One class that made a huge impact on me as a student and as a global citizen was my Introduction to Multicultural and Ethnic Studies course. This was a class that focused solely on teaching us about other cultures, and was completely different from any class offered from my high school. The teacher talked to us about many different cultures from around the world, and we especially focused on his own, the Native American culture. This class allowed me to develop my self-awareness and knowledge and understanding skills.
Self-awareness, as it pertains to global citizenship, means realizing and understanding that you are a part of a culture. This means that there are inherent biases that we don’t comprehend or recognize until we become aware of them. The professor forced us to become self-aware on the very first day when he started asking us questions about our own and other cultures. This to me was almost like a wake-up call. It really made me realize how my own culture and society has shaped me to think a certain way. For example, I found out that Americans have a certain fascination with our teeth that few other cultures share. We have special doctors to make our teeth white and straight, and we are culturally biased to think that that’s how teeth should look. There are many other culture rules and traditions that we follow that I had never thought about before, but this class allowed me to really think and evaluate myself as a citizen of the American culture.
My ethnic studies class allowed me to further develop my knowledge and understanding skill of the global citizenship competency. This was accomplished by watching films on other cultures, reading literature, and discussion with the class. The discussion part of this was especially interesting to me, because our professor was Native American so we could ask him as many questions we wanted to about his culture. Before his class, I was extremely uniformed about the Native American culture, but by the end of it I was so fascinated with it that when he encouraged us to attend the Pow-Wow in Mankato, I obliged. Learning about so many different cultures made me realize that there are many complex elements that go into each society. A culture’s history, religion, traditions, and much more go into how their society is formed.
My ethnic studies course was an amazing opportunity for me to start to develop my global citizenship competency. It was an eye-opening experience for me to realize how my own culture affects my thinking, and how other cultures differ from my own. I learned that there’s many things that go into the shaping of a society, and understanding people different that ourselves is the first step to becoming a responsible global citizen.
Self-awareness, as it pertains to global citizenship, means realizing and understanding that you are a part of a culture. This means that there are inherent biases that we don’t comprehend or recognize until we become aware of them. The professor forced us to become self-aware on the very first day when he started asking us questions about our own and other cultures. This to me was almost like a wake-up call. It really made me realize how my own culture and society has shaped me to think a certain way. For example, I found out that Americans have a certain fascination with our teeth that few other cultures share. We have special doctors to make our teeth white and straight, and we are culturally biased to think that that’s how teeth should look. There are many other culture rules and traditions that we follow that I had never thought about before, but this class allowed me to really think and evaluate myself as a citizen of the American culture.
My ethnic studies class allowed me to further develop my knowledge and understanding skill of the global citizenship competency. This was accomplished by watching films on other cultures, reading literature, and discussion with the class. The discussion part of this was especially interesting to me, because our professor was Native American so we could ask him as many questions we wanted to about his culture. Before his class, I was extremely uniformed about the Native American culture, but by the end of it I was so fascinated with it that when he encouraged us to attend the Pow-Wow in Mankato, I obliged. Learning about so many different cultures made me realize that there are many complex elements that go into each society. A culture’s history, religion, traditions, and much more go into how their society is formed.
My ethnic studies course was an amazing opportunity for me to start to develop my global citizenship competency. It was an eye-opening experience for me to realize how my own culture affects my thinking, and how other cultures differ from my own. I learned that there’s many things that go into the shaping of a society, and understanding people different that ourselves is the first step to becoming a responsible global citizen.