Cultural Plunge: Experience of an Early Childhood Educator Report

This report details a cultural plunge experience undertaken by an early childhood educator. The author immersed themselves within a Black community to gain firsthand insight into their lives, challenges, and perspectives. The report explores the rationale behind the cultural plunge, describing the immersion process within a church setting and interactions with community members. It reflects on the emotional and intellectual impact of the experience, highlighting the educator's shift in perspective regarding cultural diversity, prejudice, and the importance of human values over superficial differences. The report further discusses the implications of this experience, particularly in the context of early childhood education, emphasizing the significance of critical thinking, self-awareness, and the need to address societal biases to foster inclusivity and understanding. The author gained insights on how the black community is treated as 'other' and discriminated against because of their skin color, and they aim to integrate these learnings into their role as an educator.

Running head: CULTURAL PLUNGE
Cultural Plunge
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Executive summary:
A cultural plunge is a life of adapting a different culture, language, tradition, status. I have done
this cultural plunge to get the experience and insight the ‘other’ people have and lead a strange
life in a familiar way. Cultural Diversity is a very difficult and growing system of the world and I
have learnt that this system will never end and nor will it allow the minds of the individual to be
free from all these kinds of thoughts. By critically experiencing, the cultural plunge I have went
through many social and political factors, which dominate a group and people, and thus cultural
plunge occurs.
This study is about my experience on cultural plunge and how I felt living the life of a different
person and this study highlights the evaluation of the experience as an early childhood educator.

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Table of Contents
Rationale:.........................................................................................................................................3
Description of the cultural plunge:..................................................................................................4
Reflective on my plunge:.................................................................................................................5
Implications:....................................................................................................................................7
References:......................................................................................................................................9

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Rationale:
A cultural plunge is the exposure done by someone to dwell in a minor group or being
marked as the other (Green, Walters & Walters, 2016). It is a life of adapting a different culture,
language, tradition, status. I have done this cultural plunge to get the experience and insight the
‘other’ people have and lead a strange life in a familiar way. The experience of cultural plunge
gave me the idea about the reason, which influences my formation, how I became what I am
today and how to change the behavioural aspect sob that I do not turn into a negative person. I
have learnt belonging to a certain status is never the choice of an individual and nor it is in their
hands. It is always the things like rearing up, education, culture and religion, which influences
the identity and status of the individual (Hare Landa, Odòna-Holm & Shi, 2017).
I have chosen the cultural plunge because I have already learnt the various kinds of
diversity and its effect on early childhood education. I have explored various ways, which is
related to cultural diversity and the important reason of experiencing the cultural plunge is to
know how general people dominate the other minor groups and how they live their life. The
cultural immersion of the cultural plunge created self-awareness in me. I have had a direct
interaction with the black people and have chosen this particular group as I wanted to live the life
of a ‘black’ as marked by others who are effectively ‘white’ by their colour to experience how
they feel and experience how others think of the ‘black’. I have gained the knowledge of the
‘turfs’ of the ‘black’ people and gained insight about all the circumstances that they face and all
the characteristics they have as an individual. I chose to experience the cultural plunge to feel
how it is to live an unfamiliar life with all unknown people around and fully in a different
circumstance. Cultural Diversity is a very difficult and growing system of the world (Geary,

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2014). I have learnt that this system will never end and nor will it allow the minds of the
individual to be free from all these kinds of thoughts. The critical learning pedagogy has kept me
insight accessible so that I can understand everything better and evaluate them accordingly in the
end. In this paper, I will discuss my experience as a ‘black’ person and highlight the implications
of the practise.
Description of the cultural plunge:
I am aware of the fact that the church is the second home of many people. Hence, I felt
that in case I truly want to experience the life of a black, I will have to be a part of the church and
that is when my journey as a black started. As I am an early childhood educator, my intention
was to learn the more about diversity and its affect in early childhood education. The warmth
that I got from them and the behaviour they showed up made me the happiest one. I was the
alone ‘white’ among them and still they were so much happy to have me. According to the world
that we belong, I had a thought that as the ‘black’ people are always discriminated among the
whites, I will get the same approach from them but to my surprise they turned to be the most
welcoming ones. After meeting them even I had the doubt that if any one among them went t our
church would I also such amount of warmth towards them. The answer is still unknown.
However, the thought that the blacks have the same thought about the whites tore me into pieces
and I felt ashamed of the fact that I have been taught to hate the blacks. The experience changed
my way of thinking and I felt that I have turned into a better person. Standing between them I
understood that it is never the fact about which colour we belong, it is always about the values,
beliefs that we have in our heart and soul and only that can differentiate a person and not colour
or status. The people taught me with their behaviour that thinking about other people is a part of
life and they are human being as I am. We have the thought that if a person is black then it is the

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person’s fault and we believe that being black is a kind of ‘big sin’ (Byrne, 2017). We hate the
person for being black and prefer not to have any communication to them and gradually mark
them as ‘others’. This is completely a wrong concept because it is not their fault that the colour
of their skin is black and nor it is their choice. We cannot blame and mark them as ‘unwanted’ or
‘others’ just because they do not have bright colour. I interacted with them and they were very
happy to tell me their story because they knew that their stories are always kept unknown and
when they got the chance to narrate their part they did not want to let the chance go. They
narrated me how ‘white’ people just because of their colour dominates them and how they feel
when they receive such kind of behaviour. They told me that their kids cannot get admitted to
famous schools as they are black and they are always discriminated in every circumstances
because of their colour. They told me of how they are kept aside from the world and how they
feel when they are judged for their colour of the skin. Even they believe that the colour of the
skin is not their fault. They asked me a question after which I was unable to move. The question
was ‘why is the colour of the skin more important than the person?’(Christopher et al, 2014)
Even I have the same question to ask to every people who believe in cultural diversity that how
can the value of the skin colour be more than that of a person.
Reflective on my plunge:
The cultural plunge was a meaningful experience for me and it provided me with a critical
thinking and clear insight. This experience gave me the knowledge that irrespective of my status,
class, gender and colour I will be accepted as a human. I have also learned the same and will
always keep it in mind that I judge a person by their thinking and values not by the colour of
their skin. My experience of the cultural plunge was the best one. I have never received such
warmth from other people that I got from them. The experience taught me to be a better human

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being and treat others in a welcoming way. The experience of the cultural plunge taught me that
cultural diversity has not killed humanity completely. I had a surprising experience and before
experiencing the plunge, I never had any idea about the other people’s struggle for existence,
culture and mankind. I never knew what the people feels who are treated as ‘other’ and are
discriminated. Living between them and getting to know their culture and thoughts gave me an
idea of their consequences in life (Kolb, 2014). I came to know through the plunge that their life
is tougher than others are and they still try to find happiness in every sector of their life. The
people I was with taught me that it is very important to be a human and not a racist because
being a human is what matters the most. This experience injected in me the negativity of cultural
diversity. The experience introduced me to the entire problem the other have regarding their life.
I am an early childhood educator; I know the importance of education in our life. It was very
shocking to know that those people were upset that their children are not able to get a good
education as many schools reject them for being black (Clark, 2015). Their pain was visible in
their eyes. Those eyes were telling me that they wanted to be treated as humans and not as black.
They wanted to be accepted thee way they are, they wanted to be like the way a normal people
lives. The experience taught me about myself that the truth of life is what kind of human being
we are and not what colour we have in our skin. We all have blood in our veins and the colour of
blood is the same in a white person and a black person. It is our insight how we see and treat
people and we are responsible for the diversification of culture (Banks, 2015).
I, through the plunge experience have learnt the truth of life, life is a challenging platform
and we must have the humanity in us and face all those challenges without taking the back door.
I have never had this kind of experience and if I would not have experienced the plunge I would
still be in the dark side of life. I took the pledge that I will accept everyone without any

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discrimination and I will tell others to do the same so that they will be able to look into the
matter with the sense of humanity. If I would not be a part of the plunge, I would not have the
knowledge of the prejudices and practices, which are engraved in me. The experience the plunge
gave me is my lifetime achievement and it will be my asset as an educator and more as a human
being. As I am an early childhood educator, I have seen the diversification of culture among the
students and hence this plunge is totally a part of the class readings. The learning activities
through experiencing plunge that got has made me aware of every aspect of life and taught me to
believe in humanity. Critical thinking is a continuous journey; it is not one-day learning. It needs
time, patience, and mostly the interest to learn (McPeck, 2016). The learning objectives of
cultural diversity enhanced my desire to learn more about it and made me aware of the lives of
the back people. After reflecting my knowledge, I realized that I was to some extent prejudiced
about the black people as I had less idea about them and their life style. Earlier even, I used to
treat them as ‘other’ people and my thoughts about them were not open. Now I know that they
are humans just as everyone else and there is no need of discriminating them or marking them as
‘other’. The experience changed my views about discrimination and the insight that I achieved
helped me y grow personally. Now I believe that every human has the same right to live and
cannot be marked with any other name because of the colour of their skin. Discrimination is and
will be a bad practice even in the future (Ang & Van Dyne, 2015).
Implications:
After all the discussion, I have concluded that as an early childhood teacher I have to
reflect the academic knowledge and customs so that the societal justice and the equity are
promoted. Experiencing the cultural plunge has made me go through the process of
enculturation, which introduced me to new aspects of thinking, understanding and even with the

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knowledge of being a human. As an early childhood educator, I had to undertake a critical stance
that provided me with the perspectives of early childhood education. I have known that early
childhood education is consisting of different beliefs and understanding, which shapes the
thoughts of an individual. In the above discussion, I have taken into consideration the practise of
childhood, which are right and ethical. I have learnt that dominant thinking can affect a particular
group or person in a negative way. By critically experiencing, the cultural plunge I have went
through many social and political factors, which dominate a group and people, and that is how
the plunge occurs. By adapting the life of the other, I have come through many experiences like
how the people lead that kind of particular life and how much they suffer by living such a life. I
have also learnt the formation of myself and even made me aware of the roles of the agents in the
formation. The cultural plunge that I experienced gave me the knowledge about how the
dominance of other culture and status of people affects the life of the ‘other’ group of people.

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References:
Ang, S., & Van Dyne, L. (2015). Handbook of cultural intelligence. Routledge.
Banks, J. A. (2015). Cultural diversity and education. Routledge.
Byrne, C. (2017). Weconnect: A global youth citizenship curriculum.
Cavanaugh, S., & Corbett, L. J. (2014). A successful model for short-term international teacher
education programs. The Field Experience Journal, 1, 1-11.
Christopher, J. C., Wendt, D. C., Marecek, J., & Goodman, D. M. (2014). Critical cultural
awareness: Contributions to a globalizing psychology. American Psychologist, 69(7),
645.
Clark, R. M. (2015). Family life and school achievement: Why poor black children succeed or
fail. University of Chicago Press.
Geary, D. (2014). Taking the plunge into culture shock: Study abroad elements impelling
cultural adjustment.
Green, M. R., Walters, L. M., & Walters, T. (2016). SHAPING A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE. A
Reader of Narrative and Critical Lenses on Intercultural Teaching and Learning, 185.
Hare Landa, M., Odòna-Holm, J., & Shi, L. (2017). Education Abroad and Domestic Cultural
Immersion: A Comparative Study of Cultural Competence Among Teacher
Candidates. The Teacher Educator, 52(3), 250-267.

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Kolb, D. A. (2014). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development.
FT press.
McPeck, J. E. (2016). Critical thinking and education. Routledge.
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Intercultural Encounters: Teacher Students’ Reflections on the Cultural Plunge. World
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in Multicultural Education, 147.
Walters, L. M., Green, M. R., Walters, T. N., & Wang, L. (2015). The Examined Life.
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