Am I Culturally Competent?

I remember being eight years old and coming to school with liverwurst and pickles in my lunch box. Other times I discovered some RyKrisp crackers, cheese, and a smelly hard-boiled egg. It’s a wonder that I had any friends at all with a lunchbox like that! No one ever wanted to trade his or her Twinkies for a pickled herring roll, either. I won’t even get started telling you about the perfectly pressed and tailored dresses I wore... or the um-pa-pa music that resounded from the family stereo on Saturday nights. Yes, my house sounded different, looked different, and even smelled different from my best friend’s house.

As a first generation German-American “W.A.S.P.” living in a predominantly Jewish and Catholic suburb outside of Los Angeles I understand all too well how the cultural weave of a geographic area can impact our lives. I grew up with mixed emotions about my ancestry. I remember feeling ashamed of my heritage for the horrors that I learned about during our history lessons. On one hand I was taught about the brilliance of my family culture (e.g., Beethoven, Goethe, and Einstein), and on the other I was haunted by the atrocities committed by Hitler and his regime. Living in a community of screenwriters and actors didn’t help to ease the drama of my inner conflicts surrounding my cultural identity.

It wasn't until later in my life that I discovered 

that cultural identity is not only how we see ourselves, 

but also how we would like others to see us.

As I write my reflection of the past six weeks of study, I am compelled to contemplate my indoctrinated beliefs as an American, as the daughter of immigrant parents, as a wife, a mother, educator, student, writer, artist, and also as a community member. I discovered that among my many dimensions I am foremost a patriotic American citizen. Discussions between online student peers about what America is–or isn’t – provoked thoughts that prompted further dialog with friends, family members, and colleagues. These discussions have not only helped me to understand myself better, but more poignantly they have helped me to understand other cultures more intelligibly.

The research that I have conducted over the past month or so has taught me that there are many factors to consider to truly understand cultural diversity. The image of a melting pot suggests that we disregard our ancestral histories and morph into one. I have come to take a different vantage point of this metaphor. I see us as more of a tossed salad- pickles and all! When our differences are celebrated rather than disputed we find paths to accordance. If we consider our differences as strengths we will empower ourselves and each other to become vibrant, impactful citizens of our schools, communities, and country.

This sort of self-reflection has led me to seek out additional sources of inspiration to become more culturally sensitive. Some resources that I found to continue my culturally proficient practices are the CTA (California Teachers Association) and ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development). Both of these organizations offer expansive guidance to provide innovative solutions in professional development, capacity building, and educational leadership. The ACSD community includes advocates from more than 138 countries, and includes 56 affiliate programs. I am looking forward to utilizing these tools available to me to enrich my practices through improved actions and methods.

“Cultural competence… is the ability to successfully teach students who come from other cultures than your own. It entails developing certain personal and interpersonal awarenesses and sensitivities, learning specific bodies of cultural knowledge, and mastering a set of skills that, taken together underlie effective cross-cultural teaching”
(Diller & Diller, 2010, p. 5).

One change that I plan to create toward furthering culturally responsive practices is to share ideas that support multi-culturalism in curriculum with my colleagues. As a curriculum writer for my grade level Literature lessons I will seek out text that supports today’s vision of cultural diversity. Literature and text that promotes intercultural dialogue, diversity, and inclusion will help to combat polarization and stereotypes. Students who experience improved understanding and cooperation among people from different cultures will view world cultures as a source of creativity and inspiration, rather than as a threat.

I am currently involved as a Teacher Leader at my school site. In addition to my role as a teacher of record I write and design curriculum that integrates world history with art. I realize the impact that these lessons can have on potentially hundreds of students. I train parent volunteers to actively engage in, teach and facilitate these lessons. I am keenly aware of the importance of uniting the cultures of the world’s history with the mindset of our students, staff, and families. Here are some checkpoints that I will share with my colleagues and parent volunteers as a result of my research throughout this course:

FOUR BASIC CULTURAL COMPETENCE SKILL AREAS

Valuing diversity: Respecting different cultural backgrounds and customs, different ways of communicating and different traditions and values.

Being culturally self-aware: Understanding that your own culture — all your experiences, backgrounds, knowledge, skills, beliefs, values and interests — shapes who you are, where you fit into your family, school, community and society, and how you interact with students.

Understanding the dynamics of cultural interactions: Knowing there are many factors that can affect interactions across cultures, including historical cultural experiences and relationships between cultures in a local community.

Institutionalizing cultural knowledge and adapting to diversity: Designing educational services based on an understanding of students’ cultures and institutionalizing that knowledge so that educators and the learning environments they work in can adapt and better serve diverse populations. 

Source: NEA Human and Civil Rights Department

I believe that by working together toward shared common goals we can build a future that is filled with hope and the promise. When a community of learners is genuinely supported the joy of learning is exponentially higher. Creating an environment that is safe and inclusive transforms mediocre classroom lessons into powerful learning zones. It's all about making connections. Students who are attentive, thoughtful, and inquisitive about learning have made personal connections to the learning. As a culturally proficient teacher I will continue to strive to understand my students better and include their interests, cultures, and specific needs into my daily lesson planning, implementation and delivery. Developing a student's love of learning begins with understanding the student.

Our community of learners extends past our faculty and  organization. Our top-down approach to creating a culture that is both respectful and proactive is contagious. I am positively engaged in creating a future that is filled with opportunity and equity for all learners. Developing a culture of inquiry, trust, and engagement invites all learners to participate.

All countries and all people are special in their own unique ways. The shared experience of learning and discovery is a gift that we give generously to each other.

As for accepting my own cultural heritage? Today I am proud to say that I eat liverwurst and pickles with gusto! I am a consortium of my experiences. I am grateful for all of the people I have learned from who have shaped who I am today. Most of all I have learned that culture runs much deeper than food, music, and traditions. Stories of triumph and despair, of wins and losses, and especially of enlightenment are the stories of a people. Our collective consciousness is related through our stories. These need to be preserved if they are to be inherited for future generations to learn from their past. Progress is the act of moving forward by learning from our experiences, with mindfulness of the greater good. Culture that is deeply rooted will live on and continue to add dimension for all of us to spring forward from. What sort of ancestor will I be? I suppose that all depends on how the rest of my story is written.

RESOURCES

Diller, J. V., & Diller, J. M. (2010). Cultural Competence: A Primer for Educators . :

Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Optiz, M. F., & Ford, M. P. (2014). Engaging Minds in the Classroom: The Surprising Power of Joy . : ACSD .

California Teacher's Association. (2014). Retrieved from    https://www.cta.org/en/Professional-Development/Publications/2012/06/June-Educator-2012/culcomp.aspx

Robins, K. N., Lindsey, R. B., Lindsey, D.B., & Terrell, R. D. (2006). Culturally
       Proficient Instruction (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press,
       A Sage Company.