What is “culture?”
Based on Hofstede and McCrae’s “operating definition,” culture is: The collective programming of the mind that distinguishes one group or category of people from another. This stresses that culture is (a) a collective, not individual, attribute; (b) not directly visible but manifested in behaviors; and (c) common to some but not all people. (Source: Cultural dimensions of Indigenous participation in education and training)
Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, including power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, long vs. short time orientation and masculinity vs. femininity are a framework for cross-cultural communication developed by Geert Hofstede. His theory describes the effects of a society’s culture on the values of its members, and how these values relate to behavior. Various research studies examine Hofstede’s cultural dimensions on students’ learning styles in education. I found that Hofstede’s cultural dimensions has been tested in a number of cross-cultural samples (E.g. Does Culture Influence Learning Styles in Higher Education?) and could be a useful tool for my research on educational design.