Blog on Cultural Diversity in Learning and Education

LCulture matters everywhere where different people interact.

By Emmanuel jean Mary

Cultural differences matter everywhere where people with different attributes, race, home countries, nurturing, origin, social groups, organizations, are interacting.

In the modern world, two major phenomena have made the cultural differences issues far more important than a century or even some decades ago: the globalization and the rapid developments in information and communication technology (ICT). Barriers and boundaries of all kinds physical and legal have continued to come down since 1989 when the unfamous wall collapse in Germany. Since 1994, the launch of the World Wide Web (WWW), human contacts or interactions have been embarked in a trend of getting closer and closer through the technology. Every sphere, areas of activities, place cannot really avoid those circumstances or stop them from happening. Business area have been modernized to adapt and cope to the new developments. Education sphere is not excepted and stakeholders at different level of education nationwide should develop awareness of the cultural issue as the landscape and our environment become more diverse and technology driven. The traditional assimilationism that shape education system and program in some Western countries become inadequate as our societies tend to  become more multicultural, exchange or communications have been increased radically while the technology have created the sensation that everything far is reachable . Multiculturalism in education offer more assurance for strengthening the nation bond   then the separatism can in connecting all the constituencies (Banks, J. A. (2016). As different people speak different ways in tongues, eat differently, they may see things from different viewpoint, have different thinking, then can learn also in  different ways As far as knowledge and learning are linked knowledge is part of the culture components that can be accessible through the socialization process. Then learning can occur not only from school, but from family, ancestry, life experience.  Experiential knowledge should be considered  and given more attention in instruction and learning particularly in primary education (Segiovanni, T. J., Starratt, R.J., Ho, V. , 2014, pp. 80-92),  and national cultures and world civilizations are valuable assets for challenging clash of cultures in massive online communication ( Jeremy Knox, 2014 )

Reference

Banks, J. A. (2016). Cultural diversity and education: Foundations, curriculum, and teaching (Sixth ed.). London; New York; Routledge.

Jeremy Knox (2014). Digital culture clash: “massive” education in the E-learning and Digital Cultures MOOC, Distance Education, 35:2, 164-177, DOI: 10.1080/01587919.2014.917704

Segiovanni, T. J., Starratt, R.J., Ho, V. (2014). Supervision: A Redefinition, Ninth Edition. New-York, Mc Graw Hill Education.