Cultural Orientation Analysis

The article seeks to focus on culturally based orientations of teachers and families. This is done by time orientation and communications orientation which both fall on a spectrum. The article explains how discussing culture-based understandings and behaviors are related to time and communication that may present challenges for teachers that are trying to keep their families involved in their children’s education. There are factors that plays a role that must be considered in one’s beliefs, values, and behavior. These factors are occupation, education, income, personality, and personal experiences. There are three caveats that must be acknowledge concerning cultures ( ):

• One cultural orientation is not inherently better than another; orientations are appropriate and adaptive to individuals’ cultures.

• Culture-based behaviors can be placed on a spectrum, individuals do not necessarily fall on one extreme end of the spectrum or another.

• Individuals may or may not behave in ways considered typical of their cultural background.

There are two aspects to consider: understanding time orientations and understanding communication orientations. When understanding time orientations, the culture reflects a preference

They tend to focus on building and solidifying relationships as the speakers learn from each other, sharing information and ideas and looking for commonalities rather than simply exchanging information ( ). The article states that strict time orientation individuals tend to follow a precise meeting agenda and speak more during parent-teacher meeting that those with a looser time orientation. An example that was used changed gears and talked with the parent about literacy goals. The teacher then continued on with her agenda and described social goals for the child. This caused the parent to feel that her opinions were valued about goals for her