Literature Across Cultures: Dibert- Week 4 Blog Post

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Dibert- Week 4 Blog Post

My perspective on the world, as many of my other colleagues would say as well, is mainly formulated by social media or the news. I fought to keep YouTube TV, so I could still have access to new stations for important events. Unfortunately, I am finding that so much of the news is one-sided, depending on what you are watching. This means that my perspective on different situations are not always correct. What I find interesting is, the idea of someone who says they are “cultured”. What exactly does that mean? If you ask five different people, you’re going to get five different responses. Unfortunately, one of those responses could be information they get online and feel that they know everything about a culture or an event. It is very easy to get sucked into an app like Tik Tok or Facebook and feel like you are getting accurate information. I do it all the time. I cannot tell you the amount of times I see news about Disney World and come to find out that most of the news is false. Information can be so easily manipulated and falsified nowadays that people will believe anything. If information about Disney World can be falsified, who's to say that there is not more false information about other cultures that we don’t quite realize.
Even though social media has an age limit, we know, especially on an app like TikTok, many of the users are kids. Kids will believe anything that is put out there to be fact. If kids are only seeing negative information about different cultures or cultural events, then that is the only information they are going to go off of. As a fourth grade teacher, many of my students have a TikTok account. It is very interesting to hear them talk about what appears on their “for you page” and what type of information they receive. I appreciate that some of my kids are trying to learn about different cultures, but a lot of the time they come in with false information that I attempt to correct. I think this idea of social media and kids ties directly back to Tunde Szecsi et al article Transforming Teacher Cultural Landscapes by Reflecting on Multicultural Literature. We need to integrate more types of multicultural, literature, and curriculum to provide students with opportunities to be exposed to a variety of cultural narratives and help foster empathy and understanding (Szecsi et al., 2010). If students are getting differing news from school and TikTok, then it could make the students step back and think about what is actually being presented to them.
Even though it may not seem like it, I do not believe that social media is not all bad. There are plenty of benefits that come from it. The fact that we are able to learn about the world with the touch of a button is something we should not take for granted. I think the important thing to take away is, the importance of not only teaching children how to navigate it correctly, but making sure everyone is diligent and aware. My question to everyone would be what makes somebody “ cultured?” Can you be cultured just by looking on the Internet?

Szecsi, T., Spillman, C., Vazquez-Montilla, E., & Mayberry, S. (2010). Transforming teacher cultural landscapes by reflecting on multicultural literature. Multicultural Education, (Summer), 44-48.

2 comments:

Emily AkkermannJune 27, 2024 at 4:30 PM
I had not even thought of the fact that a lot of kids have some kind of social media and all the negative impact it can have. I agree with you that teachers need to seize opportunities to integrate more multicultral literature. I know it's changed my perspective.
I don't think that you can only look at the internet to be cultured. The thing about the internet is that you have to be so careful of whether or not the information is true. You can learn some things but I don't think it should be the only source. Now the same could be said of literature but writing pieces go through a big process to make sure facts and information are accurate. Being cultured is not just reading literature or the internet. It's also experiencing it. So I think being cultured is at the very least reading and experience.
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Jennifer SchiefelbeinJune 30, 2024 at 5:06 PM
Morgan,
You raise some great questions about what it means to be cultured, and while the internet can certainly serve as a resource for us and our students, it can be challenging to wade through the sea of biased sources. How can we help our students to be critical consumers of the information they see online? And, once they have the skills to spot bias in the classroom, how can we help them to transfer that knowledge to their lives beyond the classroom? I love that you brought up the authors' point about using more multicultural literature to help students to fill the vacancies they have about people of other cultures. Although the internet can be a great tool, multicultural literature can give our students a glimpse into the lives and experiences of others that the internet simply cannot.
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Post Week 4: Pre- and Post-Conceptual Perspectives

Some thoughts to help you brainstorm your post: Nineteenth-century travel writing caused those who read about other cultures to formulate their ideas about those cultures directly from the writing, so much so that if a person chose to travel to a country he or she had read about prior to travel, the traveller was often disappointed in the actual country and culture. In our current technological existence, our ideas of what places and people are like can certainly be informed by how they are depicted in text and on the multitude of screens we use to interface with the world. What informs your perspective? How might the ways in which we experience people, ideas, issues, cultures, and so on, be impacted by how we learn of them? Are the benefits and drawbacks to the use of the technology available to us? What might some of those be, and why?

Your post is due Thursday at 8 pm.

Responses should be posted by Sunday at 10 pm.

Post Week 2: The Way to Rainy Mountain

The critical text which accompanies your primary reading for the week explores ways in which we as teachers might use other cultures' literatures in our classrooms to move students from superficial, stereotyped perspectives to a fuller understanding of not only individuals from other cultures, but themselves, too. In your blog post, share with your colleagues how you might incorporate ideas from the article in your own teaching.

Your post is due Thursday at 8 pm.

Your responses are due Sunday at 10 pm.

Post Week 1: Questions on Reading

You've been asked to post a question on the readings as your blog post. Here are some ideas to help you get started: You may have noted the publication dates of the readings and wondered why you're reading articles written in 2005. The reason is that the issues raised and discussion in each of the articles are applicable 16 years later. Do you agree? Disagree? Both? Explain why and pose a question to help your reader understand what you find to be the same or different. Or, if one of the two of the readings stands out to you, explain why that’s the case, but also post a question based on what stands out. Or, if something is confusing or problematic for you, what do you find confusing or problematic? With what do you agree or disagree? Be sure your question is open ended so that your colleagues can use it as a basis for discussion.

As you frame your question, be sure to summarize the article, then provide context for your question. Cite the text appropriately.

Questions to be posted by Thursday.

Responses (to at least two colleagues) to be posted Sunday.

Week 5: Toward a Social Justice Ethic: What is an American, Anyway?

How do the issues examined in the article affect you as a teacher and as a person living in today’s world? What is the importance of having a voice? Of being heard? Are there differences in your response based on the role(s) you inhabit? Teacher, parent, individual community member, brother, sister, child, global citizen, and more—we inhabit many subject positions. Are there ways to bring those needs/expectations/responsibilities together?

Posts are due by 8 pm Thursday.

There is no set number of required colleague responses this week, but you are expected to read all posts and to respond as class discussion.

Post Week 6: Article Summaries and Commentary

In this week's reading, you met a narrator who draws the reading into a short story with a decidedly hushed, slower tone. The couple introduced to us has experienced an unimaginable loss. How might that loss be affected by their cultural dislocation? Draw on the supplemental readings as you consider the question.

Your post is due Thursday at 8 pm. As was the case last week, there is not a set number of responses, but you are expected to demonstrate through responding that you have read and engaged with all class posts.