Culture provides the context for how people understand meaning and behave. It influences language, thought, and the process of knowing. Culture is not just knowledge about a society's artifacts and customs, but the framework through which people communicate and live. Education both shapes and is shaped by culture - a school imparts shared values to students and aims to preserve cultural heritage, while a curriculum must consider students' cultural backgrounds to be effective. A teacher must understand the cultural context to properly teach values and connect lessons to students' lives. Overall, culture and language together form the lens through which people gain knowledge and make sense of the world.

1. Role of Culture in
Knowing
By. Dr. Kshetrimayum Sajina Devi

2. Role of Culture in Knowing
Culture gives information that can serve to explain why people behave in a
certain way. Culture will help us to understand the reasons behind people’s
behaviours. The culture into which a child is born acts in more fundamental
ways as the means of knowing. As knowing is a meaning making process
the meanings to the concepts are provided by the language of the society
and the cultural context. Language is a good indicator of how a culture is.
There is relationship between language and the mind in creating meaning.
Culture significantly contributes to meaning.
Daniel Everett says there is relationship between culture and language.
Language itself appears to be a cultural invention. Language is a tool
moulded by culture. An account of meaning ultimately needs to include all
three points together like language, mind, and culture.

3. It is the language in its cultural context that creates meaning. Creating and
interpreting is done within a cultural framework. Without it, we are in effect
a linguistic dunce. In language learning classrooms, learners need to
engage with the ways in which context affects and what is communicated
and how. Both the learners’ culture and the culture in which meaning is
created or communicated have an influence on the ways in which possible
meanings are understood.
Living in culture and acquiring cultural knowledge enables us to gain
meaning from the world around us and from each other.

4. You must have experienced that the meaning of one object or thought varies
from one cultural context to another. For example, a person considered to be
intelligent in the cultural context may not be considered so in another culture.
Thus, the very process of experiencing reality is facilitated by the cultural tools.
In a distinct way from internal sources, culture acts as a means of knowing and
knowledge. This is true in case of school knowledge, which is textual
knowledge. Culture has often been understood as a body of knowledge that
people have about a particular society. This body of knowledge can be seen in
various ways as knowledge about cultural artefacts, and as knowledge about
places, symbols, and ways of living. It is possible to teach this aspect of culture
in terms of information, which can be mastered by students.
It can also be instrumental in influencing and shaping both thought and
language. Culture is not however simply a body of knowledge, but rather a
framework in which people live their lives and communicate shared meanings
with each other.

5. Culture and Education
Culture and education relate to each other. Culture plays its role in developing
good attitudes, social qualities, critical thinking, and ethnic and cultural literacy
among children, and promotes effective relationship between home and school.
One of the fundamental goals of education is to preserve culture and to impart
cultural heritage from one generation to another.
Knowing the cultural background of student education can frame the structure
of classroom to provide effective instruction. The school has to shape
individuals through shaping culture. The school imparts values such as co-
operation, team-spirit, discipline, and skills. Later, these skills and values are
incorporated within the culture of society. In celebrating national or
international festivals, the cultural approach is used. Culture in these contexts
influences the various norms and ideas of the society and of the country.

6. School Culture- A school has its own culture. It is characterised by the
presence of a set of norms and values that focus everyone’s attention on
what is important and motivates them to work hard toward a common
purpose. It fosters effort and productivity. Improving collaborative activities
promotes better communication and problem solving. Schools approach
curriculum building with culture in mind. A curriculum that builds on a
student’s cultural understanding proves to be more effective because
students can relate it to their own lives.

7. Teachers’ Role in Cultural Context
Teacher, before teaching, should understand the country culture, value
problem and see that taught values are transferred in student’s life. Teachers
Teachers should teach on scientific basis and honestly. Nowadays culture
conscious education is becoming common. The very function of culture is
to foster values, and the task of education is to make this process more
conscious and practically defensible, and the role of curriculum is making it
effective. As culture changes, so also our educational system’s major factors
such as educational objectives, curriculum, teaching method, evaluation
techniques, school activities, teacher attitudes, and school environment
change. Culture gives holistic learning and connects to other disciplines and
determines the usage of education in society.

8. The role and influence of education in culture leads to the following
changes-
The traditional classroom is replaced by communication and technology.
Child centred education comes in to existence. Adult education takes place
in the field of education through the scheme of educating the illiterate.
Girls who had no opportunity of education, now achieve higher levels of
education.
Diffusion of good culture by quality education makes it possible for culture
to maintain its place in society. Culture strongly influences how an
individual approaches education, and a society’s culture determines how
that society educates its citizens. Thus, we see how culture plays its role in
knowing and knowledge.