Identity is something that you create and revise during your whole life and especially during your childhood. You often get inspiration from peers, grown ups or famous idols, when you create or revise your identity, and then experiment with ways of acting in front of your friends and family.
Multiculturality has a special effect on the development of identity. Because of globalisation we get influenced by social media from many countries and we interact with people from foreign countries. This has the potential to confuse young people when they develop their identity. Because of the many sources of information and cultural inspiration people can find it difficult to choose what ways of acting they like and what interests to engage in.
An example is some African countries that want to become, or have to be more westernized in the ways of living. Some African countries educate their youth in western values and jobs because they think that their future will depend on a well developed western way of living. The result is however the loss of the countries indigenous culture and a youth generation who have learned a bit of western culture and a bit of indigenous culture, but not enough of either of them. Instead i think it is important to focus on indigenous people's own culture so that they will not lose their forefathers' values, traditions and skills, such as where to find plants that can grow with a very little amount of water, which they can use when they have periods of drought or hunger.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssPAfk_G9Cs
This is a musical mash-up between the classical and romantic eras of western art music and modern commercial hip-hop. I have linked to this song because i think it symbolises the mixture of different cultures which can turn out to become something good because you bring together the best of two worlds, but also can be confusing for young people that develop their identity.
World citizenship is to be embraced, not feared. New forms of post-national understanding, responsibility, the state, justice, art, science and public understanding can emerge. This in turn can lead to more advanced forms of democracy, liberty and mutuality. (Beck)
It is important to embrace foreign cultures when you encounter them. A world citizen thus has to be ready to meet people from foreign cultures and their ways of life without judging them. When you travel you can get a culture shock from a strange gesture or behavior, which can cause you to be repellent to the country's culture and thus undermine your ability to be a world citizen. Education can help pupils become world citizens and prepare them for a culture shock by teaching them about foreign cultures and have guest speakers from a specific country visit the classroom to give a lecture about their culture. This will develop pupils understanding of cultures and their diversity.
This is a photography of a blackboard which shows the maximun and minimun percentages of how much groups in our class identify with local cultures, national cultures and transnational cultures. It is explicit that local cultures seem to be the cultures that our class identify themselves the most with. From minimun 41% to maximum 83%. The national identity is not that strong with only 10 to 21%, and the transnational identity differs from 8 to 65%. This indicates that what is closest to our lives is the local cultures, probably because it is easy to relate to matters that take place around our everyday surroundings. The transnational identity is in some cases relatively larg, which has to do with globalisation. Before modern globalisation it was almost impossible to engage in transnational matters because you would have to travel physically from country to country in order to establish and maintain a sense of beloging to a specific group or culture. Today internet has made transnational relations very easy to establish and have, because you can find inspiration to your lifestyle from foreign countries and participate in online communities with social media.
Dear Jonas,
ReplyDeleteYou have reflected on identity and you have looked up some definitions. Where? You need to give the references. Interesting reflections - but who is to say what African culture is? Are they not allowed to mix?
I would have liked to have seen a description of the classroom activities for future use with children and 5 resources (min) that you can use with children.
Best,
Lilian