IND/Everyone is a Cultural Being

Key Idea

Culture is the learned behaviours, values, beliefs and products that are shared by a group.

Personal Reflection

• Have you ever travelled to a foreign country?
• What was your experience of cultural difference?
• How did you go as a member of a ‘minority’?
• What would it be like to be Australian yet every time you left your house it was like being in a foreign country?

Cook's Cottage, Fitzroy Gardens.

If you are a member of the mainstream society it can be hard to identify your own culture as it is just how you, and everyone you know, ‘normally lives’. If you are not part of the mainstream culture, cultural differences can be very easy to see. Humans are cultural beings. Indeed, some philosophers consider that it is culture that sets humans apart from ‘other animals’ (though this is debated by others who say that some animals have culture too).

Culture dictates a lot of things about our lives:

• How far away you stand from someone you’re talking to;
• What words you use to whom;
• What clothes you wear;
• What career expectations you might have/ society might have for you;
• What style of accommodation you live in;
• What success looks like;
• How you think about things;
• Who you can form a family relationship with.

Interacting with people who have a different cultural background to your own requires a level of awareness about cultural perspectives that may be similar to, or different from, your own. When it comes to work, you will need to consider your own cultural background, the cultural backgrounds of the people you work with as colleagues and as ‘clients’, and the culture of the profession you work for as well. Teachers obviously need to be aware of their students’ cultural backgrounds. To be culturally competent, you are not only aware of potential differences and what these mean for how people behave and see the world, but you also have a suite of professional skills you can use to effectively work with people from different cultural backgrounds. We won’t cover these skills in this module as you will study this further at a later stage in your particular courses. However, cultural competence it is a foundational idea for working effectively with Indigenous people and communities.

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