OBJECTIVES

At the end of this chapter, you should be able to develop

a clear and practical understanding of the following:
• globalization and its implications on both the national
and individual level;
• cultural and multicultural literacy in the philippines; and
• one's personal level of cultural and multicultural literacy.
EXPLORE
EXPLORE
Globalization is the process of interaction and
integration between people. Business entities,
governments, and cultures from other nations,
driven by international trade and investment and
supported by information technology (Levin
Institute, 2017).
EXPLORE
To better illustrate this, consider two people from different
countries, for example, the Philippines and south Korea. Let us
say they meet in college and become good friends, so that the
Korean comes to be treated like a member of the Filipino's
family. After some time, the Korean returns to her own country,
but something has changed-she notices an aspect of her
culture that she finds herself wishing to be more Filipino. She
knows very well that she cannot change Korean culture as a
whole, so she decides to just change herself.
 She does not change everything, of course just a little
thing here and there she just obviously Korean, but she just
does a few things differently from those who have never
been to the Philippines.
 Now suppose a little more time passes and the
Korean is very happy with the changes she has made to
her life that makes it just a little more Filipino. Let us say
some of her colleagues notice how she does some things
differently and they become curious, so she tells them
about her experiences in the Philippines and how that in
some ways, she wishes to do things the way the Filipinos
do. Her colleagues decide to give it a try, and they find
that they like this different way of doing things, too.
 Now let us say that when we look at the person
from the Philippines, something similar has taken
place: the Filipino, while sill being Filipino through
and through, has made a few changes in her life as
a result of her experience of Korean culture through
her friend during their years in college. Some of her
friends have also noticed it and have made similar
little changes in their own lives.
 Because our exposure to the concept of globalization
has largely been through an economic lens, it is tempting
to limit globalization as something that concerns
economists and businessmen. But globalization and its
effects go beyond import or export and foreign direct
investment (FDI). Notice that in our illustration, the friends of
the two people in question were affected by their
interaction, even if they themselves had never been to
Korea or had not met a Filipino.
 Now scale this up to the point where it is not just two
people from two different nations interacting, but millions
of people, from nearly two hundred different countries,
where we are no longer integrating just languages or
mannerisms or food recipes, but everything from styles of
clothing, forms of entertainment, education, technology,
manufacturing, ways of doing business, ideas, and whole
worldviews. This is globalization as we know it today.
 Globalization as a phenomenon is not new. Nations
and cultures have been interacting and integrating with one
another for millennia. Consider how ancient Greek culture
was so widespread across the Mediterranean that even the
Egyptians could speak their language, and how Rome was
so inspired by Greek culture that they adopted it wholesale.
Consider how so much of the Chinese, Arab, and Indian
cultures have become part of our own; these interactions
and subsequent integrations did not happen recently, but
even during centuries before there was even a political entity
known as the Philippines.
 What is different now, however, is the speed at which
globalization is happening, its overall scope, and its effects
on the lives of ordinary people. Not only are we interacting
with, learning from, and integrating knowledge gleaned
from other cultures and nations at an unprecedented rate,
there is now also a sense that no matter where one lives or
how limited is one's face-to-face interaction with members
of another nation or culture and how limited one's time is
spent online. Globalization and its effects are inescapable.
 Even remote villages will be exposed to the latest
KPOP hit, if they have access to a radio. If they produce
rice, they will also feel the effects of more affordable rice
imports from Thailand and Vietnam. If they have access to
a kerosene stove, they will feel the effects of the
fluctuations in oil prices originating from Arab nations. All
these things take place without having to know anyone
from or anything about Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, or the
Middle East.
THE EFFECTS OF GLOBALIZATION
THE EFFECTS OF GLOBALIZATION
The effects of globalization are multi-dimensional. As shown earlier, they range
from economic to cultural, on both national and individual levels.

Meyer (2000) summarizes the effects of globalization as follows:

• Economic, political, and military dependence and interdependence between
nations:
• Expanded flow of individual people among societies:
• Interdependence of expressive culture among nations; and
• Expanded flow of instrumental culture around the world.
ECONOMIC DEPENDENCE/INTERDEPENDENCE
When the term globalization entered the
Philippine public mindset in the early 90s, it was
popularly understood to be a mainly economic
phenomenon, and a negative one at that. The
idea that foreign-owned businesses could come
into the country and freely "set-up shop," thereby
choking-out local industries was not a welcome
thought, even though it was erroneous.
ECONOMIC DEPENDENCE/INTERDEPENDENCE
While Philippine society has come to realize that this
early perspective represented a shallow understanding of
globalization, the fact of the matter is that globalization has
brought economic development to our society as a whole.
By attracting Foreign Direct Investment(FDI), new
technologies, employment opportunities, and money have
come into the country. The phenomenon of a taxi driver
owning multiple smartphones to browse social media while
stuck in traffic because of the rise of the number of vehicles
on our roads is testament to this fact.
ECONOMIC DEPENDENCE/INTERDEPENDENCE
This does not mean, however, that there have been no
negative effects of globalization. Kentor (2001) notes that foreign
capital dependence increases income inequality in four ways: (1) it
creates a small, highly paid class of elites to manage these
investments, who create many but usually low-pay jobs;(2) profits
from these investments are repatriated, rather than invested in the
host country, therefore inhibiting domestic capital formation;(3)
foreign capital penetration tends to concentrate land ownership
among the very rich; and (4) host countries tend to create political
and economic climates favourable to foreign capital that in turn limit
domestic labour's ability to obtain better wages. In simple words, "the
rich become richer, and the poor become poorer."
ECONOMIC DEPENDENCE/INTERDEPENDENCE
Hout (1980) observes that international
dependence (another word for globalization) tends
to suppress adult wages, which in turn perpetuates
the role of children as economic necessities (the
familiar saying “Kapag maraming anak, maraming
katulong sa hanapbuhay"), leading to explosive
population growth.
ECONOMIC DEPENDENCE/INTERDEPENDENCE
In a chain reaction of negative effects, this
explosive population growth creates a large sub-sector
of society that is insulated from economic
development yet competes for resources with the rest
of the population. Coupled with the economic
inequalities in which this society is couched, this
encourages political instability, resulting in policies that
favour the redistribution of income, which in turn
discourages investment, which then slows economic
growth.
POLITICAL AND MILITARY DEPENDENCE/INTERDEPENDENCE
A survey conducted in late 2018 found that three in
five Filipinos believe that the united states would intervene
on behalf of the country in case of war(viray,2018).Despite
the current very conservative stance of the US on its
foreign policies, this can be taken as evidence of the
Philippines' dependence on both the political and military
power of the US in order to maintain its Sovereignty as a
nation-state in the southeast Asia region. Similar things can
be said of Russia and the many communist nations
throughout the world.
POLITICAL AND MILITARY DEPENDENCE/INTERDEPENDENCE

The point is that where there are some

forms of economic
dependence/interdependence, political
dependence/interdependence is not far
behind, as the participating nations strive to
protect their investments and interests in one
another.
EXPANDED FLOW OF EXPRESSIVE AND INSTRUMENTAL CULTURE

Expressive culture, as the term suggests, deals with how a

particular culture expresses itself in its language, music, arts, and
the like. Globalization encourages the monetization of these
cultural artefacts and their import/export among participating
cultures; the increased consumption of which changes the
consuming culture. Case in point, KPOP music and culture was a
relatively niche occupation ten years ago, with very few people
aware of its existence, let alone actual fans. Today it is practically
ubiquitous in. Philippine society, alongside the consumption of all
things Korean, from skin-care products to instant noodles.
EXPANDED FLOW OF EXPRESSIVE AND INSTRUMENTAL CULTURE
Instrumental culture, on the other hand, refers to "common models
of social order" (Meyer, 2000)-that is, models or ways of thinking about and
enacting national identity, nation-state policies both domestic and foreign,
socio-economic development, human rights, education, and social
progress. A simple example of this is the Philippine educational system:
closely patterned after the American educational system, education
leaders in the country closely follow the educational trends in America and
select European countries, perceiving them to be the global leaders in the
field. While this has served us to an arguably satisfactory degree thus far, it
is interesting to observe that the problems and difficulties in American
education eventually show-up in Philippine education, albeit five to ten
years removed.
EXPANDED FLOW OF PEOPLE AMONG SOCIETIES

The fact that globalization encourages the

movement of people between nation-states should come
as no surprise to us. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)
estimates that there were 2.3 million Overseas Filipino
Workers (OFWs) during the period of April to September
2017, who were responsible for up to 205.2 billion pesos in
remittances (Philippine Statistics Authority,2018).
EXPANDED FLOW OF PEOPLE AMONG SOCIETIES
Meyer (2000) observes three reasons for this: socio-
economic migration. Political expulsion, and travel/tourism.
Socio-economic migration explains the Philippines' OFW
phenomenon. Filipinos travel abroad to find better economic
opportunities for themselves and their families for lack of said
opportunities here.
Political expulsion, on the other hand, has more to do with
trying to escape the political climate of a particular country,
thereby forcing an individual to seek asylum (and ultimately,
resettlement) in another more favourable country.
EXPANDED FLOW OF PEOPLE AMONG SOCIETIES

Travel for the sake of leisure (i.e., Tourism) is a

strong indicator of economic development as
more and more Filipinos are able to finance short-
tem travels abroad, fuelled by curiosity that is fed
by social media and enabled by globalization.
CULTURAL LITERACY
Cultural literacy is a term coined by Hirsch (1983),
referring to the ability to understand the signs and symbols of
a given culture and being able to participate in its activities
and customs as opposed to simply being a passive (and
outside) observer. The signs and symbols of a culture include
both its formal and informal languages, its idioms and forms
of expression, entertainment, values, customs, roles,
traditions, and the like-most of which are assumed and
unstated. Thus, they are learned by being part of the culture,
rather than by any formal means.
CULTURAL LITERACY
To illustrate this, consider the following statement: "the
classroom was in absolute bedlam." Without any sort of background,
the reader is forced to guess the meaning of the word "bedlam" from
its context within the sentence. As it turns out, "bedlam" refers to a
scene of uproar, confusion, and chaos. The term is British in origin,
referring to a psychiatric hospital in London by the name of St. Mary
Bethlehem that was once representative of the worst excesses of
insane asylums during the 14th century and “bedlam" is a corruption
of the word “Bethlehem" in the name. While it is one thing to know
that meaning of the word, note that it is knowledge of its cultural
origins that better enables a person to both appreciate and
participate in conversations and activities.
CULTURAL LITERACY
Of course. By its very definition, cultural literacy is culture-
specific, but it is not limited to national cultures, contrary to what
many people assume. The culture of one workplace can be very
different from another, just as the culture of a particular school can
differ widely from another school nearby.
There are far too many cultures for any one person to be
literate in all of them. As more and more Filipinos travel-both
domestically and abroad-as the result of globalization and the
increased opportunities it brings, the need to develop new cultural
literacies comes to the fore.
CULTURAL LITERACY IN THE PHILIPPINES
The national commission for culture and the arts (NCCA) is the
government body tasked with the documentation, preservation, and
dissemination of Philippine culture, both locally and abroad. Part of
how the NCCA is addressing this and related matters is through the
establishment of the Philippine cultural education program (PCEP),
which "envisions a nation of culturally literate and empowered
Filipinos" (NCCA, 2015). Designed to make cultural education
accessible to all sectors of Philippine society, the PCEP held national
consultative meetings, conferences, workshops, art camps, and
festivals on culture-based teaching and good governance from 2003
to 2007. As a result of republic
CULTURAL LITERACY IN THE PHILIPPINES
The national commission for culture and the arts (NCCA) is the
government body tasked with the documentation, preservation, and
dissemination of Philippine culture, both locally and abroad. Part of
how the NCCA is addressing this and related matters is through the
establishment of the Philippine cultural education program (PCEP),
which "envisions a nation of culturally literate and empowered
Filipinos" (NCCA, 2015). Designed to make cultural education
accessible to all sectors of Philippine society, the PCEP held national
consultative meetings, conferences, workshops, art camps, and
festivals on culture-based teaching and good governance from 2003
to 2007.
CULTURAL LITERACY IN THE PHILIPPINES
As a result of republic Act 10066 (2010),PCEP has been
designated as the body, together with the department of
education(DepEd),tasked to "formulate the cultural heritage
education programs both for local and overseas Filipinos" that are to
be an integral part of Philippine education in all its aspects.
Cultural education-and thus cultural literacy-in the Philippines is quite
a challenge, given that Philippine culture is a complex blend of
many indigenous and colonial cultures and varies widely across
regions, and the average citizen is almost as ignorant of other
Philippine cultures as foreigners are. To point out. Consider the
question, "what makes something or someone ‘Filipino'?"
CULTURAL LITERACY IN THE PHILIPPINES

The average reader will be hard-pressed to pin down

a definite answer. De Leon (2011) argues that this is in part
due to a colonial mindset among Filipino artists that inhibits
the full development and realization of Filipino artistic
creativity-a kind of artistic and cultural creativity that is fully
Filipino.
CULTURAL LITERACY IN THE PHILIPPINES
De Leon (2011) coins this propensity for Filipinos to look at their
culture and themselves through Western lenses as the Doña Victorina
Syndrome. A kind of inferiority complex wherein anything and
everything natively Filipino is considered by the Filipinos themselves
as being inferior, backward, and worthless in comparison to their
western counterparts, and therefore a source of embarrassment and
unease. As De Leon puts it, our low self-esteem borders on self-
contempt, the results of which are doubt in the Filipino capacity for
achievement, perverse delight in belittling ourselves, lack of respect
and even outright contempt for one another, and blind
dependence on foreign goods, concepts, techniques, approaches,
and expertise (2011).
CULTURAL LITERACY IN THE PHILIPPINES
The biggest challenge then, according to him, is the
deconstruction of the negative self-images and notions of
ourselves that we have imbibed over generations through
“a workable, effective program of education that can
make Filipinos more responsive and sensitive to Filipino
dignity, needs, values, and cultural potentials and assets.“
For De Leon, it is excellence in the arts-via an
expression that is truly Filipino-that can form the core of
national unity. Of course, this remains to be seen.
CHALLENGES FOR CULTURAL LITERACY IN THE PHILIPPINES

As Applebee (1987) observes, interesting discussions on

cultural literacy give rise to some very difficult questions which
are particularly important to a multicultural and multilingual
nation like the Philippines.
• What kinds of knowledge constitute cultural literacy? Is it
knowing facts, names, and dates, or is it something more
experiential like being familiar with a story or a particular
song?
• If culture is more "caught than taught," should cultural
literacy be one of the goals of education? If yes, how does
one teach it?
CHALLENGES FOR CULTURAL LITERACY IN THE PHILIPPINES
• Whose cultures must we be literate in to be considered
"culturally literate"? Who decides which cultures are included
and which ones are excluded, and on what bases?
• Is cultural literacy education simply a means for the dominant
culture to express its dominance over minority cultures?
• How is cultural literacy to be assessed and evaluated? How
can we know someone is "culturally literate"?

As of the writing of this book, no definitive answers to these

questions exist in the literature.
REFERENCE

Alata, P., & Ignacio E. J. (2019) Building And Enhancing New Literacies Across
The Curriculum. Rex Book Store, Inc. (RSBI)