Literature Across Cultures: Moore - Blog 4

Sunday, June 23, 2024

Moore - Blog 4 - Cultures

My perspective of other cultures is shaped by what I have seen, heard, and experienced by my own personal experiences, word of mouth of others, and even movies or television shows. It can be quite tricky to navigate these perspectives when they do not align. For example, I have been to Mexico to resorts and also immediately across the Arizona border; these two parts of Mexico are not alike thus making a conflicting perspective.

I believe that understanding other cultures is all influenced by how we learn about them, and technology plays an important role in shaping this understanding. Technology positively impacts our understanding by giving us access to information. Through the internet, we can learn about traditions, history, and current practices around the world. The internet also provides us with platforms to learn foreign languages.

Of course there are drawbacks of technology as well. The internet is not one hundred percent accurate and can lead to misinformation about cultures. This misinformation can cause false conceptions of what is appropriate in a culture or not. For example, someone may post something on social media that we see and assume it is the entire culture, when it is not an accurate representation of their beliefs. The biggest drawback to me is the detachment from empathy and understanding of their beliefs.

While technology offers us many opportunities to learn about different cultures, it also offers challenges for us to be aware of as we navigate our attempts to understand.

2 comments:

Brenna LJune 24, 2024 at 3:26 PM
I mentioned social media as impacting my perspectives of other cultures, but after reading your post, I would say movies do as well. My family and I also vacation to Mexico and I think it's important to note, that as tourists, our perspectives of a country, as a tourist, and the reality can be very different as well. Great point about technology providing platforms to learn foreign languages! A solution to the false truth technology can give us is to cross-reference information in sources/articles and create themes on what we see are recurring, which might also be more fact-based.
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Kaetlyn.MinklerJune 24, 2024 at 7:31 PM
I really like how you mentioned your various trips to Mexico. That is a great example of how your opinion may get misconstrued based on how you learn information. If you had only gone to resorts, you may think Mexico is a nice, relaxing getaway with constant all-you-can-eat-buffets and not a care in the world. But because you went just across the border, you know it is not always sunshine and rainbows, and that Mexico has its problems just like any other country. My parents experienced this on their recent trip to the Dominican Republic as well. They stayed at an all-inclusive resort and had the time of their lives, but got to see what life was like outside of the resort as well, and saw the poverty people were living in.
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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.