Chapter 2

Globalization and Cultural

and Multicultural Literacy
 Objectives
• At the end of this chapter, you should be able to
develop a clear and practical understanding of the
following:
• Globalization and its implications on both the national
and individual level;
• Cultural and multicultural literacy in the Philippines;
and one’s personal level of cultural and multicultural
literacy.
• Globalization is the process of interaction and integration between people,
business entities, governments, and cultures from other nations, driven by
international trade and investment and supported by information technology
(Levin Institute, 2017)
• Because our exposure to the concept of globalization has largely been
through an economic lens, it is tempting to limit globalization as something
that concerns economists and businessmen. But globalization and its effects
go beyond import or export and Foreign Direct Investments (FDI)
• Globalization as a phenomenon is not new. Nations and cultures have been
interacting and integrating with one another for millennia.
• What is different now, however , is the speed at which
globalization is happening, its overall scope, and its effects
of the lives of ordinary people. Not only are we interacting
with, learning from, and integrating knowledge learned from
other cultures and nation at an unprecedented rate, there is
now also a sense that no matter where one lives or how
limited is one’s face to face interaction with members of
another nation or culture and how limited is one’s time
online, globalization and its effects are inescapable.
The Effects of Globalization
• the effects of globalization are multi- dimensional. As shown earlier,
they range from economic to cultural, on both national and individuals
level.
Meyer (2000) summarizes the effects of globalization as follows:
• economic, political and military dependence and interdependence
between nations;
• expanded flow of individual people among societies;
• interdependence of expressive culture among nations; and
• expanded flow of instrumental culture around the world.
Economic Dependence/ Interdependence
When the term globalization entered the Philippine public mindset in the
early 90’s, it was popularly understood to be a mainly economic
phenomenon, and a negative one at that. The idea that foreign-owned
businesses could come into the country and freely ‘set-up shop’ thereby
choking-out local industries was not a welcome thought even though it was
erroneous.
While Philippine society has come to realize that this early perspective
represented a shallow understanding of globalization, the fact of the matter is
that globalization has brought economic development to our society as a
whole. By attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), new technologies,
employment opportunities, and money have come into the country.
 This does not mean, however, that there have been no negative
effects of globalization. Kentor (2001) notes that foreign capital
dependence increases income inequality in four ways:
1. It creates a small highly paid class of elites to manage these
investments who create many but usually low-pay jobs;
2. Profits from these investments domestic capital formation
3. Foreign capital penetration tends to concentrate land ownership
among the very rich; and
4. Host countries tend to create political and economic climates
favorable to foreign capital that in turn limit domestic labor’s
ability to obtain better wages. In simple words, “The rich become
richer and the poor become poorer.”
• Houts (1980) observes that international dependence (another name for
globalization) tends to suppress adult wages, in turn perpetuates the
role of children as economic necessities (familiar saying “ Kapag
maraming anak, maraming katulong sa hanapbuhay”) leading to
explosive population growth.
• In a chain reaction of negative effects, this explosive population growth
creates a large sub-sector of society that is insulated from economic
development yet competes for resources with the rest of the population.
Coupled with the economic inequalities in which society is couched,
this encourages political instability, resulting in policies that favor the
redistribution of income, which in turn discourages investments, which
then slows economic growth.
Political and Military dependence and Interdependence
• A survey conducted in late 2018 found that 3 in 5 Pilipinos believe that
the United States would intervene on behalf of the country in case of war
(Viray, 2018), Despite the current very conservative stance of the US on
its foreign policies, this can be taken as evidence of the Philippines’
dependence in both political and military power of the US in order to
maintain its sovereignty as a nation-state in the Southeast Asia region.
Similar things can be said of Russia and the many communist nations
throughout the world.
• The point is that where there are some forms of economic
dependence/interdependence, political dependence/interdependence is
not far behind, as the participating nations strive to protect their
investments and interests in one another.
Expanded Flow of Expressive and Instrumental Culture
• Expressive culture deals with how a particular culture expresses itself in
its language, music, arts etc. Globalization encourages the monetization of
these cultural artifacts and their import/export among participating
cultures; the increased consumption of which changes the consuming
culture.
• Instrumental culture on the other hand refers to “common models of
social order” (Meyer 2000)- that is, models or ways of thinking about and
enacting national identity, nation- state policies both domestic and
foreign, socio-economic development, human rights, education and social
progress.
Expanded Flow of People among Societies
• The fact that globalization encourages the movement of people between
nation-states should come as no surprise to us. The Philippine statistics
authority (PSA) estimates that there were 2.3 millions OFWs during the
period of April to September 2017, who were responsible for up to 205.2
billion pesos in remittances.
• Meyer (2000) observes three reasons for this: socio-economic migration,
political expulsion and travel/tourism.
• Socio-economic migration explains the Philippines’ OFW phenomenon
• Political expulsion has more to do with trying to escape the political climate
of a particular country, thereby forcing an individual to seek asylum in
another favorable country.
Cultural Literacy
• Cultural Literacy is a term coined by Hirch (1983) referring to the
ability to understand the signs and symbols of a given culture and
being able to participate its activities and customs as opposed to
simply being a passive (an outside) observer. The signs and
symbols of a culture include both its formal and informal
languages, its idioms and forms of expression, entertainment,
values, customs, roles, traditions etc., most of which are assumed
and unstated. Thus, they are learned by being part of the culture,
rather than by any formal means.
• Cultural Literacy is culture-specific but it is not
limited to national cultures, contrary to what
many people assume. The culture of one
workplace can be very different from another,
just as the culture of a particular school can
differ widely from another school nearby.
Cultural Literacy in the Philippines
• The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) is the
government tasked with the documentation, preservation and
dissemination of Philippine culture, both locally and abroad. Part
of how the NCCA is addressing this and related matters is through
the establishment of the Philippine Cultural Education Program
(PCEP), which envisions a nation of culturally literate and
empowered Pilipinos” (NCCA, 2015). Designed to make cultural
education accessible to all sectors of Philippine society, the PCEP
held national consultative meetings, conference, workshops, art
camps, and festivals on culture-based teaching and good
governance from 2003 to 2007.
• As a result of Republic Act 10066, PCEP has been designated as
the body , together with the Department of Education (DepEd),
task to “formulate the cultural heritage education programs both
local and overseas Pilipinos” that are to be an integral part of
Philippine education in all aspects.
• Cultural education- and thus cultural literacy- in the Philippines
is quite a challenge, given that Philippine culture is a complex
blend of many indigenous and colonial cultures and varies
widely across the region, and the average citizen is almost as
ignorant of other Philippine cultures as foreigners are.
• De Leon (2011) coins this propensity for Pilipinos to look at their culture and
themselves through Western lenses as the Dona Victorina Syndrome, a kind of
inferiority complex wherein anything and everything natively Pilipino is
considered as Pilipinos themselves as being inferior, backward and worthless in
comparison to their Western counterparts, and therefore a source of
embarrassment and unease. Our low self-esteem borders on self-contempt, the
result is doubt in capacity for achievement, perverse delight in belittling
ourselves, lack of respect and even outright contempt for one another and blind
dependence on foreign goods, concepts, techniques, approaches, and expertise.
According to De Leon, the biggest challenge then is the deconstruction of the
negative self-images and notions of ourselves that we have imbibed over
generations through “ a workable, effective program of education that can make
Pilipinos more responsive and sensitive to Pilipino dignity, needs, values, and
cultural potentials and assets.”
Challenges for Cultural Literacy in the Philippines
As Applebee (1987) observes, interesting discussions on cultural literacy give rise to
some very difficult questions which are particularly important to a multicultural and
multilingual nation like Philippines.
• What kinds of knowledge constitute cultural literacy? Is it knowing facts, names, and
dates or is it something more experiential like being familiar with a story or a
particular song?
• If culture is more “caught than taught,” should cultural literacy be one of the goals of
education? If yes, how does one teach it?
• Whose cultures must we be literate in to be considered “culturally literate”? Who
decides which cultures are included and which ones are excluded and on what bases?
• Is cultural literacy education simply a means for the dominant culture to express its
dominance over minority cultures?
• How is cultural literacy to be assessed and evaluated? How can we know someone is
“culturally literate?”
Multicultural Literacy
• As a set of skills and knowledge is difficult to define because of how it changes depending
on the contexts in which it is discussed.
• In America, multicultural literacy has very strong leanings toward knowing or identifying
the poly-ethnic origins of knowledge with the express goal of fostering equality, diversity,
and social justice.
• In Europe, multicultural literacy comes more in the form of intercultural communication
competence (ICC), which is defined by Dusi, Messetti and Steinbach (2014) as a composite
of skills, abilities, attitudes, personality patterns etc, necessary for clear and productive
communication with cultures other than our own.
• We define multicultural literacy here as the knowledge and skills necessary to ensure that
any communication with a culture different from our own is clear and productive and
respectful such as their differences are celebrated and neither culture is demeaned or treated
as inferior.
Examples of manner of being multicultural literate:
1. Be selfless
2. Know that good and useful things can (and do) come
from those different from us.
3. Be willing to compromise.
4. Accept that there are limits
Issues in Teaching and Learning Multicultural Literacy in
the Philippines
• Conflicting requirements for peace- the heart of multicultural
literacy is peace among different cultures- that is productive
and non- violent interaction.
• Nationalistic and Regionalistic Pushback- the increasing
demand for multicultural sensitivity, inclusion and diversity
in the recent years has also given rise to resistance from
groups who believe that their identity is being “watered-
down” by the needed compromises.
The Persistence of the Problem
• On the surface, multicultural literacy might seem to just “good common
sense” and understandably so, no one actively experience discrimination
regarding what they know and what they cannot do simply on the basis
of race, ethnicity, or in the case of region of origin.
• Boutte (2008) suggests that issues of discrimination in all its form
(racial, religious, tribal, cultural, etc) are really issues of hatred, which
defined an educational setting as “the lack of compassion and respect
for the rights of others” and that hatred must be fought and its roots
because as long as hatred exist in the human mind, real peace will be
impossible (Vreeland, 2001)