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Yiling Zhang

EDS 126

Professor Jones

7 February 2018

Education and Culture

Culture not only influences our lives but also influence the education. Culture plays an important role in education, so these two terms are interdependent. People who come from different cultures tend to have distinctive ways of learning and education. In this instance considering the curriculum of schools, formal relationship along with the extracurricular activities the cultures are given importance that is majorly valued by people. However, culture mainly develops values, perception, ethics, and ideologies of people and they do not compromise on their culture while doing anything or even while getting an education. In this assessment, three people are interviewed, and their perspectives about culture and education are recorded that has given a chance to understand what different individuals think about these two terminologies and correlation in culture and education.

I have interviewed my best friend and asked her views on culture and education. She thinks people can have more than one culture. Culture can come from their family or friends. It is like a lens that one uses to view the world in. For example, in some culture, marriage to multiple people is acceptable, but in other cultures, it might not be a good one. It all depends on what is viewed as the norm in that culture. Culture could be viewed as a set of moral rules that one lives their life by. She believes that there could be a connection between culture and educational success. If someone grew up in a culture that sees education as something important, then one’s mindset could be set on working hard in school. The same goes with economic success. If one grew up in a culture that values hard work and a successful career, then one might be more likely to succeed if they are true to their culture. She also mentioned, there is school culture, and it might influence whether one is successful or not. If one goes to a school where the students do not care as much, then one might adopt that culture to fit in and not do so well. However, if one goes to a school where everyone is hard working, then they might adopt that mindset and work hard as well.

Secondly, I interviewed my peer; he is an international student who comes from China. He thinks culture mean the background and the values of people. The kind of culture one accepts on the growth environment. He mentioned that he has grown up in a wealthy family, and accept bilingual education by going to private international school all along. Education helped him adopt the culture from both sides so that he did not feel any uncomfortable when he studies abroad here in America at first. He agrees with the point that there is a culture in school and he also believes that school culture can influence students’ success. He shared his experience, he usually hangs out with his cousin, he was a top student, but his family did not have enough condition for him to go to a good high school, under the bad study environment and with lots of hooligans in school, he has given up study. They used to make a wish to go to the same university. Unfortunately, his cousin did not get into university.

Lastly, the person who I interviewed was my friend. She was standing on the angle of the employee. The first time she heard the word culture is when she was little. Her grandfather read her one Chinese poem and told her how proud he felt for Chinese traditional culture. She has grown up in China and married an American citizen who made she moved toward here. The first time she has experienced culture was hanging out with his husband and his friends for dinner. This was the first time she has found the difference in the dining etiquette. She believes that there is a connection between culture and educational success and economic success; she also thinks there is a culture in school as well. Under her culture environment, a good grade is important and is the only thing matters in school and her family. Her parents gave her high expectations by going to the prestigious university and get a good job; they believe the only way to reach the goal is the good grade. She does not like the culture in schools, but it indeed helped her success either in school and career.

The people I talked my friends and peer and from them I got a chance to learn the wider perspectives of culture all of them have the same views about culture as all think that culture of a place and education are the variable directly interlinked with each other. All of them were n the view that the places where one belongs to come with different sort of cultures and values that tends to affect the working conditions, so one has to adjust into the cultures provided by the place. Now moving forward toward my thinking on culture and education I can say that the first time I have heard the word culture was in elementary school. There was a group of students from England came to my school for visiting. I got lucky by chosen from school became a homestay family. One of the girls stayed in my home for a week. We had conversations about our educational experience and background.

I still remember how she describes her education experience, she mentioned that they have lots of clubs; they can join and enjoy any club as they want to base on their hobbies. On the other side, we go back home right the way to school and doing our homework. Also, my family requires me to read books for hours after school, and I am not allowed to watch TV, but she can do whatever she wants after school. That’s something clicked my mind about the differences that exist in the culture of different people, and this was the time I first realized that the atmosphere and the surrounding conditions considering the family background matter a lot one spend a life. It was the very first time I genuinely thought about the value of the culture of the place.

Based on our culture, my parents wish me to study the traditional literature; they think it is not only can develop my literature accomplishment but also can learn the Chinese traditional culture. I must put there that everyone has culture either same to some perspectives or different in others, but culture is a thing that cannot be denied. In addition to it, culture is the background somebody comes from. It made us different while making us unique from each other. Knowing other culture can broaden my view sight and as per my perspectives a little adjustment while spending life in different places is mainly needed to move forward without any disturbances.

I do believe that there is a connection between culture and educational success and economic success. Education is the inheritance of religion; culture is the object of education. Education and culture impact each other. The culture influences the purpose of education, affect the choice of the educational content and also influence the teaching methods. Education can be used to filtrate, transmit and preserve the culture. Education not only can spread and interflow the culture but also can update and create culture. So as per my understanding, both culture and education are strongly correlated with other and synchronization is only possible when the culture and education go hand in hand at any place.