CULTURAL LITERACY DEFINITION

Cultural literacy is the knowledge of history, contributions, and perspectives of different cultural groups, including one's own group, necessary for understanding of reading, writing, and other media. Cultural literacy requires interaction with a culture and reflection of it. It is one's possession of a broad range of general knowledge and the use of that knowledge to build communication, acceptance, and understanding in an ever changing global society (Desmond, 2011).

Cultural literacy is the cornerstone of all other forms of literacy in the sense that all forms of literature and media will have influence from its culture of origin. The only form of information with minimal influence is national media but even then, without cultural literacy and understanding, no one could completely digest the information. Understanding the inner workings of culture is critically important beginning with one’s own. Local expressions, colloquialisms and idioms nearly always mask additional meaning and understanding these is key to success in any environment. Unfortunately there is a severe lack of cultural acceptance and understanding as expressed by Bernard Schweizer (2009), “…I realize that we no longer live in a culture that encourages and reinforces a shared knowledge basis with regard to history, geography, literature, and the sciences” (pp. 53). He goes on to say that these shortcomings translate into problems with diction and literacy. Naturally it is important to grasp other cultures but it is also evident that we must first understand our own so that we may develop a tolerance and learn to draw “parallels” (Polistina 2010, pp. 1) rather than comparisons to other cultures in order to increase and improve our literacy in all we attempt. 

Cultural literacy is very important because it is found in many contexts.  To understand any reference to American politics, geography, and history, along with understanding jokes and idioms, a person needs rich cultural literacy.  Otherwise they will find themselves lost in conversations with no point of reference.  This is often true from anyone learning English and first living in the United States.  Through constant exposure to American mainstream culture and learning American slang, a person can acquire American cultural literacy.  The same is true in the reverse scenario when an American travels to another country.

TEST YOUR CULTURAL LITERACY!

FIRST TEST

When immigrants are seeking American citizenship, one of the requirements is to pass a test that primarily focuses on American cultural knowledge.  Take our version of this test and find out what you know!

http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=naturalization-quiz_1

When I (Becky) took the test, I knew most of the answers and made a couple educated guesses, both of which turned out correct.  This made me reflect on not only the importance of cultural literacy but also the importance of analytical skills that a well-educated person learns in the classroom.

According to the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services website, the naturalization test includes civics (American government, geography, and history) and English (reading and writing vocabulary).  The test overview is found at: http://www.uscis.gov/USCIS/Office%20of%20Citizenship/Citizenship%20Resource%20Center%20Site/Publications/PDFs/test_components.pdf.

Understanding how the United States government works and how to communicate effectively in English are all important elements of cultural literacy.  This is a real-world context for not only immigrants seeking U.S. citizenship, but also for all citizens of the United States.

SECOND TEST

Identify the story these cute guys originate from.  What are their names?

What are the names of the current nine Supreme Court Justices?

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The picture of Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs comes from the film by Walt Disney.  The names of the dwarfs are Grumpy, Happy, Sneezy, Dopey, Bashful, Sleepy, and Doc.

The incumbent Supreme Court Justices are John G. Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr., Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.

Most likely, you named more seven dwarfs than justices.  Both are considered in the realm of cultural knowledge, yet because the Snow White story is told to children from childhood, while Supreme Court justices aren't often discussed outside of political conversations, most people will only be able to identify the dwarfs.

THIRD TEST

Idiom means "linguistic usage that is grammatical and natural to native speakers of a language" (Cultural Dictionary).

What do the following American idioms mean?:

• You are the apple of my eye.
• At each other's throats.
• Fly the coop.
• All the rage.
• Sock it to.
• Sign of the times.
• A drop in the ocean.
• Change of pace.
• To each his own.

Perusing lists of idioms shows how much of our language consists of them.  When I started paying close attention to how often idioms show up in daily conversations, I quickly realized the importance of knowing them so conversations make sense!  Idioms are learned by conversing with others and reading books.  Basically anywhere communication occurs a person can learn idioms, a component of cultural literacy.

CULTURAL LITERACY IN THE CLASSROOM

Why do I have to read about stupid Romeo and Juliet?

Why do I have to learn about history?

When am I ever going to use geometry when I'm out of school?

Politics bores me!  Why talk about it at all?

These questions will be recognized by teachers and parents alike.  Kids often wonder why they have to learn history or read literature in school.  When their ambition is to become a hair stylist or to work construction, kids are often frustrated with what they perceive as pointless academic information.  They simply lack foresight and an understanding of the world.  Without the cultural literacy that school curriculum teaches, a kid will be disadvantaged in social situations and conversations when they venture into the real world.

A K-12 education prepares students for knowledge that will help them succeed in their adult life.  If someone decides not to venture on to college after completing high school, they are still equipped with valuable knowledge -- how to read and analyze text, a basic understanding of America's history and political system, and math skills among other things.

English, history, and economics are subjects that teach important cultural knowledge.  The social sciences are included in some of cultural literacy, but the bulk of it comes from the humanities (Hirsch, 2002) through various forms of communication – speech, written word, and media.  It is gleaned from the stories we tell such as nursery rhymes and traditional tales.

Home Life Influences Child's Cultural Literacy

When a student arrives in the classroom, they carry with them knowledge and life experiences they’ve received from early home life.  If their parents didn’t read to them and provided little to no educational activities, children often have limited vocabularies and limited cultural knowledge.  They may know a lot about certain television shows and understand some idioms, but the child may not know traditional tales or understand educational concepts other students know.

Cultural capital refers to non-financial social assets that affect social mobility such as "language and social roles, general cultural background, knowledge, and skills that is passed from one generation to the next" (de Marrais and Le Compte, 1995, as cited by Gallego and Hollingsworth, 2000).


Here are some examples of high versus low cultural capital: 

HIGH CULTURAL CAPITAL	LOW CULTURAL CAPITAL
Bedtime stories at night.	Not read to at home.
Educational television.	Television is a babysitter.
Educational games.	Entertainment is not educational.
Parents help with homework or hire tutor.	Receive no help with homework.
High expectations about academic achievement.	Low expectations about academic achievement.

Essentially cultural capital is the values and attitudes about knowledge and success that a parent passes down to their children.  This has a direct affect on their success in school.

Children that come from families and neighborhoods with little money, limited access to educational resources and healthcare, and raised by parents who dropped out of school, have low cultural capital.  When they arrive in school, they are already behind peers raised in homes by highly educated parents with money to easily access educational materials.

If the child comes from a home that speaks a language different than English, and have parents who know little about American culture, then the kid is on a huge learning curve when they arrive in school.  They not only need to learn a great deal of English vocabulary, they need to learn American social norms and collective childhood cultural literacy (Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs for example).

CULTURAL LITERACY LESSON PLANS FOR THE CLASSROOM

The definition of cultural literacy usually encompasses the dominant culture of a country, and the citizens/residents' understanding of its language, customs, and history.  In our tutorial this is expanded to encompass an understanding of other cultures.  Without living in another country and immersing oneself in the culture, customs, and language, a person is unable to fully attain a cultural literacy outside of their own.  Yet we can encourage students in the classroom lesson plans and activities.  The assignment presented below is an example of this:

My (Christy) coworker, Claire, described one of her classroom cultural assignments to me.  Her 3^rd grade students are picking one topic about Japan, such as dancing, music, food, or dress.  Next they write a paragraph describing the similarities and/or differences with America, and why their topic should be included with the Japanese booth at the local cultural fair.  This is a new project for the students, and was decided upon after looking at the curriculum objectives and Claire’s classroom objectives. She began this project by reading a Japanese folktale called the “Three Samurai Cats”.  Her students will also draw a picture of their topic, and these pictures will be scanned onto the computer and incorporated into a PowerPoint presentation.

(C. Stafstrom, personal communication, February 18, 2013).

Here are two cultural literacy lesson plans for the classroom (created by Christy):

Lesson Plan 1:

Warm up- The teacher could read a folktale or fairy tale from another culture.  Have the students pick out some of the differences/similarities between American culture and the culture from the folktale. 

Have students choose a culture they wish to learn more about.  Students can choose to work alone or in pairs.  The culmination of these projects will be a student cultural fair.  This can be done with the entire school, and each grade can contribute, or in just one classroom.  Each project will be shown at the cultural fair at the end of the section.

Lesson Plan 2:

Warm up- The teacher will present a short family history discussing where his/her family is from, when they came to America (if known), and what their cultural background is.  Alternate warm up- the teacher may want to ask students about where they are from.  Are there any students from a different country, or whose parents are from a different country? 

Students will give a short presentation discussing where their family is from originally, including a short informational speech about that country including food, dance, music, art, language, population… (The student may choose only one).

CULTURAL LITERACY IN THE LIBRARY

Libraries are places overflowing with cultural knowledge!  A child can walk into a school or public library, and instantly have access to this knowledge through books, articles, and Internet access.  Librarians should not assume that kids will access cultural knowledge on their own, though.  Programming can explicitly teach cultural literacy to children in creative ways that will hold their attention.  The collection should also represent cultural knowledge from around the world and books focusing on American cultural literacy such as dictionaries, geography, history, and politics.

A great place to begin teaching cultural literacy is through

 
1.  When reading a story, ask the kids if they understand any idioms that are being used.  Explain any unknown or confusing idioms.

2.  Read traditional tales such as Rumpelstiltskin, The Three Little Pigs, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Peter Pan.  Try to expand outside of the traditional tales Disney has turned into movies.  There are many more such as Seven at One Blow, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and The Goose Girl.

3.  Sing nursery rhymes to the kids, encouraging them to participate.

Other library programming ideas:

Have a movie night for a Disney movie that tells a traditional tale.  First read the Grimms' version of the story, show the movie, and then discuss afterwards the differences between the two.  This may need to be a story time for older children, especially since the original tales can be a bit graphic.

Host a cultural fair where kids can contribute to it.  This is based on the idea from the interview conducted in the curriculum ideas posted elsewhere in this blog.

Bring in guest speakers who can present their own story times or programs that promote cultural literacy... especially people from other countries!

El Paso Community College's advertisement for a cultural story time illustrates an excellent example of cultural literacy in action at a library!

Whether intentional or not, cultural literacy is taught through library programs, especially during story time.  Some of the stories that shape the fabric of our society are found in children's picture books.  What is deemed important to teach young children can be shared just through reading a variety of quality books with vivid illustrations to capture their imaginations while instilling cultural knowledge and values.  It's important to select books that honor each cultural viewpoint, and avoid the ones that have overly simplistic or even offensive content.

Question 

What kind of limits will a low education place on cultural literacy knowledge?

REFERENCES

Broudy, Harry.  (1990). Cultural literacy and general education. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 24 (1), pages 7-16.

Christenbury, Leila. (1989 January). Cultural literacy: a terrible idea whose time has come. The English Journal, 78 (1), pages 14-17.

Claridge, Tristan.  “Definitions of Social Capital.”  Social Capital Research.  Found at http://www.socialcapitalresearch.com/literature/definition.html

Cook, Paul G. (2009). “The Rhetoricity of Cultural Literacy.” Pedagogy, Vol. 9 Issue 3, p487-500.                  

Dali, Keren. (2010). “Readers’ Advisory in Public Libraries and Translated Fiction.”  The Reference Librarian.  Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Desmond, K.J., Stahl, S.A., & Graham, M.A. (2011). "Combining Service Learning and 

Diversity Education". Making Connections: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Cultural 

Diversity, 13, 24-30. 

Disney.  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Picture.  Retrieved from  http://www.tripletsandus.com/disney/dwarfs.htm

Gallego, M. A., & Hollignsworth, S. (Eds.). (2000). What counts as literacy: Challenging the School Standard (pp. 202-205). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Gay, Geneva.  (2010 May).  Culturally Responsive Teaching.  New York, NY: Teachers’ College Press.

Hirsch, E.D. (2002).  The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy.  New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Hofkins, Diane. (2010 May).  “The Teaching of History.”  Education Journal, Issue 124, p8-8. 

Kabuki and Japanese Dance Photograph.  (2009). Retrieved from http://www.culturalacts.com/details.php?/Asia/Japan/Dancer/53&PHPSESSID=ea207b8f590d8302599d963aa67f1130

Lindsey, Randall B., Kikanza Nuri Robins, Delores B. Lindsey and Raymond D. Terrell.  (2009 March/April). “Cultural Proficiency: changing the conversation.”  Leadership.

Modiba, Maropeng and Wilhelm van Rensburg.  (2009 June).  “Cultural diversity in the classroom: implications for curriculum literacy in South African classrooms.”  Pedagogy, Culture, and Society.  Vol. 17, No. 2.  

Morgan, Hani and Kathleen C. York. (2009). “Examining Multiple Persepectives With Creative Think-Alouds.  The Reading Teacher, 63(4), pp. 307-311.  

Naturalization Self Test. (2013). In U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Retrieved February 19, 2013, from http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.d72b75bdf98917853423754f526e0aa0/?vgnextoid=afd6618bfe12f210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=afd6618bfe12f210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

Ntiri, Daphne.  (2009 Summer).  “Toward a Functional and Culturally Salient Definition of Literacy.” Adult Basic Education and Literacy Journal.  Volume 3, Number 2.  

Parent, Roger.  (2009).  “Building communities through performance: emerging approaches to interculturality.”  Australian Psychiatry, Vol 17.  The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Pyschiatrists. 

Petteway, Steve. (2010). Supreme Court Justices Photograph.  Retrieved from  http://www.oyez.org/courts/robt6

Preble, Bill and Carlton Fitzgerald. (2010). “Learning From New Americans.”  Educational Leadership. 

Polistina, K. “Cultural Literacy understanding and respect for the cultural aspects of sustainability.” The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy: Skills for a Changing World. University of Michigan: Green Books.

Schweizer, B. (2009). Cultural Literacy: Is it Time to Revisit the Debate? Thought and Action, 25, 51-56. Teaching Cultural Literacy in the Classroom Lessons and Activities. (n.d.). In Cultural Literacy in the Classroom. Retrieved from http://studentculturalliteracy.weebly.com/lessons.html

Story time Clipart.  Retrieved from http://www.westwoodlibrary.org/index.cfm?cdid=14302&pid=10216

Story time Cultural Picture. (2012).  El Paso Community College.  Retrieved from http://www.epcc.edu/library/nw/Pages/default.aspx