general culture

A detailed Summary of general culture

Begler, Elsie. "Global Cultures: The First Steps Toward Understanding" Social Education. September 1998, 62(5) pg. 272-275.

In Begler's Article a discussion on how educators should go about teaching culture occurs. The article starts out by giving a definition of what is meant by culture and the different aspects of culture. The Author sets up the guidelines for which she will interpret and use culture. The definitions of culture are presented very clearly so as the reader can fully understand where the author is coming from in the rest of the article.

The author spends significant time discussing the World Culture Model, which could be a very useful tool to a teacher that is developing a unit on culture or just incorporating aspects of culture into the classroom. The model that is presented can be particularly useful when comparing cultures because one of the hardest aspects of comparing different cultures is the fact that there are no common grounds to judge the different cultures. The model breaks down culture into easy to look at portions, which makes it easier for both student and teacher to study.

The end of the article is dedicated to giving a lesson plan and examples of how to use the model and implement culture

Going back to the author's discussion of culture itself I found myself looking at culture the way that she says most individuals look at culture, As Big culture and little culture. Big culture refers to "high culture" such as fine arts and such, while little Culture refers to the political, social and economic factors in the culture. This separation isn't necessary and really shouldn't be there when actually taking an in-depth look at a culture. I agree with Begler that this is an unnecessary division and shouldn't be there for obvious reasons, such as a culture involves all aspects both the little and the big culture. I think that it is important for teachers to realize this point before any attempt is made to engage students in the project of earning about culture.

The example of how to use the model was very interesting to me and I would have never thought of this idea. The example went into how to use the model when visiting a culture fair that only has to do with food. The questioning that Begler presents with just food alone enters into some great ideas that any class could use to study any culture. I never realized the amount that could be learned about a specific culture just by looking at how that culture views food. I found this particularly interesting.

The World Culture Model presented in this article could be a very valuable tool to any teacher, no matt

Some common words found in the essay are:
Social Studies, Culture Model, Begler's Article, Education September, little culture, study culture, World Culture, culture refers, world culture model, looking culture, culture classroom, aspects culture, tool teacher, world culture, own culture, culture model,

Approximate Word count = 931
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous