Cultural Awareness, Understanding, Acceptance Research Paper

Cultural Awareness, Understanding, Acceptance - Research Paper Example According to Patty (2009), these distinct ways of living are usually manifestation of beliefs, convections and experiences of members of a given society. For example certain cultures practice female genital mutilation as a means of portraying their values of controlling female sexuality. On the contrary, western societies are associated with materialism and consumerism, which represent the manner in which members of those western societies’ value material items as opposed to intangible aspects like female circumcision in third world African countries. According to Patty (2009), this means that culture involves application of both tangible objects like materials and intangible elements like language and practices in demonstrating customary inclination of a given society. At this juncture, it is worth acknowledging the fact that culture is not genetically inherited but learned and transformed from one generation to another. In modern societies, culture manifest in form of gender roles, aesthetical values, social structure of families and social norms. According to Banks and Cherry (2013), culture exists only in the mind of members of a given society. Consequently, it is a fragile component which can be easily lost through social integration between members of different communities. This explains why western cultures are proliferating in second and third world nations. Western education is an example of culture that has been widely adopted across the world. In addition, Christianity as a religion is another definite cultural inclination that originated from Europe and has spread to almost every part of the world. Banks and Cherry (2013) says that as culture spread, other traditional customary practices like the worship of extraterrestrial gods by the Greeks are lost and replaced by relatively superior belief systems. Multicultural Education Based on the distinctive nature of culture, modern cosmopolitan societies are striving towards creating articulate int egration between members with different cultural beliefs. Muslims and Christians have different cultural inclinations in terms of religious beliefs. On the other hand, the role of women in Indian cultures is not similar to that of the female gender in African and Anglo Americans. In this context, there is need for concerted efforts in creating a favorable environment where members from different social backgrounds can interact for a common purpose. In this regard, multicultural education is an academic discipline involved in fostering an equitable environment for learners from distinct cultural backgrounds. Banks and Cherry (2013) says that distinction in terms of cultural background could be based in terms of ethnicity, race and socioeconomic status. In addition, multicultural education entails expounding the role of women on modern social, political and economic setting. In actual practice, multicultural education encompasses application of theories and practical strategies in res ponding to educational needs of a culturally diverse society. One approach of integration multicultural principles in contemporary education includes fostering human relations between members of different races or genders. During the first half of 20th Century, African Americans were experiencing one of their most tragic incidents in their history. According to Banks (2003), racial discrimination was prevalent in political, social and economic contexts. Apart from the Black population, women were also