Culture Is Learned
Closely related to the fact that culture is created and socially con- structed is the fact that it is learned. That is, culture is not handed down through our genes, nor is it inherited. This is very clear to see, for example, when children from a particular ethnic group (for instance, Korean) are adopted by families from another ethnic group (usually European American). Although the children may still be considered ethnically and racially Korean, they will in all likelihood be culturally European American, unless their parents made a conscious and deter- mined effort to teach them the culture and history of their heritage while raising them, or the children themselves later decide to educate themselves.
Culture, especially ethnic and religious culture, is learned through interactions with families and communities. It usually is not consciously taught, or consciously learned. That is why it seems so natural and effortless. Although this process does not hold true of all cultures—for example, deaf or gay culture—we predictably learn culture while sitting on our mothers’ or grandmothers’ laps, standing by our fathers, listen- ing to the conversations of family members around us, and modeling our behavior on theirs. In fact, most people do not even think about their culture unless it is in a subordinate position to another culture or—if they belong to a majority culture—until they leave the confines of home and are no longer part of the cultural norm.
That culture is learned is also apparent in the very concept of biculturalism. Bilingual education, for instance, very often is called bilingual/bicultural education because it is based on the principle that one can learn two languages and two cultural systems in order to function and even to succeed in different linguistic and cultural contexts. This point was made in research by Gloria Ladson-Billings.26 Of the eight teachers she identified as successful with African-American youths, three were White, and of them, one had a White culture of reference, another a bicultural culture of reference, and the third an African- American culture of reference. However, becoming bicultural is not as simple as discarding one set of clothes for another. Because culture is complex, “learning” a culture that is not one’s native culture is an exceedingly difficult task, one accomplished only through direct, sus- tained, and profound involvement with it. Because most teachers in the United States have not been through this process, it can be difficult for them to understand how excruciating the process is for their students. Furthermore, it is difficult to become bicultural in an untroubled sense
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because it means internalizing two cultural systems whose inherent values may be diametrically opposed.
In the United States, it is generally only students from dominated cultures who need to become bicultural as a requirement for academic and societal success. That they do so is a testament to great strength and resiliency. The fact that these newcomers, in spite of being young, feeling isolated, and facing what can be terrifying situations in unfamil- iar environments, nonetheless can incorporate the cultural motifs of disparate values and behaviors says a great deal about human tenacity. What they accomplish might best be thought of as critical biculturalism, a biculturalism that is neither facile nor uncomplicated, but full of inconsistencies and challenges.