ERIC Number: EJ1164720
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1467-5986
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Available Date: N/A
"Can I Borrow Your Glasses?": A Prescription for Learning to See the Cultural Roots of Identity Terms and Implicit Categories through Others' Lenses
Stevick, E. Doyle
Intercultural Education, v28 n6 p543-556 2017
Why is there so much confusion and conflict around common identity labels, a problem that extends well beyond any stereotypes that they may evoke? How do we escape the seeming paradox that we reject racism but still speak frequently of black and white? Who claims the power to determine or name others' identities? The confusion and conflict about identity that play out on a surface level are often caused by starkly different but implicit understandings that operate beneath the surface. For example, terms like black, Jewish and Muslim may invoke several of our deeper conceptions or categories like race, culture, religion and ethnicity, and to varying degrees in different places. Critically, these categories themselves are culturally rooted. This article shows how our implicit categories can lead to both cross-cultural confusion and problematic misunderstandings in course content. Helping students to recognise and to understand the cultural roots of our implicit categories should be a deliberate learning outcome. This type of cultural understanding can be advanced significantly through guided reflection on experience and explicit instruction; in addition, some subjects and approaches--intercultural education, study abroad and Holocaust education among them--show particular promise for achieving this aim.
Descriptors: Self Concept, Cultural Awareness, Power Structure, Conflict, Cultural Background, Classification, Race, Ethnicity, Course Content, Outcomes of Education, Teaching Methods, Multicultural Education, Study Abroad, Death, Jews, European History, Religion, Racial Bias, Foreign Countries, Minority Groups, Dialogs (Language), Discourse Analysis
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Chile
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