As we've been discussing through the last posts, culture can determine a lot in our lives. How we eat, our manners, how we consider time, etc. Almost all aspects of our lives are impacted and determined by cultural paradigms.
Like in other aspects of our life, culture can have a great impact on our psychology. Our self-esteem, shame, and even how we see reality, building irrational stereotypes and prejudices. Let's work on these themes during this post.
Self-esteem - the urge to belong
In every culture, there is an ought self, that was defined by the cultural expectations on an individual, and the true self (who you really are). The culture-created ought self varies from culture to culture. The closer your true self fits in the first one, the more self-esteem you will have. The bigger the gap between those two, the less self-esteem and acceptance one might have.
Why? Because, as we talked about in the Individualism vs. Collectivism post, what is responsible for shame and disappointment in one culture can be completely different from another. If your talents and abilities meet the culture's expectations, then you will have achieved what was expected of you. But if you didn't, then you will probably be reason of shame and be humiliated.
Another point is that, when one culture may consider your talent as being important and relevant, others may believe this is not appropriate or convenient.
Ought-self are usually irrational and can make one's life miserable. When we understand that this is culture shaped, and who we are is not a reason for shame neither is superior to others, we can truly accept ourselves and live in more harmony with others.
Shame of Privilege?
Following what we mentioned above, each culture has its subconsciously built-in expectations, papers each one "must" follow. An activity might be considered feminine in one group, and in another, it isn't.
This concept can be better understood with a short analysis of the movie "Billy Elliot".
In the movie, Billy Elliot is a young boy who discovered a talent for ballet. He found that on one of his box training while watching the girls practicing. As he started to join, he didn't only found a passion for it, but that, for society, he was not supposed to do it.
One of the points of the movie is Billy pursuing a dream that he was told he shouldn't have. "Boys don't do ballet". Actually, this is just a stereotype, a cultural paradigm, that made dancing ballet a feminine thing in his culture, something humiliating and shameful for his dad, who strictly forbidden it at the beginning.
Billy didn't let the cultural opinion stop him from chasing his dream. He had the determination and the help of his teacher and others who could think out of their cultural box. They notice the irrationality inside of the culture "standard" and broke out of it.
Reality - Is what I see what it is?
Culture can also shape our view of reality. It can play with your mind, and make you believe and even see what is not real.
Let's consider the witch hunt as an example. Thousand of people, men and women, were accused as witches. They were tortured and killed by crimes they didn't committed. Witches don't exist. Still, there were proves and even testimonies of their crimes. People truly believed they were witches, although this didn't exist.
The cultures can shape our view of what is really happening, and creates a new reality. We can view and experience things that are not happening, and truly believe this is happening.
This hidden cultural assumptions get them away from seeing the obvious: witches don't exist.
Stereotype threat - being what others said we are
Another impact for culture in the psyche is about stereotype. Studies have been researching on and proving an idea, stereotypes can impact in how we live and react. When reinstate or remembered of the stereotype, we tend to live up to this expectation, no matter if it is high or low. This is called "stereotype threat".
In 1968, Jane Elliot, an American schoolteacher, made an experiment to teach and illustrate how racism and prejudices work in society. In this experiment, the class were divided in two groups: blue eyes kids and brown eyes kids.
For two days, the teacher alternated between the groups, telling them one of the group was superior (and acting like that) for a whole school day, and then switching group in the other day. Those from the inferior group had to wear collars and couldn't speak or play with those from the superior group, while the higher-level one had a longer recess and lunchtime.
During these two days, Elliot noticed that her students had changed their interaction and behavior drastrically. Friends were now enemies, the animosity increased and fights too. Still, the change in the behavior were not the only thing.
Kids started now to fit in the stereotype created in these two days. The kids went through tests and exams in those days, and the results were surprising. In the day they were members of the superior group, kids had the highest score they ever had. While on the day they were in the subservient group, their score were lower than in the previous day. Kids who had been great students now were reclusive and failing on grades.
This experiment had a great impact on how we see racism and other stereotypes. As proven in the experiment above, stereotypes can change not only how we react with others, but how we see ourselves. Hearing that we are dumb or incapable for so long time can make we believe in it ourselves. It may not be true, but we will subconsciously and emotionally lower ourselves to those expectations. When, in the other hand, we are told and believed that we are better, emotionality we will be open and more determinated to achieve it.
How this impact the class?
Well, by now, you probably had notice that culture is beyond our typical food and way to speak. Culture can shape our lives and points of view more than we can imagine. We are culturally shaped to think, say, and behave in the most acceptable way for our culture.
But when cultures meet, the impact can be bigger than we imagined, there are invisible aspects that can create conflict and misunderstanding. When this happens in a classroom, students can emotionally block the learning or don't be able to focus on it.
Teachers have to understand those topics to facilitate the transition and adaptation in a new culture. It is not expected that students replace their culture with the new one they are in contact with, but they will mold their perception to better interact within those of the culture.
As teachers, we are supposed to help and understand, not judge and recrimine. Cultures are the bright differences that connect us, they should not be the reason we fight and make wars. So, never judge a student for your idea/stereotype of their culture, who you think they are. Get to know them, ask questions, research, and always be open to learn more.
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