Learning Considered within a Cultural Context

A Confucian–Socratic framework is used to analyze cul-ture’s influence on academic learning. Socrates, a Western exemplar, valued private and public questioning of widely accepted knowledge and expected students to evaluate oth-ers ’ beliefs and to generate and express their own hypoth-eses. Confucius, an Eastern exemplar, valued effortful, respectful, and pragmatic acquisition of essential knowl-edge as well as behavioral reform. Expressions of these approaches in modern postsecondary contexts are dis-cussed, as are the effects these approaches may have for students who either fit or do not fit the cultural ideal. Culture provides tools, habits, and assumptions thatpervasively influence human thought and behavior,and the task of learning does not escape this influ-ence (Brislin, Bochner, & Lonner, 1975; Bruner, 1996; Cole, 1996). Although students ’ academic roles and behav-iors are culturally influenced, students and educators alik