Description
Hello, this assignment is straight forward. Interview a person from a different religion and culture background. You can use yourself as the interviewee BUT the interviewer in this scenario is a Muslim with a Middle Eastern background.
Bellow are the requirements for the assignment.
Cultural Interview: Exploring the Bottom of the Cultural Iceberg –
Inquiry into the heart of mystery
Assignment Learning Outcomes:
At the completion of this assignment, you will be able to:
• Comfortably engage in a conversation with someone of a different religious faith using nonviolent communication, multicultural communication and dialogic skills that include the ability to listen without judgment, hold a space of respect, ask strategic questions, and even disagree without creating unhealthy tension or stress for either party;
• Demonstrate more knowledge about the history and main tenets of a particular religious faith through your own scholarly research;
• Write and speak consciously about one’s own cultural and religious worldview within a diverse group of peers; and
• Extend your understanding beyond the boundaries of your own worldview by demonstrating the ability to be empathetic about another person’s perspective, beliefs, values (world view) and experience.
Menu of Choices – As adult learners, you get to choose how you will develop your inquiry process regarding a particular religion to ensure that your paper contains a high enough level of personal, intellectual, and cultural depth and self discovery to warrant a good grade. Upon completion of your draft, you and your peers will be given a chance to evaluate your paper using the multicultural rubric distributed earlier in the class. Your instructor will evaluate your final paper.
Suggestions for Ways to Meet the Learning Outcomes:
1. Select a religious faith you know almost nothing about. (required)
2. Do historical and in-depth research about your selected religion—for example, read passages from their sacred text, watch films, explore other texts and Internet sites. Your paper must include at least three different research articles or Internet sites with a summary of each. Citations required in the text.
3. Choose someone in this class or someone outside of class whom you know is willing to have a conversation with you about their faith. Take notes or audiotape your conversation. Explore together the sameness and differences of what you believe/what they believe using your listening skills, your practice of curiosity, respect, and suspension, and the skills in Crucial Conversations. (required)
4. Through dialogue and conversation, intentionally put yourself in a position of discomfort in order to learn new communication skills that result in the development of empathy, openness, and curiosity. (required)
5. If possible, attend a religious service – temple, church or mosque of the faith you are exploring. (suggested)
Format:
Write a Critical Research and Reflection paper, 3-5 pages, on a particular religion that you choose to explore and a summary of your interview experience and what you learned. Your paper should be written in narrative form and include the following three sections:
1. Selected Religion – Research and Findings and Interview
This section should begin with a critical reflection of what you learned about the religion you studied. Choose to focus on several elements to discuss. For example, what “blew your mind” as you studied and learned about this particular faith that was in dramatic contrast to what you believe. Include a summary of each of your three research sites to support your statements making sure to cite your research. Attach a Works Cited page listing your research sources.
This section must also include a well-developed summary of your interview with another person about their faith. What did you discuss? What questions did you ask? What did you learn? What communication skills became important to you as you listened? Compare your skill level in this interview with your first interview. How have you improved and in what areas? One page minimum.
2. My Own Worldview
This section provides an opportunity to explore your own thinking and belief systems in contrast to what you studied and researched. You can use the “What I Believe” handout to guide your thinking here. Write at least three paragraphs about your own beliefs remembering that cultural contrasting is one of the best ways to make visible your own beliefs and practices. For example, you might write about where your beliefs came from, or perhaps the development of your own spiritual or religious practices beyond what you were taught as a child. In other words, what do you believe to be true for you that is now clearer as a result of your research and interview? One page minimum.
3. Evidence of New Multicultural Skills as a “Global Citizen”
This section is an opportunity for you to review what we have discussed, read, and been in dialogue about in this class. You should take time to go back over your notes, the various texts, and handouts. You should review your conversation with your interviewee. What did you learn about yourself as a multicultural communicator? Where has been your greatest area of growth as a multicultural communicator? Use the rubric to point to specific areas of growth. Be specific. What about your understanding of privilege and agency/target? The various readings and videos? What skills, new knowledge and attitudes do you have that you didn’t have coming into this class? How has this new learning prepared you to participate in the world in a different way? Support your writing with evidence. The more evidence the better. One page minimum.
Correct APA citation required. Double spaced. Include a Works Cited page.
Rubric for 2nd cultural interview
Criteria | Ratings | Pts | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeBe clearly organized and formatted with three separate headers labeled Part 1, 2, and 3. |
| 5.0 pts | ||
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeHave a clear focus, relating specific skills and concepts you are learning in this class about critical conversations, culture, cultural differences, and the challenges as a cultural listener through your interview experience. |
| 10.0 pts | ||
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Have a conclusion that makes a broader yet clear point about yourself as a cultural communicator and what you've learned through this experience – was this assignment more difficult for you than the first one? If so, why? If not, why not? Where were your challenges in this interview? Where were your strengths? What did you do well and what do you wish you could do over? What communication skills made a difference in this interview compared to your first one? |
| 10.0 pts | ||
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeBe mostly free of basic grammatical and vocabulary errors, and easily comprehensible to the reader |
| 5.0 pts | ||
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeDraft completed on time (and brought to class on peer review evening -- or other arrangements made and approved by the instructor) |
| 10.0 pts | ||
Total Points: 40.0 |

Explanation & Answer

Attached.
Running head: HINDUISM
1
Cultural Interview: Hindu with an Indian Background
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
HINDUISM
2
Cultural Interview: Hindu with an Indian Background
Part 1: Selected Religion: Hinduism
After conducting an extensive research on Hinduism, several key lessons were learned,
with some of them being breathtakingly mind blowing. One of the most important features
learned about Hinduism is that it is a polytheistic religion. Hindus believe that god—or
goddesses—can present themselves in a wide array of forms, but the overall supreme energy is
unified. This was an important lesson, especially considering that all the other major religions are
monotheistic. In addition to being polytheistic, Hinduism is also liberal and respects religious
diversity, implying that Hindus respect the beliefs and values of the people from all other
religions. According to Soherwordi (2011), Hinduism presses much emphasis on the correctness
of practice, rather than belief. In his article titled “'Hindusim'-A Western Construction or an
Influence,” Soherwordi argues on whether there are strong Western foundations in the Hindu
religion, and ends up mentioning that orthopraxy is more important than orthodoxy.
Another aspect that blew my mind was the idea of a circular flow of time. Hindus do not
conform to the Western linearity of time; rather, they believe that life is shaped in terms of
cycles, whereby the past, present, and future interact in a never-ending cycle of events (Barua,
2011). In the article, Barua’s main line of reasoning is that despite the various perspectives
painted about Hinduism by different forces and interpreters, the religious values and beliefs are
still staunch, and the concept of timelessness is deeply embedded into the crust of the religion.
This idea of a cyclic temporal model is founded on the belief that God is timeless. This was
dramatic for me because I always thought tha...
