Learning as a Way of Being: Chapter 5 Summary
In Chapter 5 of Learning as a Way of Being, Peter Vaill (1996) discusses a process he calls cultural unlearning. By listing a number of situations in which cultural conflicts arise, Vaill (1996) points out that most human beings lack sufficient information about cultures other than their own. Because people do not know enough about other cultures, they often react inappropriately or harmfully when they encounter people from other cultures. Vaill (1996) writes about steps that individuals can and should take with respect to gaining more knowledge about different cultures and different peoples. It is his belief that globalization has created a situation in which people are much more likely than ever before to come into frequent and close contact with people from different cultures.
In Chapter 5, Vaill (1996) makes the point that simply learning about other cultures in our leisure time may not prepare us for appropriate interaction with people who are in some critical ways different than ourselves. He believes that we must "discover in the real time of the situation how to act effectively (Vaill, 1996, p. 155)." In other words, we must begin to rid ourselves of the prejudices, biases, and assumptions about other cultures that we acquire simply by being born in a particular culture. By getting rid of these biases or beliefs, we can become much m ore open to and responsive to cross-cultural situations.
In the chapter, Vaill (1996) discusses what he calls a cultural key. This is an understanding of the meaning of a given situation from the point of view of those cultural representatives who are involved in it in any way. Cultural keys consist of perceptions by a participant or an observer in a cross-cultural encounter. It is not knowledge about the self or the other, but knowledge of what Vaill (1996, p. 158) calls "self-in-relation-to-other." We unlearn culture b...