Culture Difference Affecting Choice of Teammates in Game Situation at Lower Secondary

Independent study 2
Culture difference affecting choice of teammates in game situation at lower secondary

Identification and justification of the issue
I am carrying out my school based experienced at Sir Leckraz Teeluck SSS at central Flacq. A personal experience helped me to do a research on influences of culture difference on games. For independent study2, I have chosen to write on culture difference as a flaw in game situation. Compared to independent study 1, I did not have to think about a particular title to carry out my research, it rather something that I witness and lived. During my School Based Experience 2 (SBE), came across that issue which very less people would think that it does exist at lower secondary. Students of form I played according to their religious group, in other words during lunch time Catholic guys had their team and those from Hindu community had theirs. All started after a football session with a form I class. During the football session I noticed that some students did not have the basic motor skill; catching and controlling a ball. When I accompanied them back to their class I asked the high flyers to help those who are lacking behind in football. After asking a boy from the catholic community to bring along his friend when he go to play football during recess, there was a dispute which cropped up between this particular communities. Both tried to advance their arguments to convince me why they do play together during recess. After this shocking experience I wanted to carry a profound research on this issue.

Abstract
My study examines the relationships among teen of lower secondary while they are engaged in games and investigates whether adolescents are faced with racial discrimination in team selection. The study also investigates what criteria are taken into account by students when choosing a team mate during the physical education class. I never thought that communal differences existed in lower secondary classes especially in games.

Introduction
We are members of a cultural species. That is, we depend critically on cultural learning in virtually all aspects of our lives. Whether we are trying to manage our resources, woo a mate, protect our family, enhance our status, or form a political alliance – goals that are pursued by people in all cultures – we do so in culturally-grounded ways. That is, in all our actions we rely on ideas, values, feelings, strategies, and goals that have been shaped by our cultural experiences. There are cultural differences in a team when the members do not have the same upbringing. Living in a multi-cultural society, every citizen may come across misunderstanding due to culture differences.
Pupils have various stage of motivation, attitudes about teaching and learning, and different responses classroom environments and teaching practices. The more exhaustively educators understand the differences, the better chance they have of meeting the diverse learning needs of all of their students. Nowadays, challenges are brought by geographic distance, temporal separation, and cultural diversity. Yet research regarding the impact of cultural differences is limited.
The relationship among team mates is strengthened when the latter from different cultures find new approaches to old problems creating solutions by combining cultural perspectives and examining the problem at hand from each other's differing cultural perspectives.

Problems in choosing team mates at lower secondary level across cultures often arise when participants from one culture are unable to understand culturally determined differences in communication practices, traditions, and thought processing. At the most fundamental level, problems may occur when one or more of the mates involved clings to an ethnocentric view of how to solve a matter. Ethnocentrism is the belief that one's own cultural group is somehow innately superior to others.
It is easy to say that ethnocentrism only affects the bigoted or those ignorant of other cultures, and so is unlikely to be a major factor in choosing team mates. Yet difficulties due to a misunderstanding of elements in cross-cultural communication may affect even enlightened people. Ethnocentrism is deceptive precisely because members of any culture perceive their own behavior as logical, since that behavior works for them. People tend to accept the values of the culture around them as absolute values. Since each culture has its own set of values, often quite divergent from those values held in other cultures, the concept of proper and improper, foolish and wise, and even right and wrong become blurred. At lower secondary level, questions arise regarding what is proper by which culture's values, what is wise by which culture's view of the world, and what is right by whose standards.

Since no one individual is likely to recognize the subtle forms of ethnocentrism that shape who he or she is, one must be careful in choosing one’s mate across cultures. It is necessary to try to rise above culturally imbued ways of viewing the world. To do this, one needs to understand how the perception of a given message changes depending on the culturally determined viewpoint of those communicating.
Among the most markedly varying dimensions of intercultural communication among team mates is nonverbal behavior. Knowledge of a culture conveyed through what a person says represents only a portion of what that person has communicated. Much of nonverbal communication may be broken down into six areas: dress; kinesics, or body language; oculesics, or eye contact; haptics, or touching behavior; proxemics, or the use of body space; and paralanguage. Any one of these areas communicates significant information nonverbally in any given culture. Taking into consideration these issues can influence the choice of team mates at lower secondary level.

Methodology

Interview
The first interview I carried out was with my mentor. I wanted know if really this issue existed in school. I got positive answer and even some more astonishing information about this particular problem. He told me that it has always been present since he started his career as a teacher. There are some students who do not fear to choose friends from their own community openly to play again other team in the same class. But he gave me various reasons for this problem. Firstly according to him this issue resulted from a background difference.
Procedure
Measures

Observation
Before carrying my survey I made an observation. In the form I class in which I distributed the questionnaire, I have asked two students to act as captain and choose a team of eleven players (including them) for an inter class tournament. One captain was from the Catholic community and the other one was from the Hindu one.

Captain belonging to Christian community
The first two players chosen by this captain belong to his community. The third one was a Muslim guy and the forth one was a Hindu. In the ten players he chose, four of them belonged to his community. Including him there was five Christians, four Hindu and two Muslims. I did not want to base myself only on the questionnaire, that’s why I preferred to carry out an observation. At the end of the process, I have asked the two captains to meet me in the physical education dept. I meet both of them individually and ask them almost the same question. The reasons behind the choice of the captain

Captain belonging to Hindu community
Nine players chosen were from the same community of their captain and one was from the Muslim community.
I did not rely on only what I saw. In fact I asked the two captains the reasons for their choice.

Questionnaire
It is the most relying method of carrying out my survey, whereby same question were answered by a group of thirty students. The latter were in form 1 and were really motivated to answer the questionnaire. A model of the questionnaire is attached in the appendix 1.

Question 1: Are you regularly/actively involved in team games?

This question was set to put the students in the mood to answer the questionnaire and to know the frequency that they participate in games. The more they are involved in gam

Question 2: Do you always with the same team mate?

This question was more related to the study. Students were asked if they always play with the same teammate. 63% answered “rarely” which shows that a student may choose any team mate to play with during a game. However 33% answered always, which is shows that there some specific aspects that a student sees before playing with someone.
Question 3: What factors so you consider before choosing a team mate?

This question was set to know if students take culture into consideration before choosing a teammate. The third question is direct to the point and needed a blunt answer from the students.

Question 4: Did you ever choose a team mate only because he/she belongs to the same community as yours?

Question 5: Have you ever been victim of “religious discrimination” while dividing teams?

Question 6: During recess or your free time, do you mingle with all community groups?

Question 7: Do you prefer to play with friends of the same culture?

Question 8: Do you feel at ease while playing with other cultural groups?

Question 9: In your school, do you find students mingling with all cultural groups while participating in group activities?

Difficulty faced by teachers because of culture difference
Diversity in culture, ethnicity and race presents difficult instructional challenges for teachers, particularly because the racial and ethnic inequalities and issues of intolerance that persist in society are mirrored in schools and classrooms. A teacher needs to find different strategies to work effectively with culturally diverse group of students. The teacher needs to develop a wider cultural understanding and more self awareness.