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An Autobiographical Approach to My Worldview towards other Culture

Anonymous
M.Ed., University of the People
EDUC 5810: Living and Learning Globally
Dr Vicky Nixon
13 November 2022
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In this paper, I will discuss how one and context shape their worldview towards other

cultures. To start with, I strongly agree that culture impacts our view of the world that we exist

in. Culture promotes one’s individuality. People from each culture are said to possess a set of

traits and habits, speak a certain language, follow a certain belief system and carry a set of

traditional values. I will discuss my personal experiences in this paper.

I am an Indian. I come from a very rural part of India. India is a culture-rich country. I

belong to a community where we follow a lot of rituals. These rituals have scientific

explanations however our forefathers didn’t inherit the scientific explanations correctly.

Whenever I asked why I need to do it, I was told I should do it as they had been doing it ever

without questioning it. This is how my childhood was. We were told a lot of philosophies right

from our childhood by our parents and grandparents to overcome this.

I was brought up by my grandparents till grade 5 as both my parents were working. From

grade 11 followed by universities, I stayed in the hostel. I was with my mother only for five

years which is from grade 6 to 10. So, if I critically recall, I don’t think we had discussions on

providing solutions to any problems that our country had faced or the world had faced then. All

we discussed was how to pay the rent, school fees, what food to make, etc.

Considering today’s scenario as a mother, my children are more inclined toward

recycling and reusing. They know the importance of both. They know the fact that humans are

the main cause of so many issues that the globe face. They do a lot of project-based learning

activities in school and they learn all this from there. Though I don’t initiate discussions at home

related to sustainability or development, they bring their learning home and discuss the waste-

recycling procedure. They tend to show interest in reusing plastic bottles for planting and reusing

cardboard boxes that we receive as packages for orders that we place in building project models,
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etc. Likewise, if schools can transform from development to sustainable development by

restructuring the curriculum, I think children of today’s world can easily adhere to it and make

the best decisions and take actions that are better for future generations to live.

When I was a child, what I knew was, what the right thing to do is and what the wrong

thing to not do is. If it is harmful do not do it and if someone else will feel bad, do not do it are a

few examples to quote. My grandparents taught me all these ethical and moral values from the

very beginning of my childhood. As I grew older, they started emphasizing the importance of

consuming less water, using fire to heat water instead of electricity and keeping our environment

clean. There is a saying in India that my grandparents kept reiterating, “Cleanliness is godliness”.

These values still help me as an individual. I transferred these values to my two daughters who

are studying in China. As they are very small, and as a mother I want them to know the roots of

their culture and how they are expected to behave and so on.

In terms of my expectations as a teacher, I ensure that I keep my classroom clean and set

an example for my students to follow. I also enforce my learners to keep their classroom, their

desks, their computer space and their lockers clean. I insist on the importance of keeping our

environment clean for the well-being of ourselves and the community.

As a student, I also studied the independence movement, how India was in the 1800s and

even before that, and how the eastern India movement has transformed the lives of Indians in

subjects like History. These struggles including how women were ill-treated those days were also

told as stories by our grandparents. These stories made me think that we exist in a more

independent world as any changes that took place during those times were for the country’s good

and its citizens.

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As I studied in a state curriculum school, the learning that took place was to get into a

decent job, earn decent money and make a decent living. At this stage, I didn’t know anything

like giving back to society or we are major consumers of our globe or we leave a lot of

ecological footprints in our society. This is how the state curriculum still works in India. This is

high time that the education policymakers in India should consider this and enforce meeting the

sustainable development goals (United Nations, 2020).

Every one of us will possess a world view by learning and correlating our experiences

from our childhood. Our family members, friends, community members, teachers, education and

our self including our gut instincts are the ones that contribute to making meaningful experiences

and connections to the world and outside us (Campbell, 2019). As an educator, I believe we

strongly influence our learners’ thoughts and actions. The more we emphasize the importance of

education to sustainability development, I think we can make changes that will help build a

stronger world for future learners to thrive better. It is indeed our primary responsibility.
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References

Campbell, W. (2019, March 3). What influences how we form our worldview? Medium.

Retrieved from https://medium.com/@will.campbell/what-influences-how-weform-our-

worldview-c612d0297a9f

United Nations, U. N. (2020). Take action for the sustainable development goals - united nations

sustainable development. United Nations. Retrieved from

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/