1. Watch this short film and identify at least three agents of the socialization process you witness or hear about in the film(s). Describe the impact these elements have on the children and young adults. Please explain your thinking with support from the film.
This film has become a bit of a classic. Interesting note, it was created by a high school student for a senior project. If the link should stop working, you can find this video on YouTube. It is called, A Girl Like Me
2. Identify Your Cultural Frame of Reference
Let’s work on understanding our own cultural background and the agents that socialized us by answering the following questions:
Surface Cultural Elements
How did you family identify ethnically or racially?
Where did you live: urban suburban or rural community?
What is the story of your family in America? Has your family been here for generations, a few decades, or just a few months?
How would you describe your family’s economic status: middle- class, upper- class, working- class or low- income? What did that mean in terms of quality of life?
Who in your family attended college? Degrees received?
What are some of your family traditions-holidays, foods, or rituals?
Who were the heroes celebrated in your family/community? Why? Who were the antiheroes? Who were the “bad guys”?
Shallow Cultural Elements
What metaphor, analogies, stories or “witty” sayings do you remember hearing from parents, grandparents, aunts uncles? What messages do they communicate about core values?
How were you trained to respond to different emotional displays: crying, anger, happiness?
What physical, social or cultural attributes were praised in your community? Which ones were you taught to avoid?
How were you expected to interact with authority figures? Was authority of teachers and elders assumed or did it have to be earned?
Who or what shames you in your family?
Were you allowed to question, or talk back to adults? Was it okay to call adults by their first name?
What is your family/community’s relationship with time?
Deep Cultural Values related to school, self-motivation and effort
List learning behaviors every student should exhibit (talk and discourse, volume of interaction, time on task, collaboration or individual, seat time or interactive etc.)
What did your culture teach you about intelligence? Did you grow up believing it was set at birth? Did you believe it was genetic? Did you believe some groups were smarter than others?
