Cultural Research Paper
During the course, you will be performing library research to develop a paper about the Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT) culture.
You will submit a 6-page report analyzing the group according to class principles. You will research this culture by using at least four sources. The paper should be comprehensive in nature, covering the elements described below, while highlighting the most interesting aspects of what you learned. The paper should incorporate course principles wherever appropriate.
The paper should address many of the categories below but is not limited to those listed. The paper will be graded on the quality of description and the quality of writing.
Describe
• What do you know about the culture?
• What do you expect to witness and learn?
• Describe your feelings and possible apprehension
• What roles, attitudes, and personality traits are associated with particular aspects of verbal and nonverbal behavior?
• Was the culture represented a high or low context culture?
• How did this culture use proxemics?
• Were there many non-verbal interactions that you did not understand?
• Would you define this culture as mono-chronic or poly-chronic?
• How did gender roles, familial roles, and generational roles affect communication?
Describe what you learned about the culture through your library research including pertinent elements such as any of the following
• Family
• Who is considered to belong in the family?
• What are the rights, roles, and responsibilities of the members?
• Food
• What is eaten, in what order and how often?
• What are the rules for table manners, including offering foods, handling foods, and discarding
foods?
• History/Traditions
• How are history and traditions passed on through the generations (e.g. oral tradition)?
• Social expectations
• Do parents expect and desire assimilation of children into the dominant culture, language, or
dialect?
• What cultural values are expected to be maintained despite the degree of formal education?
• Life cycle
• What are the important stages, periods, and transitions in life?
• What behaviors are inappropriate or unacceptable for children at various ages?
• Interpersonal relationships
• How do people greet each other?
• Who may disagree with whom?
• How are insults expressed?
• Decorum and discipline
• How do people behave at home and in public?
• What are some of the forms of discipline used? How are they different than your culture/country?
• Health
• How are illness and death explained?
• How are specific illnesses treated?
• Dress/Personal appearance
• What significance does dress have for social identity?
• What is the concept and value of beauty?
• Education
• What are the purposes of education?
• What are parental expectations for boys versus girls?
• What teaching and learning methods are used in the home?
• Work/Play
• What behaviors are considered work and play?
• What kinds of work are considered prestigious?
Describe your perspectives which illuminate your interaction with this culture
• Do you struggle with issues involving language?
• What stereotypes or perceptions did you have about this group before and after your research? Were any of your preconceptions challenged by your research? Did you find yourself judging the values of the culture as you read about it?
• What cultural barriers to effective communication did you find?
• What are your own cultural lenses through which you view this culture/scene?
• How does your Caucasian cultural perspective affect your view of this other culture?
• What was the most valuable thing you learned about the culture?
• If you were to ask someone of the culture what his/her impressions of YOUR culture would be,
what do you think they would say?
• Were you surprised by anything you learned?
