CHAPTER 2

Globalization and Cultural

and Multicultural Literacies

Presenters:
Cathyrine Lumanas
Maricar Ramos
Marichris Doctor
 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
• cultural and multicultural literacy in the Philippines: and
• one's personal level of cultural and multicultural literacy.
• 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)

• For example, consider two people from the Philippines and South
Korea, who meet in college and become good friends. The Korean
returns to her home country, but she notices an aspect of her culture
that she wishes to be more Filipino. She knows she cannot change
everything, but she does a few things differently from those who have
never been to the Philippines.
• As time passes, the Korean is happy with the changes she has made to
her life, making it a little more Filipino. Her colleagues notice her
changes and become curious, so she shares her experiences in the
Philippines and how she wishes to do things the way Filipinos do.
They also find it enjoyable.

• The Filipino, while still being Filipino, has made a few changes in her
life due to her experience of Korean culture through her friend during
their college years. Some of her friends have also noticed and made
similar changes in their own lives.
• Globalization's effects go beyond import or export and Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI). In the example given, the friends of the two people
were affected by their interaction, even if they had never been to
Korea or 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.
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.

• 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.
• 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 favorable to
foreign capital that in turn limit domestic labor's ability to obtain better
wages. In simple words, "the rich become richer, and the poor become
poorer."
• "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.
• 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 favor 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 an both the political and military power of the US in order to
maintain its sovereignty as a nation-state in the Southeast Asia region.

• 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 artifacts and
their import/export among participating cultures; the increased
consumption of which changes the consuming 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.
Expanded Flow of People among Societies

• 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).

• 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
favorable country.

• Travel for the sake of leisure (ie.. tourism) is a strong indicator of

economic development as more and more Filipinas are able to finance
short-term travels abroad, fueled 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.
• 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.
• 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.
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),
Thewhich "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 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’?“

• 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.
• De Leon (2011) coins this propensity for Filipinos to look at
their culture and themselves through Western lenses as the Doña
Victarina 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).

• 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."
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?
• 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"?
 MULTICULTURAL LITERACY

• Multicultural Literacy as a set of skills and knowledge is difficult to

define because of how it changes depending on the contexts in which
it is discussed. For example, multicultural literacy as defined in
American literature is different from how it is deployed in a more
European context.

• In America, multicultural literacy has very strong leanings toward

knowing or identifying the poly-ethnic origins of knowledge with the
express goal of fostering equality, diversity, and social justice.
• Meanwhile, in Europe, multicultural literacy comes more in the form of
intercultural communication competence (ICC), which is defined by Dusi,
Messetti, and Steinbach (2014) as a composite of skills, abilities, attitudes,
personality patterns, etc. necessary for clear and productive
communication with cultures other than our own.

• We define multicultural literacy here as the knowledge and skills

necessary to ensure that any communication with a culture different from
our own is clear, productive, and respectful such as their differences are
celebrated and neither culture is demanded or treated as inferior.
 The skills and knowledge required to be multi-culturally
literate

1. Be selfless – An attitude of selflessness—one that is less concerned with

how I feel and more concerned with how I am making others feel—is
crucial to multicultural literacy, as so much of the offense and conflict
associated with the meeting of different cultures is the result of a “me
first” attitude: I should be accommodated, you should be the one to adjust
to me, I should feel comfortable with you before I make efforts to make
you feel comfortable, etc. Such selflessness is not instinctive to people,
and is especially difficult when one feels insecure of oneself and identity.
2. Know that good and useful things can (and do) come from those
different from us – Hand-in-hand with a dismissive attitude toward another
culture is the idea that nothing good can come from them. Furthermore, there
is a tendency to ignore or outright dismiss evidence to the contrary. Simply
acknowledging that good ideas and products have come from cultures we
might not like goes a long way in preparing our minds to perceive them as
being equally valuable.
3. Be willing to compromise – Any significant interaction with someone
from different culture is governed by the principle of “He/She wants
something and I want something.” In other words, cultures do not interact out
of pure magnanimity. If both of you are willing to give the other what they
want, well and good. But what happens when one or both are unwilling to
give what the other wants? There must be a compromise: a reciprocal
adjustment of demands and expectations to accommodate what the other
party is willing to give.
4. Accept that there are limits - At some point however, one or both
cultures will be unwilling/unable to adjust their wants for the sake of the
other any further. Beyond this point, the productivity of the interaction drops
and one must either change the purpose of the Interaction or walk away,
accepting that what you want cannot be had from that particular source.
Attempting to force the other party to adjust (when you refuse to do the
same) only results in misunderstanding, hurt and conflict. The sooner we
accept this, the sooner we can set realistic expectations of one another.
 Issues in Teaching and Learning Multicultural Literacy in the
Philippines
1. Conflicting Requirements for Peace

• When all is said and done, the heart of multicultural literacy is peace
among different cultures-that is, productive and non-violent interaction.
It is easy to assume that all cultures value peace to the same degree and
are therefore willing to make the same compromises in order to attain it,
but this is not necessarily true.

• Take for example the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, which is really a

conflict over territory: Both sides desire peace, but they do not desire it
enough to be willing to compromise. In a very real sense, both sides
would rather live in perpetual conflict with one another rather than give-
up their claim to the land which each side believes is rightfully theirs.
2. Nationalistic and Regionalistic Pushback

• The increasing demand for multicultural sensitivity, inclusion,

and diversity in the recent years has also given rise to resistance
from groups who believe that their identity is being “watered-
down” by the needed compromises.
• Case in point is the very recent proposal of "Ortograpiya ti Pagsasao nga
Ilokano" by officials of the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (KWF) in
October of 2018. The proposal was met with intense backlash from
group of Ilokano writers and language advocates over the "incompetence
in preparing the Ilokano orthography that didn't conform with the
existing orthography being used by the Ilokano writers and experts,"
claiming that the proposed orthography was based on Tagalog and not
Ilokano and that the commission's attempts to compel the regional
language to conform to the standards of the Ortograpiyang Pambansa
(National Orthography) would "destroy the identity of the Ilokano
language" (Dumlao, 2018).
• In the ensuing online firestorm, one particular individual commented on
how such regional pride is out of step with modernity, particularly with
our need to be united as a country. Now this sentiment is consistent with
the multicultural literacy of being able to put aside differences for the
sake of a common goal, but notice how for the Ilokanos, national unity
(as far as language is concerned) is not worth the cost of giving-up their
ability to determine the orthography of their language for themselves.

• Such issues become even more complex and clouded when they come to
a head with economics, social justice, and religion.
• While multicultural inclusiveness is by and large a good thing,
it comes at a cost. Part of the identity of the host culture
becomes diluted and lost—the inevitable result of the
compromises necessary for it to have some form of
multicultural understanding.
3. The Persistence of the Problem

• On the surface, multicultural literacy might seem to just be a matter of

"good common sense," and understandably so, no one actively desires to
experience discrimination regarding what they know and what they can
and cannot do simply on the basis of race, ethnicity, or in the case of the
Philippines, region of origin. It therefore makes perfect sense to
collectively refrain from such behavior under the assumption that "If you
don't do it to me, I won't do it to you." And yet, to our horror and shame,
the practice persists. Worse, we sometimes find ourselves participating in
and justifying such discriminatory behavior if only online and not in real
life (as if anything written or posted online is not, in fact, in real life).
• Therefore, the primary issue that educators face in teaching multicultural
literacy to their students and learning it for themselves is, "Why does this
problem persist? Or to put it in another way. "Despite all out advances in
science, technology, and culture, why is this still a problem today?“

• Boutte (2008) suggests that issues of discrimination in all its forms

(racial, religious, tribal, cultural, etc.) are really issues of hatred, which
she defines in an educational setting as "the lack of compassion and lack
of respect for the rights of others," and that such hatred must be fought
and its roots must be attacked, because for as long as hatred exists in the
human mind, real peace will be impossible (Vreeland. 2001).
• If this is true, then it leads to some interesting questions: For
one, what is the root of this hatred? Boutte (2008) suggests that,
at least in an educational context, such hate is often
unintentional, but is usually the result of a lack of education.
Now if a lack of education is to blame, then a lack of education
in what, exactly? Is it awareness of the existence of those
different from us? Is it awareness that those different from us
are worthy of respect?
4. The Question of Value

• Another issue in teaching and learning multicultural literacy is better

posited as a question: "Why should I treat people of another culture with
respect?“

• It might seem that the answer to the question is a simple one: for peace.
But as we have seen earlier, not everyone values peace to the same
degree. What if, for a certain culture, it is easier to just destroy anyone
who opposes them rather than expend the effort needed to come to a
mutual understanding?
• Such statements might sound crass, but only if we believe that we, as a
society, are above such things. How many times have we broken "small"
laws and rules of etiquette-running red traffic lights "because no one is
there to catch me," or asking a vendor at a flea market or tiangge to list a
different price on the receipt than what an item is worth-because it is
more convenient than to do otherwise? How many times have we been
selfish in our decision-making, not thinking about, not caring about its
implications for others? And how many times have we justified such
behavior "because of the circumstances" or "because everyone else is
doing it"?
• Dawkins' (2016) concept of a "selfish gene" suggests that genetic
similarities lead to selfless behavior towards one another and
selfishness towards others. This perspective views discrimination
and injustice as genetic and survival-related, implying that
maintaining the status quo is in one's best interests. However,
educators like Freire argue against this perspective, acknowledging
that when oppressed individuals are freed, they become new
oppressors.
Enhance

• A majority of research on multicultural literacy stems from the West,

specifically the United States, and focuses on teaching teachers to be
more multicultural in their pedagogies.

1. Learn about other cultures. Banks (1991a) posits that the first
step to teaching multiculturalism is knowing about cultures that
are not your own. It follows that if you, the teacher, know only
your own culture, then you will be unable to teach your students
to appreciate a culture that is different from your own.
Enhance

2. Familiarize yourself with how discrimination and prejudice appear

in your own culture. Boutte (2008) and Banks (1991b) agree that teachers
must be able to identify and confront patterns of discrimination and
prejudice in their own lives before they can teach their students to do the
same.

3. As you are, so will you behave. Key to genuine multicultural literacy is

core values-that is, what you, the teacher, really believe about people who
are different from you; not the kind of belief that you can just say you
possess when talking to your class, but the kind that determines your
behavior when you think no one is watching.
Enhance

4. Model more, tell more. Young students, by nature, will have difficulty in
exercising empathy toward those who are different from them. The ability is
there, but it will naturally lack practice. It is therefore not enough that
teachers tell them to be more compassionate-you, the teacher, must model
for them what empathy and compassion for others look like on a day-to-day
basis.
Thank you for Listening!