Saturday, July 14, 2012

Perspectives on Diversity and Cultures

I asked my friends, colleagues, and family members what their definitions are of culture and diversity. Throughout this course, I have learned that culture is how people live in a society and what they believe in. This is a term that covers too many aspects to cover. It involves the way people talk, react to situations, different religions, their type of style, etc. Diversity involves the differences between people. When I asked others what culture means, all three of them responded with a definition similar to the ones studied throughout this course. They said it involves how people live, how they are raised, how they act, and how they communicate with others. When questioned about diversity, their answers differed more. They responded with definitions such as a mixture of cultures, differences within cultures, and overcoming things in life. Their meanings about culture were pretty much spot on, but their meanings of diversity weren’t as clear. However, they did link both culture and diversity together. Learning other people’s definitions of these two terms made me realize that more people know about these terms than I expected. So in other words, within every culture is diversity and diversity involves cultures within the world.

3 comments:

  1. Arica,
    When I first asked a teacher, she put the two words together. I asked her to define them seperately. I believe that diversity is within every culture, and it is not restricted to color or ethnicity. Diversity could be the reglion you choose even though your culture is the same. Nice post.

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  2. Arica,
    I too was surprised at how much the three people I asked the questions to understood the terms. I am curious to know around what age the three people you asked are. I know for the three people I interview are either in the ECE field or in their 30's or younger. Wonder what "older" people, not in the ECE field, would have similar definitions since diversity probably not as common. Thanks for your post.
    Amanda

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  3. Arica,
    You said “Learning other people’s definitions of these two terms made me realize that more people know about these terms than I expected. So in other words, within every culture is diversity and diversity involves cultures within the world”.
    Culture is diversity. Diversity is many cultures. When I tell people that my family is diverse, it is because there are many different cultures within. There is a Puerto Rican culture, Korean culture, Panamanian culture, a White culture, and a Black culture in my family. My family is always learning something every day. I feel culture is inside of us, so yes I believe we could say that culture is diversity.
    Sandra

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