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Cultural Exchange
Description
Cultural exchange involves contrasting the political issues of one
community with those of another. Often, students are asked to look at a
single political issue as it is articulated in numerous communities For
example, teacher Sandra Childs asks her class to compare the politics of
beauty in China to those in Jewish, African American, and Hispanic American
communities.
Teachers can begin cross-Cultural exchanges by introducing students to a
political issue as it arises in one text. Teachers should choose texts that
describe unfamiliar political situations which raise immediate political
issues. Childs, for example, introduces her students to the "beautification"
practice of foot-binding in Chinese culture; foot-binding is not practiced
by the students, but it raises the political issue of normative beauty,
which most students face every day.
Once students are introduced to an unfamiliar cultural practice, teachers
may ask students to look at historical or other primary texts that illuminate
how these practices came to be supported by communities. Teachers should
be careful to explain how these practices arise from particular sets of
circumstances; it's important that students recognize how cultural practices
can be created and how they can be changed.
Teachers may then ask students to brainstorm a list of practices -- from
any culture they know about -- that reminds them of the practices they've
been studying. Next, teachers may break the class into small groups of four
or five and ask each group to read a text that addresses the same political
issue by questioning a different cultural practice. For example, Childs
asks her students to look at personal essays about nose jobs or dieting
in order to point out how other communities deal with the pressure to be
beautiful. Teachers may ask each small group to prepare a brief presentation,
comparing the cultural practices they've studied in detail. Then, as a group,
the class can discuss how different cultures might deal with the same political
issue. Teachers should ultimately guide the conversation to the students'
own choices; students should reflect on how the political issue at hand
has affected their lives, and how they can work to make positive changes.
Benefits
By looking at political questions across cultures, students begin to see
how their own political situations are constructed and how they can be changed.
Moreover, students are better able to understand and, in some cases, accept
unfamiliar cultural practices because they see how these practices have
counterparts in their own worlds.
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Group Persona / Tea Party