What is the nature of the liaison held between TEACHING and CULTURE? For most Pedagogues and practitioners, when you are teaching a language, you are, willy-nilly, teaching a culture. But this is not my utmost concern behind writing this essay. In fact, the question that often exhausts me is the following: which one has the impact on the other: TEACHING or CULTURE? In other words, is it teaching which determines and/or shapes culture or the other way around?
In an attempt to answer this exhausting question, I will start by defining separately teaching and culture before putting them together. In fact, both terms (teaching and culture) are elusive and contested. Both terms' definitions defied consensus amongst both pedagogues and sociologists in terms of their specific meaning and broad content.
One highly acclaimed definition of culture was given in 1889 by the famous British anthropologist Edward B. Taylor. Though offering a broad definition, yet still his definition is considered to be the guiding framework of any cultural study or research. Culture, for Taylor, is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” Personally speaking, this is my favourite definition, even if there is approximately around 150 definitions, according to one study.
