What is Heritage Studies?
• heritage studies looks at the relationships between people (heritage is a way of life that is handed down from generation to generation).
• heritage is history passed down through mythology, theology, naturalism, local pride.
• heritage studies looks at the objects, practices, traditional / social / cultural movements that form or influence the lives of a people.
Why study Heritage?
• to understand language and preserve the ways of the past.
• to get an in-depth understanding of geography, psychology, linguistics, political science, sociology; all being aspects that affect our daily lives.
• to achieve a sense of identity and belong to society, knowing one’s role in it.
• to mould responsible citizens.
• to help and individual exploit available natural resources and play a role in the development of society.
• to help an individual develop Ubuntu /unhu.
Socialization
• Socialization is the process of acquisition of knowledge, skills and character traits that empower an individual to participate in society effectively.
• To socialize is to learn to behave in a manner that is acceptable to society at large.
• Socializing is mixing and mingling with others to build relationships.
• We acquire socialization skills mostly during our childhood years and apply those skills to build fruitful relationships.
• socialization is a combination of self imposed rules and the expectations of others.
• as we socialize, we learn language and rules of the cultures we are born into and the roles both will play in our lives.
• norms are the conceptions of appropriate and ecpected behaviour that are held by members of society. We acquire norms as we grow up socializing with others in our community.
• human personality is developed boththorugh inherited genes and the way we are moulded in by beliefs, attitudes and experiences. This explains the different personalities that we observe in a close community.
How children are socialized
• socialization is a learning process that begins at birth.
• early childhood is the period with the most rigorous socialization intensity, as we learn languages and cultural ways.
• personalities are shaped during this period and evolve as we age, learning new and acquiring new roles in our community.
• personal experiences throughout life alter our expectations of society and life goals as well as shaping our personalities.
• if for example as woman is raped, she may develop distrust of others.
Agents of socialization
• these are the groups of people and tangible/intangible objects that influence how we socialize within our communities.
Socialization Agents
• peer groups
• family
• school
• religious beliefs
• culture and tradition
• media
• community
Family as a socialization agent
• a family is a social unit of two or more people usually related by blood, marriage, adoption, or a mutually built relationship.
• the family is the most influential social unit in an individual’s life. The immediate family provides foundations of social interactions for a child.
• if a family in nurturing and stable, a child tends t adopt emotional security, learn cultural and social values and norms as well as develop an identity for the child.
• on a practical level, families provide economic and emotional support in the form of housing, food and protection as well as maintaining a population through reproduction.
• historically, families adopt well to changes in economic conditions as always find a way to prevail through hardships together. For example, when women started to acquire jobs outside of the home it shifted child-care responsibility between spouses. Alternate care-givers were also introduced and they brought in their own societal norms and cultures that they moulded into their wards.
• transitions in families can influence how some children develop. Children growing up in a home with divorced parent are likely to be more adjusted to problematic conditions as they have less dependency on guardians and display disrupted views of relationships, some to the point of disobedience, aggression and fear of abandonment.
• children from a home with a single parent may display increased responsibility.
• introducing a new parent through remarriage may bring a host of new challenges for the child.
• macro-systems such as socio-economic status, religious and cultural orientation have an influence on how a child develops the same and also play a major role in what opportunities a child is exposed to.
• lower class families tend to focus on core survival not future goals due to their limited resources as they struggle to meet their needs in life.
• culture helps to develop morals and socially acceptable behavior in a child.
• religious influence can be motivational, inspirational as well as provide rules and conformity among the groups of believerschildren grow in. Morals that are specific to a religion are instilled in children and these tend to overlap with cultural morals.
• as infants we are completely dependent on others to survive and grow.
• our guardians have the responsibility of teaching us to function and care for ourselves.
• we learn about our close relatives and are taught how to share and accommodate others in our lives.
• our guardians hand down to us the way of life they were taught and the environment they grew up in.
The Family’s Influence on Identity
• a strong united family builds a child’s confidence.
• affirming children as a guardian helps them build self-confidence and empowers them to make their own choices while discovering their personal identity.
• attacking a child’s physical appearance, academic performance or calling them names within the family negatively affects their self-confidence and social skills.
The school as a socialization agent
• the primary purpose of school is to imbue us with knowledge and life skills that we can use to earn a living as we grow older.
• school also teaches social skills as we interact with our peers, adult teachers and people in important roles like school heads.
• students also learn to follow rules, punctuality, respect, observe authority, hygiene and much more.
• education plays a major role in children’s social development with the school providing an intellectual social environment helping children develop skills, knowledge, acquire interests and build an identity that shape them into adulthood.
• society views a school as the main agent of sharing and developing cultural heritage.
• educational policy, school choice, diversity of students and social status are macro-systems that influence the learning environment.
• economic social status decides how much is spent on a child’s education and this in turn influences the opportunities a child gets in life as well as the conceptual knowledge and skills they acquire and use in adulthood.
• basic cultural values are taught in the classroom and the system avoids endorsing a certain religion.
• the choice of school a guardian selects for a child exposes them to a range of diversity in educational policy, gender association and extra-curricular activities at no extra cost to the parent.
• in this technological era, computers and electronic gadgets are used by educators to provide an in-depth and more engaging learning experience developing self directedlearning and access to infinite information, skills, cultures and societal norms.
• junior school teaches personal health and safety and also shuns substance abuse, violence and anti-social behaviors but it is key for the community to also have anassisstive role to provide a more grounded up-bringing and nurturing of these values helping children resist drugs and violence. The school establishes a disciplinary system with penalties for what is viewed as rule breaking with regards to drugs and violence.
• the type of teacher a child gets influences whether the child invests in acquiring the knowledge a teacher is trying to impart. A good teacher must provide equal opportunities for all children, communicate well, impart high expectations not just academically and ensure success of students as they progress though a curriculum. As a class manager, a teacher should be prepared to deal with various child personalities, prompt response to incidents as well as be able to multi-task and handle several activities simultaneously.
• teacher to learner interactions are influenced by gender, cultural background, socio-economic status and gender of both the educator and learner.
• socio-economic status of a family determines whether child is exposed to more opportunities in life (higher earning families) as well as whether their guardians also invests time to assist the children in educational activities at home.
Peers as agents of socialization
• peer groups give us a chance to build relationships with our age-mates on more laxterms and leanr from experience without adult guidance.
• guardians often worry about the type of relations we build with out peers as peers have a major influence on us.
• as peers, we may develop behavioral norms that, when seen by our parents, our parents do not approve of.
• often, with our peers, the power to choose to accept or reject a way of life rests solely with us.
Peers and socialization
• peers are our equals in gender, age or social status and displaying similar interests to us. Experiences with peers enable children to acquire a wide range of skills, attitudes and roles that influence how they lice their lives.
• peers influence cognitive and psychological development of children far more than any other socialization factor.
• peer groups serve as a source of information, teach gender roles and allow us to prepare for adulthood, enabling us to reach unity and collective behavior.
• friendships made through peers help children develop emotionally and socially providing a healthy psychological development curve.
• there are six types of playing for children:
1. unoccupied play where a child simply observes.
2. independent play where a child plays alone unaware of what other children may be doing.
3. onlooker play where a child observes other children playing but is nor engaging in the activities taking place.
4. adjacent play where children mimic other playing activities that are happening.
5. associative play where a child interested displays more interest in the children they are with more than the activities taking place.
6. co-operative play where children where a child is interested in both the activities occurring as well as the children participating in those activities.
• in early childhood, children are limited in terms of peer access and parents help organize peer play activities for them. In middle childhood, up to 30% of play time is spent with peers in unsupervised activities. In early adolescence activities tend to be undertaken with same sex peers and later begin to show interest in the opposite sex.
• there are five stages of friendship:
1. momentary playmate-ship from ECD at ages one to four. Children only think of what they want from a friendship and friends are defined by where they live or the toys they have.
2. one way assistance at early middle childhood up to nine years of age. Here, friendship is based on whether someone wants to do the same activity as us.
3. two way fair weather cooperation from middle childhood at six to twelve years. Here children give and take, serving each other’s interests.
4. intimate mutual share friendships from middle childhood to early adolescence. Here friendships are used to achieve each person’s interest but in a truly co-operative manner.
5. autonomous interdependent friendships from adolescence to adulthood. Here, children start to view friendships as an entity in itself that needs attention, nurturing and building. Friendships are treasured and guarded jealously.
• a peer group decides who is accepted into a friendship and neglect, acceptance or rejection significantly influence the development of a child.
• accepted children develop positive characteristics like joy, are dependable, considerate, self confident, selfless, cooperative and work well with others. Children who tend to be physically attractive and intelligent are usually accepted more than others.
• children who get rejected from peer groups tend to become shy, withdrawn, dishonest, unsupportive of others, self-centred, bossy and aggressive. They also lack essential communication skills and build a negative social reputation.
• peer groups develop through informal social norms, statuses, alliances and feelings of self-care.
• peers groups may include or exclude an individual. Inclusionary techniques encompass inviting a peer into the group and have them on informal probation until all members of the group grow to include the individual in their activities. Exclusionary techniques are teasing, picking on, being mean to and bullying peers who are not a part of the group.
Media as an agent of socialization
• media (singular medium) is a collection of communication outlets and tools used to store and transmit information to a wide demographic. Media has two forms, personal and print.
• television, movies, radio, websites, social media & print media influence our political views in popular culture including how we deal with groups of people such as different races from us, different gender, different ethnicity.
• television influences children as it is often addictive from a young age.
• mass media employs technology to reach people in a wide geographic area and examples include print media, television, radio and the internet.
Positive influence of media
• helps spread information about our community.
• provides knowledge of the global village.
• provides role models in the form of musicians, athletes etc.
• media teaches us more of the world around us including taxes, pressing social issues like abortion and child abuse, exposes a lot of occupations we may not get to know from school alone.
Negative influence of media
• leads to cultural dilution as we embrace other cultures through language, dressing and we lose our old way of life.
• younger minds are easily influenced and may acquire bad traits from role models such as musicians who curse a lot.
• advertising pressures us to spend money on items we may not need.
• it is easy for children to get influenced into sex, violence, drugs and alcohol abuse through the content they consume in media.
Responsible Media usage
• irresponsible use of media includes:
1. spreading derogatory comments about individuals or groups of people
2. exposing confidential and private information about groups or individuals
3. sharing sexually explicit, racist, homophobic content as well as trolling and provoking arguments with others.
• responsible use of media includes:
1. proper time management of media usage to avoid addiction
2. media literacy with the ability to filter fake news from truthful accounts
Community
• a community is a closely knit group of people having common interests like religion.
• communities are built from our geographical neighbors, political groups, economic circumstances.
• the role of a community is to provide a sense of belonging and friendship.
• children gain varying life-perspectives from community through groups formed at school, from religion, youth clubs, recreational centres, communal gatherings, libraries.
• the size and mobility of a community influences the patterns of human behavourin community members.
• smaller communities have a higher level of interaction and are more closely knit. Larger communities offer a wider range of activities but have limited interaction and bonds between members are weaker.
• levels of income also affects interaction as people of similar earning brackets tend to stick together more than those outside of their relative groups.
• in communities, adults are usually identified as role models.
• a community also offers social support systems, like a People living with HIV group.
Types of Heritage
1. Natural Heritage: these are components of the natural environment with scientific, or social significance. Examples include land, natural parks, reserves, rivers and lakes.
2. Historical Heritage: it relates to the occupation and use of land by human beings; thus historical heritage is the physical remains left behind by a community. Examples are rock art and ruins.
3. Cultural Heritage: it is an expression of the way of life by a community and how the same developed and evolved and handed down though generations. Cultural heritage can be observed from a community’s buildings, natural environment, agriculture, books, artifacts.
Religion in Socialization
Religion can be defined as a compendium of cultural belief systems and world-views with regards to human spirituality and moral values. Religions evolve around narratives of events and past icons, traditional symbols and sacred histories which groups of people use to give their lives a meaning and purpose as well as explain the origin of the universe.
• major world religions include Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and African Tradition among others.
• religion promotes well being, self-sacrifice, provides recreational channels, builds self confidence, helps achieve mental peace within an individual and also encourages civilization and co-existence with others.
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