In our globalised world many people are travelling and have to cope with cultural dilemmas. The same can happen when you are a teacher and you have a multicultural class including children from various cultures. Teachers have to get along with this and have to be aware of cultural differences to avoid dilemmas.
From my point of view teachers need to teach different cultural concepts in school to avoid prejudices and those dilemmas. Therefore you have to be aware of the fact that different cultural concepts exist and that the acting of people, their behaviour and their values really depend on the culture they were born or living in.
The question is what challenges we see in the concept of culture.
I think culture is a broad concept that includes nearly everything of our social lives. If you are a teacher you have to take many aspects into consideration. As we tried in the seminar, everyone connects other things with the term “culture”.
If you ask me teachers have to deal with all the aspects, paying attention to present other cultures obejectively without any prejudices.
In my profession as a foreign language teacher, culture takes a big part of the teaching. Children need to learn that culture is created through interaction and that cultures can merge because of the process of globalisation. Children need to learn that every culture has different values and habits. And although people maybe feel that they belong to a special culture, there are always differences between the individuals. In the context of culture it is necessary to cope with individual differences as well. Only then can you feel certain that you prepared your students well for their lives. Children need to learn that people are moving supported by the process of globalisation. And with their moving cultures are mixing and in the globalized society new cultures are created, mainly because of interaction of the people.
If people are entering a new cultural surrounding they judge it with the background of their own values. As a teacher you have to make children aware that cultural differences are a chance, not a problem. Only then they can become open- minded and handle cultural dilemmas better. I think coping with those dilemmas is a matter of tolerance in combination with a certain cultural knowledge. If people, especially students, are looking at a foreign culture they have to question things and speak to the people to achieve a general understanding of the new culture. If people are open with other cultures it is a big chance in the process of globalisation.
To put it in a nutshell, this is what me as a teacher want to impart my pupils, because then they are enabled to cope with cultural dilemmas.
