KAMLOOPS MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY CROSS-CULTURAL EDUCATION

OUR EDUCATIONAL MISSION TO CULTIVATE UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN CANADIAN ETHNIC GROUPS TO ENCOURAGE THE RETENTION OF ALL CULTURES TO SHARE CULTURES WITH OTHER CANADIANS The mission of the Kamloops Multicultural Society is to promote and cultivate understanding and friendship between Canadian Ethnic groups; to organize and support the interchange of cultural and traditional activities of all ethno-cultural groups; to encourage the retention of all cultures; to share cultures with other Canadians; and to assist and encourage new immigrants in their endeavours to become fully participating citizens in Canadian society.

WHAT IS MEANT BY CROSS- CULTURAL EDUCATION? Each culture is distinct and has unique ways of communicating within its own cultural group. It is easy to be misunderstood if the sender of a message does not anticipate some difference in the way a receiver belonging to another culture will perceive the message. Learning about these differences is cross-cultural education.

THE BELIEF IN UNIVERSAILTY ONE OF THE PROBLEMS IS THAT EACH CULTURE COMES TO BELIEVE THAT BECAUSE ALL HUMANS ARE SIMILAR, THEN COMMUNICATION ABOUT BASIC IDEAS WILL BE UNDERSTOOD BY ALL CULTURES, SO NO ADJUSTMENT IS NEEDED. –For instance, the belief by many in developed countries is that our political ways can easily be politically transferred to any country in the world, but there is little or no evidence to support this belief. –For instance, was communist Russia under Stalin any different in structure and outcome from that of the tsars that preceded? Are the elected governments of most Southeast Asian countries politically democratic as we in the West understand it? Or is it that there is a cultural translation of a political idea fully supported by those who voted? –For instance, if you want to persuade an Asian government to accept human rights as we in the West understand them, is political confrontation the cultural way of doing so?

SOME EXAMPLES YOU CAN TEST HOW YOUR OWN CULTURAL SCREEN AFFECTS YOUR PERCEPTION OF THE WORLD BY COMPARING YOUR VIEWS WITH PEOPLE FROM OTHER CULTURES. FOR INSTANCE: IF YOU HAVE A CONFLICT WITH ANOTHER PERSON, HOW BEST TO DEAL WITH THE CONFLICT? WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO PERSUADE A PERSON IN AUTHORITY TO CHANGE A POLICY? WHAT DID YOUR FAMILY TEACH YOU ABOUT THE ROAD TO A SUCCESSFUL LIFE? WHAT BELIEFS DO YOU HOLD ABOUT THE SPIRITUAL WORLD?

CULTURE IS USUALLY INVISIBLE TO ITS MEMBERS IN CANADA, AS IN ALL COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD, THE MEMBERS OF THE MAJORITY CULTURE TEND TO BELIEVE THAT THEIR CULTURE IS THE WAY THINGS SHOULD BE, AND THAT CITIZENS ARRIVING FROM OTHER CULTURES CAN EASILY DETECT THEIR WAYS AND INTEGRATE SO AS TO LEAVE THEIR OLD WAYS BEHIND. THE FALLACY IN THIS IS THAT THE MAJORITY CULTURE MEMBERS ARE UNABLE TO CORRECTLY IDENTIFY THE ATTRIBUTES OF THEIR OWN CULTURE BECAUSE, WHAT WAS TAUGHT TO THEM AT THEIR MOTHERS KNEE IS MOSTLY INVISIBLE TO THEM. THAT THE MAJORITY CULTURE MEMBERS (IN CANADA, THOSE OF EUROPEAN ORIGINS) ARE UNABLE TO RECOGNIZE THE ATTRIBUTES OF THEIR OWN BIASES IS AS MUCH A PROBLEM TO COMMUNICATION AS THAT OF IMMIGRANTS FROM OTHER CULTURES, IN FACT, TO MAYBE BE THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IMMIGRANTS FACE.

THE ASSIMILATION MYTH The idea that if new immigrants were to be assimilated into our culture, that they would fully adopt their new culture, then all would be wonderful, is a myth. It is a myth because what was taught at mothers knee cannot be erased by mere desire nor any form of known education. Only the march of time with the attendant new generations can bring on assimilation, a fuller adaption to the majority culture.

WELL MEANT POLITICAL ACTIVISM VS. EDUCATION ALTHOUGH THERE IS A PLACE FOR LAWS TO PROTECT CITIZENS FROM ACTS OF DISCRIMINATION, POLITICAL ACTIVISM, WHEREBY THE DOS AND DONTS OF DISCRIMINATION ARE EMPHASISZED, IS NOT AN EDUCATION PROCESS. REGRETABLLY, MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, POLITICAL ACTIVISM TENDS TO REINFORCE THE PREJUDICES OF THOSE WHO WOULD DISCRIMINATE, AND DOES LITTLE MORE THAN PREACH TO THE COMMITTED. EDUCATION, ON THE OTHER HAND, ATTEMPTS TO REVEAL TO THE ENTRENCHED OFFENDERS THAT ALTHOUGH THEY, TOO, HOLD AND VALUE THEIR OWN CULTURAL WAYS, OTHER WAYS WORK JUST AS WELL.

EXAMINING CULTURES CROSS-CULTURAL EDUCATION ATTEMPTS TO HAVE PARTICIPANTS EXAMINE THEIR OWN CULTURE AND THAT OF OTHERS. ALTHOUGH NOT ALWAYS *SUCCESSFUL, CLASSES CONSISTING OF PARTICIPANTS FROM SEVERAL CULTURES, ESPECIALLY FROM THE MAJORITY CULTURE, WORK IF ALL CULTURES PRESENT ARE GIVEN EQUAL SCRUTINY UNDER THE CURRICULUM. *RESEARCH SHOWS THE THINGS CAN GO QUITE AWRY IF THE CULTURE OF THE INSTRUCTOR, OR THE CULTURE OF THE MAJORITY CULTURE IS NOT TRULY PART OF THE EXAMINATION.

CULTURAL CHANGE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CHANGE Substantive cultural and social change only occur when real world events and not political events upset social norms. The invention of the bow and arrow, the automobile and the birth control pill are real world events. A decline in natural resources, climate change, a plague, a geological catastrophe and overpopulation are also also examples of real world events. Such events force changes in human behaviour which, in turn, bring about changes in our belief systems as we try to explain why the new behaviours have been adopted. Institutions only change after the new belief systems are in place. Politics merely chatter around the edges of impending social change, and are not a cause nor an answer to true social change. Political leaders do arise in the context of changes under way, but in the final analysis, real social change only moves under the pressure of physical events in the real world, events that may, at times, be authored by man himself.