Cultural Awareness

Cultural differences are often talked about in terms of obvious variations in practices and behaviors.  My daughter and I traveled to Poland a few years ago.  We experienced many differences in terms of language, food, shopping, and transportation.  Experiencing differences reveals our own context.  We learned about the normative behaviors that we had developed from our own group.  Cultural context, however, is more than a set of behaviors.   

In their book entitled Culture in Special Education, Kalyanpu & Harry (1999) define three levels of cultural awareness: overt, covert, and subtle.  The overt awareness is the level of awareness that my daughter and I experienced during our travels.  We experienced awareness of obvious differences.  With more sustained contact, one reaches a level of covert awareness.  At this level, one becomes aware of some of the underlying structures and expectations of the group.  The subtle level of awareness is characterized by knowledge of the embedded values and beliefs of the group that members of the group may assume are universal ideas. 

Awareness of overt cultural differences is an important starting place, but to develop a deeper understanding of our own context or that of others it is important be willing to look for the richer meaning.  It is easy to look at the surface behaviors, but understanding comes from a willingness to examine what experiences and beliefs shape those behaviors.