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Cultural Studies Toolkit

What is culture and how do we study it? What do we need to know as we look at another culture? How can we possibly hope to understand the customs, traditions and values of another culture? How does looking at another culture through our own cultural lens distort our understanding? These are just some of the questions that come to mind as we engage in CultureQuest. To help answer these and other questions, we have collected a number of resources that will assist teachers and students.

CultureQuest Materials:

What is Culture? by Prof. Marina Fernando
http://www.culturequest.us/whatisculture.htm

Definitions of Culture by Prof. Marina Fernando
http://culturequest.us/definitionsofculture.htm

Some Lesson Plans and Classroom Activities:


Peace Corps Culture Matters Workbook
http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/publications/bridges/index.cfm
Culture Matters will increase students' cross-cultural understanding and skills through practical exercises, learning activities, and opportunities for reflection and writing.

Looking at Ourselves and Others
http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws
This teacher guide contains lesson plans, activities and readings to introduce students to the concept of culture.

Teaching Tolerance
http://www.tolerance.org/teach/
This site contains practical resources for parents, teachers, and students to promote and support communities that value diversity. High quality interdisciplinary curriculum guides, classroom activities, and free resources are updated monthly.

Extracting Meaning from What We See: Developing Perspective Consciousness with Pictures
http://www.askasia.org/
A collection of lessson and resources for teachers to use when teaching about any of the 30 Asian nations.

Defining and Understanding the Term Culture
http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/crossroads/sec3/gr3/unit1/u1g3l1.html
This elementary lesson plan leads students to define the term culture, identify aspects of culture, and investigate another cultural group (in this case, the Iroquois of New York State). The lesson can be adapted to different grade levels, and different cultural groups may be easily substituted.

Videos:

United Streaming
http://www.unitedstreaming.com
Free 30 day trial version for all teachers. Video and print resources are constantly updated and can be saved to your own computer for educational use. Narrow your search by selecting Social Studies - Cultural Studies to find these videos and more:

  • Culture: What Is It?
  • Cultures: Similarities and Differences
  • How to Study Cultures: How Beliefs and Values Define a Culture; How Economic Activities Define a Culture; How Geography Defines a Culture; and How Social Organizations Define a Culture