Cultural Identities

Although the term culture has many definitions, it is generally understood to include the beliefs, traditions, rituals, knowledge, morals, customs, and value systems—among other essentials of social life—of groups and of the individuals who form those groups. In its most general sense, then, the term cultural identities refers to the way that individuals or groups define themselves along the spectrum of these elements. The term has taken on increasing importance in the field of curriculum studies for a number of reasons. For one, the demographic shifts in population throughout the globe have resulted in vastly different societies in terms of race, ethnicity, and culture than was true even just a few decades ago. Most Western nations are now highly diverse, and even the most homogeneous ...