The Culture of Teaching and the Teaching of Culture

ABSTRACT In a world made smaller by information technology and convenient travel, the teaching of a psychology of all people has become increasingly important. However, the content of western psychology, in both research and teaching, has failed to encompass the complexities of culture and the importance of the role of cultural understanding in the modern world. This article presents some of the culture-based challenges facing psychology and teachers of psychology, including ethnocentrism, development of cultural competence, and integration of cultural concepts in teaching. The author concludes that the contributions of psychology to the solution of important world problems depend in part upon broader cultural understanding. The world of education today is a very different place, with a very different culture, from when I taught my first university-level psychology course 45 years ago. Perhaps the most revolutionary changes have come in the realm of information, especially in its availability, formats, and transmission. The proliferation of electronic data management and communication has resulted in a world that not only is figuratively smaller than it was a generation ago, but that also demands that teachers and students experience and know much more than they would have only a few decades earlier