Lesson 4) Global Citizenship and Fundamental British Values: Cultural Diversity

This is a lesson that focusses on the FBV of tolerance and mutual respect. It looks at worldwide variations in family structures, gender and religion. It encourages students to see their ideas of ‘normal’ (i.e. in France they drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road) as simply another way to do things. Hopefully without slipping into complete relativism, students are encouraged to question, develop and refine their opinions rather than give any opinions up all together. Learning objectives include:

Does culture affect what is ‘normal’?
How and why does culture affect religion, gender and family?
Extension: Does the information in this lesson change how you think about your own norms and values?

Tasks are differentiated by outcome, with group learning carousel, whole class discussion, and individual tasks all incuded. Questions become increasingly high level as they go on. Suitable for KS3-5. With some simplification it could work with KS2, but it would take some work to do so. It includes in the powerpoint slides to print out with the information on the case studies and a document about the many different forms of Islam in the world, and how culture affects religion. (As an aside, I could have chosen any religion. Christianity has 40 000 types!)