CULTURAL LITERACY

Reporter: Piscador Angie

 Cultural Literacy is a term coined by Hirsch
(1983) referring to the ability to understand the signs
and symbols of a given culture and being able to
participate in its activities and customs as opposed
to simply being a passive (and outside) observer.

The signs and symbols of a culture include both its

formal and informal languages, its idioms and forms
CULTURAL LITERACY of expression, entertainment, values, customs, roles,
traditions and the like.
“The classroom was in absolute bedlam”
 CULTURAL LITERACY

Cultural Literary is the culture-specific but it is not limited to national cultures

“Culture brings people together”

There are far too many cultures for any one person to be
literate in all of them. As more and more Filipinos travel-
both domestically and abroad as the result of globalization
and the increase opportunities it brings, the need to
develop new cultural literacies comes to the fore.

Is there a single culture in the Philippines?

 Is the government body tasked with the documentation,
preservation, and dissemination of Philippine culture, both
locally and abroad.

Philippine Cultural Education Program (PCEP), which “envisions

a nation of culturally literate and empowered Filipinos”
Design to make cultural education accessible
to all sectors of Philippine society.
PCEP has been designed as the body,
together within the (DepEd)
National Commission for Culture and Republic Act 10066 (2010)
the Arts (NCCA)
Cultural education and thus cultural literacy in the
Philippines is quite a challenge.
De Leon (2011) argues that this is in part due to a colonial mindset
among Filipino artist that inhibits the full development and
realization of Filipino artistic creativity a kind of artistic and
cultural creativity that is fully Filipino.
De Leon (2011) coins this propensity for Filipino to look at their culture and
themselves through Western lenses as the Doña Victorina Syndrome.

For De Leon, it is excellence in the arts via an expression

that is truly Filipino.
 Challenges for Cultural Literacy in the Philippines

What kinds of knowledge constitute cultural literacy? Is it knowing facts, names, and dates,
or is it something more experiential 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 “cultural literate”? Who decides

which cultures are included and which ones are excluded, and on what bases?

Is cultural literacy education simply 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”