Awareness raising

Tell students that you have been wondering lately what makes us the kind of people that we are. What makes one person's character and values different from another person?

In groups of four, have students use a thinking strategy such as placemat (see explanation on http://www.ltag.education.tas.gov.au/effectteach/Thinking/placemat.htm) to brainstorm their individual ideas about the influences that have helped make them the person that they are today. Have each group collate their group list and then discuss as a class. Ideas could include family attitudes, friends, genetics, books they read, things they watch on TV, religious teachings, etcetera.

Introduce students to the concept of 'personal identity' as an awareness of the type of person they are, of their own 'identity'.

Discuss the relationship between the 'culture' in which you live and your 'personal identity', considering questions such as:

What is 'culture'?

Does each country have its own culture? For example, is there an Australian culture?

Does each person have the same idea of 'culture' or are there 'sub-cultures'? In what ways is this a good thing for a society?

This learning object aims to support students in understanding more about the strong links between culture and personal and national identity. These are big questions that are worth thinking about, and form the 'understanding goals' for this learning sequence. (Read the 'understanding goals' in the Reflection section).

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