How do cultural values influence motivation?

[Gisela]

What is education? How do we learn? Often times psychology books will address this through a study of gender differences or economic differences. Rarely is the factor of culture included. Yet it is so vital because it builds up the values that essentially are the fuel for our drive, our motivation.

I知 an American high school student trying to answer the following questions: How do different countries・cultural values shape the individual痴 attitude towards academics? How does a positive or negative perspective on academics affect the individual痴 success rate?

I had the initial idea of comparing the western and eastern mindset. My range reached to basically all continents, but my teacher convinced me to narrow down my choices of countries to the ones I actually have personal experience with.

My flesh grew from Filipino soil taking root and my parent痴 hearts remains there. However my mind and very idea of self was shaped in America. In Japan I grew my branches at age 16 and learned more about myself in one year than I could ever at home.

Philippines, America, and Japan are all personal places for me, places I know on a level below the surface.

Yet all three countries are remarkably different from one another. America and Japan are the polar opposites whose western and eastern ideologies clash. Yet Philippines is no more like Japan than America. It holds cultural values and ideologies much like Americans, but retains just as many values associated with Asian countries.

In Asian countries, success in academics is a reflection of the individual. In my home country-Philippines, being smart was more important than any other activities and came hand in hand with popularity or at least more so than in America. Yet despite the greater priority of academic success in the Asian countries, there is a lack of the desire to learn. I saw this in a lot of my classmates in Japan. Everything was for the college entrance exams. That concept of learning for the sake of learning is more predominant in Western countries.

I知 really intrigued by the different education system we致e all experienced, and the different perceptions we have of what school and learning is. Having been influenced by both Asian and American ideologies, I want to know which cultural values discourage academic success and which nurtures it.

Not to say that one culture is better than another, but just which aspects of that culture is positive for motivation in learning and which is negative.

What is educational success anyway? Is it being an A+ student or an intellectual?

My asian side shouts at me to be practical and prioritize grades, but my western side nudges at me to keep believing in the concept of intellectual pursuits, that education is nothing if all it is is a slip of paper or a mark on a sheet.

 

[Kinsao]

This is very interesting. Unfortunately, I can't speak of either of the three countries you talk about, as I have never lived in any of them. My views might be of no use to you, in that case. ><

I live in England, and my job is mainly about learning - specifically, about encouraging lifelong learning, not just the school learning that finishes at age 16. So motivations for learning, as well as political policy issues connected with education, are something that I've had to think about to some extent.

In England, the kudos attached to grades and qualifications on bits of paper depends to a certain extent on your social class background. If your family are all high academic achievers, and made lots of money out of this, i.e. being a professional person like a lawyer or a doctor, more importance tends to attach to grades. Of course, not all parents are pushy, and not all middle-class kids want to follow in their parents' footsteps, either; but it does tend to be more common. For example when I went to uni, I found that the majority of students there were middle-class (at least, compared with my background!) and considered further/higher education the normal, expected way to go. I'm sure most of them were "rebels" in their way (art college, what do you expect!), so their ingrained conservative attitude to education surprised me!

On the other hand, where people come from what I suppose is called a "working-class" (><) background, they are less commonly driven to get qualifications just for the sake of the bit of paper, and grades are less important. For instance, when I was at secondary school (11-16 years), it was considered really nerdy (not in the good way) to be concerned about getting good grades. To get bad grades was a kind of kudos. I was quite lucky, because I could manage to get decent grades without looking like I was working in class, but if I flunked a test or something, my rep went distinctly up for a while!

Of course, this isn't generic and it happens also that people from a working-class background decide that they want to "better themselves", achieve better grades than their parents, get a better job, etc. It depends on their individual personality, and to some extent on peer pressure.

From that you can deduce that there is much of a stereotype in England that poorer, working-class people are worse-educated and less intelligent than middle- and upper-class people. Does that stereotype exist in all countries? I would imagine that it does, in some amount; but, in countries where education is expensive, perhaps poorer people prize education more? Whereas here, it tends to get scorned.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that "cultural values" can be just as much those of a sub-culture (for example social class) as of a country overall.

People who go back to some kind of learning (whether that's formal or informal) later on, after they've left the system, well, they have different motivations, but the difference is, they are doing it because they choose to, so they tend to be more motivated. It might be watercolour painting for fun when they've retired, Spanish for a holiday, or an accountancy course because they want to change careers... it's their decision.

However, part of my work relates to "coaxing" people back into learning, too. This is a main issue when people don't have good reading or writing skills (this is a problem for about 20% of adults in the UK! ), but of course they might be horrified at the idea of "going back to class", maybe they really hated school, or they feel shy and under-confident. So classes for adults are something quite different from "school". Often, adults will start to learn again because they take up something that interests them, like art or computers, and then they build their reading/writing skills around that - and because they are interested in the subject, the rest follows on. More education often builds up their confidence greatly, too, as they find they get on well with their classmates and are not made to feel "stupid".

Personally, I guess I have a very western viewpoint! I strongly think that applied practical skills are more important than grades on the piece of paper. But of course, to get jobs and stuff you need to be tested in some way to prove that you can do things... ^^

I believe that "learning" doesn't stop when you leave school, and it doesn't have to be something you do in your evening class either. We are always learning, it is more about your state of mind than the number of classes you take. I think the value of education is in teaching kids to reason and use their brains so that they can apply these skills when they grow up.

Qualifications are good but there needs to be provision for those young people who don't quite fit the mould.

Also, the education system in England was quite focused on the academic side, when I was in it. When I finished at school 10 years ago, "vocational" or practical career options were never really presented to us. Now, I think this has changed quite a bit, but I don't have much experience of the current school ed system. >< I'm a more practical than academic person and I think I would have benefitted from being pointed towards a practical career; however, this was totally not on the cards. <_< Because it was considered much lower down the scale to work for example as an electrician or something, even though you do have to have qualifications in the end to do that job.

I will shut up now.

 

[Mars Man]

Just a few thoughts, if I may.

I tend to see education as being equal with learning, in one sense, as a mental process of development which can be measured in some way, and at the same time, on the other hand, a system--the school system--which symbolizes, propogates, and supports learning, yet which maintains a stance that can at times stifle learning.

The condition of any particular culture--and as pointed out this term is often misleading since it is actually so broad a term--may or may not encourage learning in some areas or fields of study, yet the intrinsic ability to learn is definitely personal.

The economic state of an indvidual, a family, a district, provence, country will set, in most cases, the feasible limits on how far a person can pursue an education at some particular point in life--and thus I cheer Kinsao san on, because continuing education is such an important matter, IMO. Even if that learning is solely an individual's effort, and not through an institution of the establishment, this will largely be true.

Therefore my view would be that 'culture', in and of itself, more often that not has less influence over whether one learns or not, and some degree of influence over what one learns, whereas economic circumstances usually delimits the width and breath of accumulated knowledge. The individual's innate abilities will be the major factor in what and how much any human can learn. Maybe for these reasons, gender and economic conditions are most often used in studies about learning and education.

 

[Gisela]

hmmm

You are right about culture being misleading. It is such a broad term that I find the research to be almost impossible. But I can't help but want to continue researching on this topic though I know I will have to narrow it down.

As for the economic issue, my sister who is in college is doing a research paper on education and economics. She said there is a certain line that impoverished nations can not really break through. But that seemed like such a small percentage, just those couple of marks below a 100% literacy level.

I still think though that the values of culture on education influences the motives of young people a great deal.

Maybe I feel it more here in America where there is a melting pot of people of all backgrounds.

There is a definite difference between races in their academic progress. I can not believe that the difference is biological and we are all in the same school enviroment, so I can only think that it lies in something deeper, within the value systems of each individual. Every single person's different value systems can not be examined, but different cultures certainly send different messages.

For one, what about the question of coolness?

In an American school there is the reputation of each student. We do not have that clear cut popularity thing like they have in tv. However being smart still is not seen as being cool.

I mean how is it that when I was young to now I never cared if some one called me a geek or a dork? Yet is it different for a person raised under different family? My jewish friend says she is also raised in such a way that if she is called a geek, she feels a sense of pride. Is that cultural?

And why is it (in America) that Asians (though not always Pacific Islanders) tend to be academically successful? (or atleast known for it)

Minorities all around the world are in this one country gifted with the same opportunities and suffering under similiar disadvantages. However we all react differently. Is that due to cultural values?

I hear a part of it is due to the split between the voluntary immigrants and the involuntary immigrants. African Americans are a part of the involuntary and asians, hispanics, ect...are of the voluntary. Does that influence it as well?

In BET, I watched a debate between the civil rights generation and the current black generation. There was a dispute about how the current black generation was progressing. Many from the older black generation didn't like the rap music and the new culture of the black youths. These teenagers were saying how their ambition was to become rap artists. For African Americans, there is a spotlight on rap artists and basketball. My statistics teacher taught in Philadelphia before and once again there was the dream to be a basketball player. Why are there few asians who want to go in that field? Why is there a greater chance that an asian would try to excell in academics than in sports or in the entertainment business? Then the answer seems simple. An asian person would have less chances in those areas. The American entertainment business doesn't have a distinct asian identity. But is it also because Asian culture encourages the clean cut practical world of school then a normal job rather than the other jobs of sports and media.

Then what about family structure? I read that some hispanic families are less assimilated because of the strong emphasis they put on maintaining their culture and keeping their family connections.

I guess the concept of culture is too broad. I think though my real intention behind the research was to know more about myself, my culture. I wanted to better comprehend how asians assimilated, how filipinos adapted. I am perhaps 'Americanized' and there is a desire to know why I am so well assimilated. Why did I choose, from the age of 10, that education would be my road to identity, would be my way of testing my worth as an individual? A part of me knows that my culture is a part of it. I always felt a distinct difference between my upbringing and my white friends upbringing. I felt that the values placed upon me and the expectation my parents had for me were stricter. It seemed this way for almost all my asian friends and less so for my other friends.

I dont know. Education and culture have played such a role in my life. I hope to understand how they mingle even if culture is such a complex web.