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Cultural Literacy Handouts

The document discusses cultural literacy in the Philippines in 3 paragraphs. It defines cultural literacy and discusses how it presents challenges in a multi-cultural nation like the Philippines. It notes that the National Commission for Culture and the Arts aims to promote cultural literacy through education programs. However, assessing cultural literacy and deciding which cultures to include are challenging questions without definitive answers. Developing a truly Filipino expression of culture through education may help address issues like low self-esteem stemming from colonial mindsets.

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Gaivereal Tagabe
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106 views3 pages

Cultural Literacy Handouts

The document discusses cultural literacy in the Philippines in 3 paragraphs. It defines cultural literacy and discusses how it presents challenges in a multi-cultural nation like the Philippines. It notes that the National Commission for Culture and the Arts aims to promote cultural literacy through education programs. However, assessing cultural literacy and deciding which cultures to include are challenging questions without definitive answers. Developing a truly Filipino expression of culture through education may help address issues like low self-esteem stemming from colonial mindsets.

Uploaded by

Gaivereal Tagabe
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CHAPTER 2

Globalization and Cultural and Multi-


Cultural Literacy
OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the lesson, the learners should be able to


develop a clear understanding of the following:

• cultural literacy in the Philippines


• cultural education in the Philippines
• one’s personal level of cultural literacy

CULTURAL LITERACY
and the like-most of which are assumed and unstated. Thus, they are
Cultural Literacy is a term coined by Hirsch (1983), referring to the
learned by being part of the culture, rather than by any formal means.
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 Cultural literacy is culture-specific, but it is not limited to national

being a passive (and outside observer. The signs and symbols of a cultures, contrary to what many people assume. The culture of one

culture include both its formal and informa languages, its idioms and workplace can be very different from another, just as the culture of a

forms of expression, entertainment, values, customs, roles, traditions, particular school can differ widely from another school nearby.

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There are far too many cultures for any one person to be literate in all of borly, together with the Department of Education (DepEd), tasked to
them. As more and more Filipinos travel-both domestically and abroad- formulate the cultural heritage education programs both for local and
as the result of globalization and the increased opportunities it brings, overseas Filipinos" that are to be an integral part of Philippine education
the need to. develop new cultural literacies comes to the fore. in all its aspects.

Cultural education-and thus cultural literacy in the Philippines is quite


a challenge, given that Philippine cutture 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
CULTURAL LITERACY IN THE PHILIPPINES among Filipino artists that inhibits the full development and realization
of Filipino artistic creativity-a kind of artistic and cultural creativity that
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) is the
is fully Filipino.
government body tasked with the documentation, preservation, and
dissemination of Philippine culture, both locally and abroad. Part of De Leon (2011) coins this propensity for Filipinos to look at their culture
how the NCCA is addressing this and related matters is through the and themselves through Western lenses as the Doña Victorina
establishment of the Philippine Cultural Education Program (PCEP), Syndrome, a kind of inferiority complex wherein anything and
which "envisions a nation of culturally literate and empowered everything natively Filipino is considered by the Filipinos themselves as
Filipinos" (NCCA, 2015). Designed to make cultural education being interior, backward, and worthless in comparison to their Western
accessible to all sectors of Philippine society, the PCEP held national counterparts, and therefore a source of embarrassment and unease. As
consultative meetings, conferences, workshops, art camps, and festivals De Leon puts it, our low self-esteem borders on self-contempt, the
on culture-based teaching and good governance from 2003 to 2007. As a results of which are doubt in the Filipino capacity for achievement,
result of Republic At 10066 (2010), PCEP has been designated as the perverse delight in belittling ourselves, lack of respect and even outright

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contempt for one another, and blind dependence on foreign goods, • Is cultural literacy education simply a means for the dominant
concepts, techniques, approaches, and expertise (2011). The biggest culture to express its dominance over minority cultures? How is
challenge then, according to him, is the deconstruction of the negative cultural literacy to be assessed and evaluated? How can we
self- images and notions of ourselves that we have imbibed over • How is cultural literacy to be assessed and evaluated? How can
generations through "a workable, effective program of education that we know someone is "culturally literate"?
can make Filipinos more responsive and sensitive to Filipino dignity,
As of the writing from the book, no definitive answers to these
needs, values, and cultural potentials and assets," For De Leon, it is
questions exist in the literature.
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 REFERENCES:
important to a multicultural and multilingual nation like the
Alata, E. & Ignacio E. (2019) Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across
Philippines.
the Curriculum (1st edition) pp 18-20.
• 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?
literate" Who decides which cultures are included and which
ones are excluded, and on what bases?

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