scholarly journals An Analysis of American Multiculturalism

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lanxi Chen
Keyword(s):  
National Culture ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Cultural Ideology ◽  
American Society ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Mainstream Culture ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Homogeneous Culture

Multiculturalism has received fierce controversy and discussion upon its proposal for its complexity in definition and in practice. This research discusses the definition of multiculturalism focusing on the comparison between the term “cultural pluralism” and “multiculturalism”, its influence on American society and its distinct characteristics, which is the claims of equality and identification between different cultures. It is argued that multiculturalism is not only a cultural ideology and a cultural war between the WASP-based mainstream culture and the cultures of the disadvantaged groups, but also a political and economic movement. The research also analyzes the practice of multiculturalism in the fields of political participation, education, race, media and the practice of multiculturalism that targets the disabled people and women. Moreover, the problems arise during the proposal and practice of multiculturalism are presented in the research. It is argued that the relationship between multiculturalism and homogeneous culture is not contradictory but united. A mature, sustainable and energetic national culture needs to seek common ground while recognizing and reserving the differences.

Framing Disability: Comparing Individualist and Collectivist Societies

2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinz-Dieter Meyer
Keyword(s):  
National Culture ◽  
International Differences ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Collectivistic Cultures ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Collectivist Cultures

AbstractIn this paper I use international differences in disability rates as a window to address the question how national culture influences a nation’s understanding and practice of disability. I apply the well-established distinction between individualistic and collectivistic cultures to explore the relationship between culture and disability rates. I argue and find support for the hypothesis that individualistic cultures exhibit higher rates of disability. In the second part I add cultural and institutional detail to the account. While individualistic and collectivist cultures both value assistance to the disabled, only the Western individualist tradition produces a rights-based approach to disability.

Academic writing and new Englishes: Unifying the contrasts

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Josef Schmied
Keyword(s):  
National Culture ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Academic Discourses ◽  
The Relationship

This contribution tries to unify two recent research strands in English linguistics: studies in academic writing and in New Englishes. This is useful because, in line with the prominent theory of social constructionism, discourses in both strands can be seen as practices of communities that negotiate their cultural norms. The relationship between language, cognition, and (national) culture is illustrated on the basis of several models, research and its application in teaching is discussed. A proposed socio-cognitive model offers new insights into old concepts and stimulates exchange in academic discourses between researchers from different cultures.

scholarly journals A New Description of a Healthcare Professional’s Resilience, Incorporating an Eastern Philosophical Perspectives of Self-definition. How to Bridge the Gap between Independent and Interdependent Self-definition in Medical Education

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shizuma Tsuchiya ◽  
Yusuke Takamiya ◽  
Linda Snell
Keyword(s):  
Medical Education ◽  
North American ◽  
The Self ◽  
Value Systems ◽  
The North ◽  
Interdependent Self ◽  
Medical Educators ◽  
American Society ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Different Cultures

Teaching about resilience is one of the biggest challenges in medical education. One of the problems is that medical educators might still ascribe to the individualistic self-definition mainly promoted in the North American society. This definition includes characteristics such as “enduring ongoing hardship,” “thriving on challenges,” “being healthy,” and “being stronger,” which may raise hidden expectations that a healthcare professional’s personality should be strong enough to bounce back to his or her original condition even in a psychologically demanding situation. Psychological theorists describe two broad modes of self-definition in two different cultures: independent self-definition in North American individualism and interdependent self-definition in East Asian collectivism. Despite this seemingly stereotypical discussion on the characteristics of self-definition, a discussion of the two types of self-definition can still encourage medical educators to propose a broader model of resilience in medical education. More specifically, a person using an independent self-definition may become be a complete, whole, autonomous entity, without others, and thus tends to achieve more and become more productive in a competitive society. In contrast, a person using an interdependent self-definition is more likely to be open to another aspect of the context and thus might be able to find and value the self in different ways even in the same context. However, these two self-definitions may not be dichotomous or mutually exclusive but occur in varying ratios in any one individual, particularly as trends of increased globalization, immigration, and technology call for changes in an individual’s value systems in countries. From this standpoint, this review proposes a new definition of resilience in medical education, which is ‘a person’s capacity to be aware of the aspects of the self differently identified in each context, and to consciously value oneself and others in the context’. This is the first article that incorporates the concept of the two self-definitions into resilience education in healthcare. The proposed definition may provide a broader model of resilience in a healthcare professional for educators as well as trainees in medical education.

Confronting Race and Ethnicity: Education and Cultural Identity for Immigrants and Students from Asia

2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 644-656
Author(s):  
Liping Bu
Keyword(s):  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Asian Country ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Colored People ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
The Difference ◽  
American Society ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Minority People

Years ago at graduate school, a fellow student in the American Seminar class asked, “What is the difference between race and ethnicity?” The professor replied, “Asians usually find it hard to distinguish the two.” The student was from an Asian country and the professor did not elaborate the distinction between the concepts. It is no brainer for Americans to tell the difference; however, for people new to American society who have not lived in a racially conscious and divisive society, it is confusing to refer to a minority people as belonging to both a particular race and to a different ethnicity. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when millions of immigrants came to America in search of better life and supplied American industries with labor, they were labeled white, yellow, brown, or black. This skin-colored definition of people as different races reflected American racial views of people of different cultures. Even in current mainstream discourse, racial and ethnic minorities are still called people of color or colored people, instead of minorities.

scholarly journals Kultūrų skirtumai ir kaip tai išgyventi

2008 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 108-111
Author(s):  
Kinga Williams
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Noam Chomsky ◽  
Working Definition ◽  
Culture Distance ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cultural Buffer ◽  
Indigenous Psychologies

Straipsnyje atskleidžiama kultūros sąvoka, aptariami esminiai apibrėžimai (tikėjimas, vertybės, normos, požiūriai, siekiniai, taisyklės), taip pat nusakomos susijusios sąvokos, tokios kaip kultūrų atsiribojimai (Furnham & Bochner 1982), taisyklių – klaidingų interpretacijų kategorijos Fallacy (Williams, 2007), kultūros slopinamos funkcijos (e.g. Greenberg et al 1997), jų tarpusavio ryšiai.Kultūrų skirtumai analizuojami taikant universalumo / reliatyvumo (Salzman, 2006), preskriptyvumo / deskriptyvumo (Williams, 2006) ir tradicinės / vietos psichologijos (Allwood, 2006) požiūrius.Pranešime taip pat pateikiamos tam tikros analogijos su Noam Chomsky (1957, 1986) pateikiamais lingvistiniais konceptais (kompetencija / spektaklis, giluminės / paviršiaus struktūros, lingvistinės bendrybės).Pabaigoje, vartojant kultūrą kaip daugiakultūrę slopinimo sampratą, teigiama, kad egzistuoja bendras kultūros (-ų) pagrindas.Cultural diversity and how to survive itKinga Williams SummaryThe article first explores the ingredients of a working definition of culture (beliefs, values, norms, attitudes, intentions, rules, schemata), then attempts to map out the relationship among key-concepts like Culture-Distance (Furnham, Bochner, 1982), the Rule-Category Substitution Fallacy (Williams, 2007), and culture’s buffer-function (e.g., Greenberg et al., 1997). Cultural Diversity is examined from the points of view of Universalism/Relativism (Salzman, 2006), Prescriptivism/Descriptivism (Williams, 2006), and that of Traditional/Indigenous psychologies (Allwood, 2006). Working analogies with some of Noam Chomsky’s (1957, 1986) linguistic concepts (competence/performance, deep/surface structures, linguistic universals) are discussed. Finally, a need for a multi-cultural buffer is confirmed, and the potentiality for the existence of enough common ground for such is tentatively concluded.Key words: culture-distance, beliefs, values, norms, rules, cultural relativism/span>

scholarly journals DEVELOPING CONSECUTIVE INTERPRETER’S COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS OF EMOTIVE-EMPATHIC INTERACTION

2020 ◽  
pp. 115-131
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Communicative Skills ◽  
Communicative Ability ◽  
Language Communication ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Different Cultures

Consecutive interpretation is a special form of oral communication between people speaking different languages, representing different cultures, and it is carried out in any situation of intercultural communication in order to exchange thoughts, information, knowledge, labor results, products, emotions, values, relationships in the process of interaction. A consecutive interpreter is a mediator of intercultural communication, and the development of emotive-empathic interaction skills of an interpreter promotes the successfullness of such communication. Interpreters’ communicative skills of emotive-empathic interaction within consecutive interpretation may be defined as a communicative and speech act in a foreign language communication implemented independently and in an optimal way. The act is accomplished at the level of interaction-exchange of emotions and relations both in the frames of independent component and in the frames of processing the cognitive and interactive components. This enables to carry out the emotive-empathic interaction under any conditions and new situations of consecutive interpretation thanks to the full totality of qualities. The aim of the paper is to consider issues related to emotions, empathy, their role in the process of communication, and their levels of empathy. Skills of emotive-empathic interactions and relevant to national culture, also the issues of the development of communicative skills in the mentioned interaction of the future interpreters, determined the conditions for their formation are described. In addition the paper presents definition of the communicative ability of the emotive-empathic interaction of future interpreters; considers a set of exercises aimed at the formation of these skills. The results of the scientific research are presented by the set of exercises.

Imagination and Education

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moira von Wright
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Central Element ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Social Imagination ◽  
Meaning Creation ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Self Formation ◽  
Specific Definition

The concept of imagination, with its potential to contribute to education, is attracting increasing interest as humanity faces major challenges such as migration and climate change. Imagination is expected to enlarge the mentality of human beings and help to find new solutions to global problems. However, educational thinkers have different understandings of what imagination and imaginative thought can actually contribute to. Imagination is the mental ability to visualize what may lie beyond the immediate situation and to “see” things that are not present. It is a central element of meaning creation in education—in the relationship between mental pictures and reality, between humans and the outside world, and between the past and the future. Imagination is a way of seeing, a happening in the here and now. No single specific definition of imagination exists, and this term is used in a variety of ways. Because it is so evasive, the idea of imagination has been contested and questioned, so its meaning depends on the theory and context with which it is associated. Many educational theories simply neglect the concept of imagination, or limit its meaning to common fantasizing and playfulness, whereas others give imagination a central role in the processes of understanding and learning. The socially and politically emancipating dimension of imagination has been emphasized, as has its moral significance and relation to self-formation and education. Some thinkers argue that education should not be satisfied with developing students’ ability to think imaginatively, create a narrative and develop social imagination; rather, it needs to intentionally raise young people to “live imaginatively”—that is, to live a rich life with an open mind, being ready to think in new ways and change their habits when former ways of thinking prove untenable for moral and ethical reasons. Despite these differences of opinion, the value of imagination in education is undeniable. Yet questions remain: How does “bad fantasy” differ from “good imagination,” and what are the educational consequences of such a distinction? How can imagination be a common ground in education, and how can it be a liminal space or topos for the different perspectives of children and adults in that area? How can imagination be part of a greater social responsibility and a way of life?

scholarly journals Using Visualization Models to Speculate on New Platforms for Additive Manufacturing Expansion

2020 ◽  
pp. 32-37
Author(s):  
Badziili Nthubu ◽  
◽  
Daniel Richards ◽  
Leon Cruickshank
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Developing Nations ◽  
Manufacturing Processes ◽  
Astm Standard ◽  
American Society ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship

As Additive Manufacturing (AM) continues to grow, what constitutes its definition is also fragmenting and becoming blurred. The blurring of definitions may lead to slow understanding of AM technology, particularly in developing nations. To address this problem, the study proposes an expanded definition of AM based on the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard AM definition. To examine the possible applicability of the expanded AM definition framework, the study considers conventional manufacturing processes and selected AM ‘outliers’ that are not traditionally classified as AM under the ASTM definition, yet exhibit specific similar attributes, to appraise the framework. The relationship between AM outliers are visualized to highlight possible future forms of additive manufacturing. In conclusion, the study argues that these visualization models may expand the definition of AM for new areas of applications, specifically in developing countries.

scholarly journals Analyse antiraciste du rapport au territoire, à l’autre et à l’écriture dans Aimititau ! Parlons-nous !

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-149
Author(s):  
Elise Couture-Grondin
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
The Social ◽  
Common Identity ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship

Aimititau ! Parlons-nous ! (2008) propose un projet de correspondances littéraires entre écrivains/es autochtones et non autochtones créant ainsi « une nouvelle langue appartenant au territoire de l’amitié et de la création ». Cet article considère l’échange épistolaire en lien avec le territoire physique et le contexte social. L’auteure explore certaines des tensions entre les discours qui promeuvent un partage d’humanité, au-delà des différences, et les conditions matérielles des injustices qui se perpétuent. Elle propose l’analyse de deux correspondances, celles entre Denise Brassard et Rita Mestokosho, et entre Nahka Bertrand et Jean Désy, qui mettent de l’avant un lieu commun d’où établir le dialogue, soit le lien avec la nature et le métissage. Couture-Grondin suggère alors que les discours interculturels doivent tenir compte de la matérialité du racisme, qui continue d’affecter nos relations, et de la matérialité de l’écriture, qui permet de reconnaître la positionalité des discours et la particularité des traditions intellectuelles et de création autochtones. Aimititau ! Parlons-nous ! (2008) proposes a project of correspondences between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal writers from Quebec that creates “a new language which belongs to the territory of friendship and creativity”. This paper considers the relationship between the epistolary genre, the physical territory, and the social context. The author explores some of the tensions between discourses that promote the idea of sharing humanity, beyond differences, and the material conditions of ongoing injustices. She analyzes two correspondences, between Denise Brassard and Rita Mestokosho, and between Nahka Bertrand and Jean Désy, which uses a common ground to establish their dialogue, either the relation to nature or the definition of a common identity. Couture-Grondin argues that intercultural discourses must take into account the materiality of racism, which continues to affect current relationships, and the materiality of writing, in a way that acknowledges the positionality of discourses and the particularity of Indigenous intellectual and creative traditions.

Watching Birds and People

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-176
Author(s):  
Mikael Rothstein
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Personal Knowledge ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Good Working ◽  
Anthropological Field Work ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The Way

This article explores ornithology as a hidden resource in anthropological field work. Relating experiences among the Penan forest nomads of Sarawak, Borneo, the author describes how his personal knowledge of bird life paved the way for good working relations, and even friendship, with the Penan. Representing two very different cultures simple communication between the scholar on duty and the Penan community was difficult indeed, but the birds provided a common ground that enabled the two parties to exchange experiences, knowledge and skills. In certain ways the author's fieldwork-based project relates to the Penan’s religious interpretation of birds, but the article is primarily concerned with the fact that a mutual understanding was created from this common ground, and that our thoughts on fieldwork preparations may be taken further by such experiences.

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