Teacher identity, culture and values play a significant role in the classroom. In this assignment, we were to dive deeper (literally) into our own cultural iceberg. This Cultural Iceberg analogy coined by Gary Weaver (1986) shows us how there are many layers in culture.
We, humans, are like icebergs in that a part of our culture is above water, but the majority of it is underwater and “unseen” by others. Sometimes, we refer to the culture that is underwater as the “deep” culture because it may not be something that is seen, heard, or experienced.
Before we can become culturally competent teachers, we must work to understand our own cultural awareness. Through introspection, we can look within for a more comprehensive understanding of who we are and what makes us who we are.
Watch
Select the link to watch this Cultural Icebergs video as it provides some clarity and focus into Cultural Icebergs and why they are important.
Select each of these links to view examples of the categories that can make up one’s cultural iceberg:
· Beyond the Tip of the Iceberg
Differentiation
Both intern teachers and student teachers can create their Cultural Iceberg based on their own lived experiences. To support us through this assignment, we were to be sure to view both of the posted examples and watch the video that helps us to understand the purpose and focus of a Cultural Iceberg.
Considerations
As we designed our Cultural Iceberg, we could share as much as we felt comfortable sharing. Identity is multi-faceted, complex, and can be personal, so we were only compelled to share what we felt was appropriate. In the future, we were to think about what an assignment like this could look like in our own class.
For Assignment 2A, we will create a visual model of our own Cultural Iceberg. We will detail our surface culture elements and then our deep culture elements. We can add each element as sentences or short phrases but are free to include relevant imagery as well.
· We can create your Cultural Iceberg with any media or multimedia tool of our choice. Some multimedia tools include (but are not limited to): Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Google Drawings, Adobe Spark, Piktochart, Canva, etc.
· If you have a tablet, Adobe Photoshop Sketch and Procreate are great tools.
Finally, if our strength is in watercolor, painting, sketching, etc., we can utilize one of those artistic mediums as well.
Assignment Grade: 24/24
