Assignment on Cultural Autobiography

Assignment on Cultural Autobiography

Students will explore facets of their identity by examining personal values, cultural identity, family history, and current lifestyle.  As part of this experience, they will compose a 6 page double spaced cultural autobiography paper that addresses the constructs that are most salient to their identity (e.g., ethnicity, race, culture, spirituality, class, gender, sexual identity, etc.).  The narrative needs to consider the multigenerational perspective and should address how familial, ethnic, cultural influences, and life experiences have contributed or led to their current sense of self.  Other considerations are how the student feels identity may impact interpersonal relationships and professional work (especially those in the counseling track), particularly regarding work with different cultural groups.  For more information, please refer to the information and grading rubric below.

Assignment on Cultural Autobiography

Topics to reflect upon in writing this paper include:

• With what cultural and/or ethnic group do you identify?  Please trace back three generations.
• Discuss what messages (verbal and nonverbal) you received about your cultural or ethnic background and what childhood experiences reinforced them.
• What messages did you receive about other cultural or ethnic groups?
• Describe the childhood, adolescent, and current experiences or relationships that shaped your negative views of people who are culturally different than you.
• Describe the childhood, adolescent, and current experiences or relationships that shaped your positive views of people who are culturally different than you.
• Describe some experiences that may have influenced you to change the way that you view people that are culturally different than you.

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Assignment on Cultural Autobiography

• Describe at least three other self-identities that are most pertinent to you.
• What gender assumptions/biases are common in your cultural group?
• How is sexual orientation regarded? How did your family help shape your attitudes about sexual orientation?
• How have your cultural identities been influenced by your experiences of oppression, power, and privilege?
• On which identities have you experienced privilege?
• How does your privilege currently affect your work at your sites?
• How do you plan to manage value conflicts with your client?
• What groups do you think that you will have the most difficulty working with? The least difficulty? Why?
• What are the implications of these answers for your work with clients from both similar and dissimilar cultural backgrounds?

Feel free to interview family members or other important persons in your life to learn about the contexts in which your cultural identities and values have developed.