality, and gender contributes to a complete understanding of cultural identity. Who I am; my beliefs, values, morals, and views on diversity are shaped based upon my upbringing, the values within the society I grew in, and the norms adopted by my culture. However, I can’t thank these sources enough for who I am; my own personal experiences and feelings have had a huge impact on my cultural views. I want to take you on a journey - my path to cultural identity.
Cultural Autobiography of Nikita Viswanath
My name is Nikita Viswanath and I was born on January 1st, 1993 in one of the four metropolitan cities of India – Mumbai that is also the hub for Bollywood and Finance. I currently reside in New York City, one of the most populous cities in the
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My mother’s family is Tamilian by roots but lived in Mumbai half her life with my maternal grandparents having lived in Mumbai for fifty years and my mom along with her siblings lived there till she got married and settled in Chennai. My father on the other hand is also a Tamilian and lived in Chennai through his life till today, which also means my paternal grandparents, also lived in Chennai since their marriage till date. Both my parents are Hindus. Hinduism, which is often misconstrued as a religion, do actually our ancestors preach a way of life as. I grew up in Chennai in a community of Brahmins or rather in a homogeneous community. We are quite god-fearing people and believe in God. We also visit temples almost every week to worship and of course during festivals and special occasions like marriages, ceremonies, etc. We speak in Tamil, which is one of the languages in South India, spoken by
People love to label themselves. From personality quizzes to AA meetings, many long for acceptance within a group filled with people like themselves. Yet, arguably, the most important label for many is their heritage. In her essay “Cultural Baggage,” author Barbara Ehrenreich discusses her relation to her identity and society's obsession with culture, questioning why people find clearly defined culture as so important and crucial to the human experience. Beginning in her childhood, Ehrenreich details her desire to understand and find meaning in her life, which largely stems from the absence of any distinct and unique culture .
Some strategies that can be used to enrich children’s understanding and respect for cultural identities within the services community may include: - • providing activities and opportunities that engage other cultures These activities could be a culture celebration for a day or week such as Chinese New Year, St Patrick’s Day, Christmas etc., where the children could come dressed up as something that represents that particular culture i.e. dragon, leppricon, Noah etc. and play games that originated from that culture, do drawings of things found in that culture or read books at story time that give information and embraces the culture. • engaging parents and families to discuss cultural practices.
A Sense of Belonging Culture itself can be described as a detailed, lifestyle a person lives by, generally coming from family traditions. “What Is Cultural Identity” once stated “The system of understanding culture includes values, beliefs, notions about acceptable and unacceptable behavior, and other socially constructed ideas that members of the society are taught “‘true’” (Trumbull and Pacheco 9). To understand one’s identity, one should attest to getting to know all of their cultural backgrounds that make up who they are. According to Trumbull and Pacheco, “Cultural identity is a broader term: people from multiple ethnic backgrounds may identify as belonging to the same culture” (9).
Culture includes many things such as language, cuisine, dress, beliefs, ways of living, histories, traditions, customs, religion and lifestyle choices. Culture is part of who we are as an individual and who we are within the community. Culture adds to a sense of belonging which is underpinned throughout the Early Years Learning Framework. As an educator we need to respect a child’s culture as this is where they begin their sense of belonging within the world (Outcome 1- children have a strong sense of identity: children develop knowledgeable and self confident identities EYLF) Respect for diversity is also one of the principles within the Early Years Learning Framework (pg 13 EYLF).
Educators need to develop and enact cultural competency to work effectively with children, families and staff who may have diverse experiences, values an beliefs. We should interact with respect, be constructive and have a positive attitude towards others. We as educators should think critically about ways to interact with children, families, staff and community to enhance relationships and exchange information and limit and decrease stereotypes. The EYLF and NQS both includes outcomes and principles that embrace cultural competency. It includes making sure children have a strong sense of identity, knowing their culture and belonging to group in culture and community.
The Racial/Cultural Identity Development Model by Sue & Sue (2012), is an active example to understand clients’ attitudes and behaviors toward themselves and their culture as well as the culture of others. According to West-Olatunji, Frazier, Guy, Smith, Clay & Breaux (2007), “This model poses the following questions (Sue & Sue, 2003): (a) With whom do you identify and why? (b) What culturally diverse attitudes and beliefs do you accept or reject and why? (c) What dominant cultural attitudes and beliefs do you accept or reject and why? and (d) How do your current attitudes and beliefs affect your interaction with other culturally diverse clients and people of the dominant culture?
I am interested in diversity for my storybook. The theme “diversity” is important for children to live in diversity world. Diversity is better to learn as soon as possible from children because the rejection about differences is hard to change after the segregation is formed in mind. Most children are built the images about the different ethnicities by what they read, see and hear. Since people’s perspective is formed when they are little, how parents educate children is important.
One of the most integral parts of cultural competency is the process of successfully becoming culturally competent. After synthesizing available research on the topic I have constructed four main steps in becoming culturally competent. Those include self-awareness, understanding various aspects of the culturally diverse population for whom you care for, practice evidence based medicine as it relates to culturally diverse populations and continuing education (Kodjo, 2009; Purnell, 2012). The first step includes becoming self aware of one’s own beliefs.
Moreover, patients’ attitudes and beliefs towards disability vary from culture to culture, which may affect the response to treatment. So, healthcare providers need to be sensitive and aware of different cultures because the lack of awareness on the many cultural beliefs and values may influence providers to make the wrong judgment. Thus, cultural competence is a significant element in the different fields of healthcare such as rehabilitation to meet with patients’ various needs, especially cultural. As a result, many facilities including rehabilitation are making the effort to educate and train their staff about diversity in order to recognize and avoid behaviors or suggestions that might be offensive to patients. Niemeir, Burnett, and Whittaker (2003) described in “Cultural Competence in the Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation Setting: Are we Falling Short of Meeting Needs?”
Religion and Philosophy Collection, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&sw=w&u=ko_k12hs_d71&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA130047610&asid=b32ed7e0f51af43dc7e6fb2823603de1. In this article, Christopher Key Chapple summarized the main components of Hinduism and what matters most to them based on their religious beliefs. Hinduism is much different than our religion however, the author grabbed the main points about Hinduism and its ecology to give a better understanding for me, the reader. This article touches on the dynamic, multicultural society of Hinduism.
I suppose when i used to think of cultural identity, i perceive it as what racial background we come from, what race we are. Whether it’s Mexican, Asian, French, etc… I assumed it meant what special foods we eat, and events or activities we participate in according to our background. Little did i know this is a misconception; quite a common one actually. Cultural identity is actually how you live your life and how you express yourself, the things you enjoy that make you, you. I am someone who enjoys many things, ranging from A-Z.
Throughout my experiences in this course so far, I have had many opportunities to reflect on my own past and have begun to better understand my own cultural identity. It has been much more difficult to wrap my head around than I would have predicted it to be because so many things play into the construction of an identity that it can be hard to look at all of those separate pieces together. My cultural identity, like all others, is more complicated than it first appears. I identify as a white person, a woman, an American, a gay person, and a feminist, just to name a few. While all of these labels carry with them stereotypes and expectations, they also interplay with the cultural influences I was subject to throughout my childhood.
While identity focuses on uniqueness such as how an individual is different from and similar to others, diversity focuses on the range of the difference and uniqueness such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, among others. Diversity should be seen as source of strength. However, it can also be a source of violence, oftentimes by those who fear or dislike difference. In the best light diversity is foundation for peacebuilding – since it enables us to draw strength and be respectful of difference. Identity and diversity are linked.
Cultural identity plays a very vital role in cross cultural communication, people from a particular culture communicate with partners and employees from many different cultures and in this situation every individual strives to keep their cultural and individual identity. According to Gardiner and Kosmitzki, identity is defined as “a person 's self-definition as a separate and distinct individual, including behaviours, beliefs, and attitudes” (Gardiner & Kosmitzki, 2008, p. 154). Also, Ting-Toomey defines identity as a "reflective self-conception or self-image that we each derive from our family, gender, cultural, ethnic, and individual socialization process"( Ting-Toomey, 2005). Both definitions bring out the generalisation of cultural identity
Teachers "You must go beyond and seek to understand the cultural context of each student" (Braley et al., 2016, pp. 259). Success looks different for each student and teachers should realize culture may be reflected in students' actions. Additionally, teachers may be teaching students at various comprehension levels and students with learning disabilities. In these instances, it is essential to learn about where difficulties lie for children and enhancing their learning by meeting them where they are with content they can