Perspectives on Diversity and Culture-Week 3

For this assignment I interviewed three people and asked them to share their definition of culture and diversity. I first interviewed a colleague and she shared that to her 'culture' is what a person believes in and what rules they follow. She also shared that it is greatly influenced by where they are from, what ethnicity they are and what gender they are. To her, 'diversity' is a term used to acknowledge the differences that each of us exhibit. She made a point to say that she views 'diversity' as a strength and something that should be acknowledged and explored.

The second person I interviewed was my husband. I chose to ask him these questions, because often times we don't see eye to eye regarding cultural diversity and I thought maybe this would help me to understand his perspective better. My husband shared that to him 'culture' is the way people live, the hobbies they have, their styles of shelter, and what kind of food they eat. (To my surprise he did not mention anything about their country of origin, race or ethnicity). He defined 'diversity' as very simply, just being different.

The third person I interviewed was my 11 year old daughter. I often say that she is an old soul in a young person's body and I was genuinely interested in her interpretation of the terms. My daughter shared that to her 'culture' is the history of a specific person. She defined 'diversity' as a very special trait and there is nothing else like it. I love that she cherishes being different and celebrates the differences she sees in others.

Within the answers I received, some of the aspects to culture and diversity which we have covered in this course were mentioned and others were not. An example of an aspect that has been covered in this course is that the meaning of culture can be very broad and encompass many aspects of our lives. I loved the simplicity of my daughter's answers, but I can see that there is more that I can teach her about her own culture so that she knows how to articulate the broad spectrum of what the term can mean.

Aspects which have been discussed, but were omitted, within the definitions that I received included understanding the concept of surface culture and deep culture. For both my husband and my daughter, they seemed to stick to culture on the surface level, whereas, my colleague began to look further into deep culture, with her reference to a person's set of beliefs.

I found it interesting to ask different people about their definitions of culture because it helps me see things from their perspective. It also has highlighted how what I have learned within this course has broadened my own understanding of culture and diversity.