The Concept of Culture and Its Significance for School Counselors

Abstract

Understanding the role of culture, as it affects attitudes and behavior, can be extremely useful in the social service fields for enabling more effective communication across social barriers. However, in connection with the "culture of poverty," or "cultural disadvantage," the culture concept has often been distorted, and transformed into a stereotype behind which the individual is not revealed, but hidden. Specific examples of productive and unproductive uses of the concept in school guidance work are discussed. Another aspect of the cultural dimension, understanding of which is useful to the school counselor, is the nature of the counselor's role in relation to the institutionalstructure of the school.T H E CULTURE CONCEPT, central to the field of anthropology, is becoming increasingly familiar in the social service fields. When properly applied, the idea of "culture" can be extremely useful for the understanding of behavior and the breaking down of many barriers to effective communication. However, like most ideas, it can also be distorted, and defeat the very purpose it should serve. This paper will discuss the appropriate use of the culture concept, and indicate the way it can be distorted when incorrectly ap-ELEANOR LEACOCK is Professor of Anthropology, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn,

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