Definitions of culture and diversity from multiple sources:

• From my fiancé- a Caucasian, middle class male in his 30’s.  Grew up with very little diversity, but is a very open-minded, accepting person and now lives in an extremely diverse area: 

Culture – The environment that a person grows up in and currently lives in that shapes ones thoughts, beliefs, patterns and actions.  A person’s culture for the most part defines who that person is and what they will become.

 Diversity – Words that come to mind when defining Diversity include variety or difference.  Diversity can come in many different forms.  It could mean one person’s taste in music, food, etc.  It can also mean a group’s racial or cultural makeup. 

·     From my mother- a Caucasian, middle class female in her 50’s.  Went to a Catholic school and grew up with very little diversity.  Worked in a predominantly African American school district for several years and converted to the Jewish religion at marriage:

Culture:  social attributes of a group of people that kind of binds them together....things like values, beliefs, customs.

Diversity:  those individual and differing attributes which make people unique within their culture.

·         From a coworker and friend- an African American, middle class, lesbian in her 30’s who, like myself, has participated in depth trainings on cultural diversity and teaching in a cultural responsive manner:

Culture - Culture is the behaviors and belief systems that a particular group of people espouse to based on the sum total of their experiences, it may or may not be tied to ethnicity or race.

Diversity - For my own definition of diversity, I think of is as the differences we all have that make us unique.  There are many different kinds of diversity from the types we are born with and the types of diversity we develop through our lives. It can be racial, cultural, based on lifestyle, or many other different kinds of things that make our lives what they are.

·         My Reflections:

I was most impressed to see that no one that I discussed this with had the opinion that culture is related solely to race or ethnicity, and all included that culture is related to a person’s beliefs.  They also all related diversity to ‘differences.’  Again, these differences did not necessarily just relate to race and diversity.  They all seemed to have a true understanding of culture and diversity.  And although they are all very different in their own cultures, their definitions and understanding of these terms were very similar.  I suppose that people often surround themselves and have close relationships with others who have similar beliefs as themselves, so these similarities to each other’s definitions as well as my own does not surprise me.  Like we have discussed in our class, culture and diversity is much more than race.  It is everything that makes a person who they are.