Linking Identity & Achievement Through Cultural Competence

Linking Identity & Achievement through Cultural Competence Resource Bundle

I. Teaching for Cultural Competence Resource

II. Graphic Organizer

III. Planning Template & Exemplar – Supplement

IV. Examples & Illustrations – Supplement

V. References

How to use this guide:

1. Review definitions of cultural competence, and the educational outcomes associated with it. 2. Review the actions and strategies that correspond with each outcome. 3. Consider the extent to which you currently perform – or could perform – these actions. 4. Prioritize an action or set of actions for implementation in your classroom. 5. Reflect, and engage in the process again.

What is cultural competence? (Definition)

For students who are members of historically marginalized, oppressed, or underrepresented communities1:  Developing pride in one’s cultural heritage and identity; maintaining the ability to function effectively in one’s culture of origin while simultaneously gaining access to the dominant culture (Ladson-Billings, 1995a, 1995b, 1999, 2000, 2014; Morrison et al., 2008; Paris, 2012).

For all students:  Developing the ability to interact and communicate sensitively in multiple cultural contexts  Acquiring knowledge and awareness of the dominant culture, and a commitment to fight against oppression in all its forms (Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1995a, 1995b, 1999, 2000, 2014; Paris, 2012; Scharf, 2014)

Outcome: Pride in one’s cultural heritage and identity

Associated Actions Strategies

 Provide opportunities for students to study and learn about the history, heritage, and people of their cultural group(s), and their contributions to your content area.  Provide opportunities for students to read and analyze I incorporate the history and culture(s) of my students into texts (as well as art, film and music) written from the the curriculum (Noguera, 2008). perspectives of members of their cultural group.  Explore historical and modern examples of people (particularly people who share your students’ cultural background) resisting and challenging oppression.

 Use events and issues of concern to your students as topics of academic study. I place students’ lives and cultural sensibilities at the  When introducing new content, build on student center of my curriculum background knowledge: create examples, analogies, (Christensen, 2009; Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008). and explanations that are rooted in students’ frames of reference. Use students’ pop cultural knowledge as a subject of study, and as a bridge for academic learning.

1 Historically, students from racial, ethnic, or linguistic minority groups have had their identities rendered inferior or invisible by mainstream educational practices. Many have felt a strong dissonance between their academic identity (i.e. who they are expected to “be” in school) and their cultural identity, and forced to choose between the two (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Valenzuela, 1999). By developing cultural competence, these students can maintain their cultural heritage and practices while also performing at a high level academically.

Associated Actions Strategies  Invite students to use their home language or dialect in your classroom.  Invite students to teach you (and other students) words I “put out the linguistic welcome mat” and expressions from their native language. (Christensen, 2014, p. 137).  Explicitly discuss which forms and uses of language are most appropriate for different social and academic situations.

Outcome: Ability to navigate multiple cultural contexts

Associated Actions Strategies

 Establish the norm that each student in the classroom deserves to feel safe and valued in his/her identity, and I proactively build a classroom culture centered on address any breaches to this norm. empathy and respect.  Teach students how to suspend judgment, ask questions, and seek to understand.

 Provide opportunities for students to share knowledge, I create opportunities for students to learn from difference experiences, and values with one another. (Gay, 2000; Paris & Alim, 2014).  Expose students to cultures, ideas, and perspectives different from their own.

Outcome: Knowledge of dominant culture

Associated Actions Strategies

 Teach the speaking, writing, and communication skills needed in order to access and successfully navigate I explicitly teach knowledge and skills that students need the dominant culture. to successfully navigate the dominant culture  Frame these skills as an addition to, rather than a (Camangian, 2015; Delpit, 1995). replacement of, students’ existing ways of speaking, writing, and interacting.  Investigate (and discuss) why certain ways of speaking, writing, and interacting are afforded more social power I explicitly teach the knowledge and skills that students than others. need to critique the dominant culture.  Explicitly teach and investigate the concepts of bias and hegemony, and the ways in which these forces function to oppress different groups of people.  Position students to use the knowledge and skills of I create space for students to explore and discuss issues your content area to investigate and challenge related to race, culture, language, and power (Nasir, stereotypes. 2012).  Position students to investigate and discuss issues of race, racism, and discrimination.

What is cultural competence?

Definition Notes

Why teach for cultural competence?

Reasons Reactions

How to teach for cultural competence

Actions Ideas for my classroom

 Incorporate the history and culture(s) of my students into the curriculum.  Place students’ lives and cultural sensibilities at the center of my curriculum.  “Put out the linguistic welcome mat.”

 Proactively build a classroom culture based on empathy and respect.  Create opportunities to learn from difference.

 Explicitly teach knowledge and skills that students need to successfully navigate the dominant culture.  Explicitly teach the knowledge and skills that students need to critique the dominant culture.  Create space for students to explore and discuss issues related to race, culture, language, and power.

Prioritized action/strategy:

Implementation  When will I start doing this?  How will I do this?  What will I observe for?

Reflection  When will I pause to reflect on progress toward outcomes?  What will show evidence of progress – both my own and my students’?

Build a classroom culture centered on empathy and respect; create opportunities to Prioritized action/strategy: learn from difference.

 During the first week we come back from Fall Break, I am going to place a focus on promoting empathy and learning from difference.

 I am going to revisit classroom norms with my students, and add the norm that each person in the class deserves to feel valued based on who he or she is. We will talk about things that can make others feel valued or devalued, and then use class discussions to start practicing some specific skills: Implementation o Suspending judgment: When we encounter a different idea, opinion,  When will I start doing this? person (or just difference in general), seeking to learn more instead of  How will I do this? making an immediate judgment. Will discuss the concept of biases, and  What will I observe for? how they can cause us to judge things unfairly. o Seeking to understand: Asking questions to learn more about another person’s perspective, rather than assuming we know where they’re coming from.

 I am going to observe my students’ behavior and interactions toward one another. I want to see if students begin holding themselves (and each other) accountable to this new norm, and if they begin to speak to each other in more affirming ways.

 I am going to prioritize this action for the next three weeks, and stop to reflect at the end of each week. I am going to use the following “data points” to inform my reflection: o Students’ behavior during class discussions: Are students asking questions to learn from one another? Are they considering different ideas rather than immediately agreeing or disagreeing? Are speaking to each other respectfully? Do their comments show an ability to “put themselves in Reflection the shoes” of others?  When will I pause to reflect on progress toward outcomes? o Observation of student interaction: Are all students in the class treating  What will show evidence of each other with respect and dignity? Are they holding themselves (and progress – both my own and others) accountable for breaches to this norm? my students’?

 I am also going to survey my class after two weeks to hear their thoughts on these questions: o Do you feel safe and valued in our class? Why or why not? o Do you feel like you can be yourself in our class? Why or why not? o Do you feel that you have learned more about your classmates in the past two weeks? Why or why not?

Actions:  Place your students’ lives at the center of the curriculum  “Put out the linguistic welcome mat.”

Grade/ Example/Illustration Content Area

Middle school  In his article “Teaching through the Test,” Diaz (2012) describes a unit that he developed for his (grades 6-8) 6th-grade students on the DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education of Alien Minors) act. language  Students learned expository reading and writing standards as they researched the law, read arts/social articles about it, and explored how it would affect different groups of people. studies  All of the students in the class were Latino, and several were either undocumented or had close family members and friends who were.  In the unit, students explored a topic related to their cultural identity that impacted them personally. As part of the unit, students wrote letters to legislators arguing for act’s passage (at the time of the unit it had not yet become law).

Appropriate for  In her essay “Raising Children’s Cultural Voices” multicultural educator Berta Rosa Berriz (2014) various grade advocates using autobiographical writing to strengthen children’s identity while also developing levels and academic skills. content areas  In autobiographical writing students can share experiences, voice concerns, and dialogue with

the teacher.  Students are allowed to use words and expressions from their native languages, but also receive instruction and modeling on the use of Standard English.  Berriz states, “Autobiographical writing is key to the positive cultural identity formation of children who have been inhibited by negative immigration experiences or by racism” (p. 200).

Copyright © 2017 Arizona Board of Regents, All rights reserved  SanfordInspireProgram.org Actions:  Build a classroom culture based on empathy and respect.  Create opportunities for students to learn from difference.

Grade/ Example/Illustration Content Area

Appropriate for  In their book Open Minds to Equality, Schniedewind and Davidson (2014) describe a classroom various grade community-building activity called “We Are Each of Many Traits.” levels and  Teacher and students discuss the concept of social identities, or identity markers. These include content areas things like race, ethnicity, gender, age, languages spoken, religion, ability/disability, as well as others that students themselves can brainstorm.  Students list the social identities they have that feel most important to them, and that they feel comfortable sharing. They then discuss these lists in pairs or small groups.  This discussion can then transition into a creative project where students represent (and share) their identities artistically. For example, the authors describe students creating flowers from construction paper where their identities form the petals.

Appropriate for  In the essay “Teaching Students Fluency in Multiple Cultural Codes,” Carter (2008) reminds various grade teachers that it is important to practice what they preach. levels and  Specifically, they should commit to “learn something about the languages, dialects, and self- content areas presentations that the students value” (p. 100). They can do this learning by spending time in students’ communities, visiting students and their families, and interviewing students with the goal of learning more them.  Building a classroom culture based on empathy and respect begins with modeling an affirmative attitude toward difference.

Pre-K to third  Teaching Tolerance offers a free DVD and teaching kit for pre-K through third grade teachers grade called Starting Small: Teaching Tolerance in Preschool and the Early Grades.  It contains lesson ideas and activities specifically geared toward very young children, with the goal of developing empathy and affirmative attitudes toward difference.  To order a free copy, visit www.teachingtolerance.org/resources.

Copyright © 2017 Arizona Board of Regents, All rights reserved  SanfordInspireProgram.org Actions:  Teach knowledge and skills that students need to navigate the dominant culture.  Teach knowledge and skills that students need to critique the dominant culture.  Create space for students to explore issues related to race, culture, language, and power

Grade/ Example/Illustration Content Area

Reading /  In her 2014 essay “Ebonics and Culturally Responsive Instruction” Lisa Delpit offers advice on language arts - how to affirm and maintain students’ existing language practices while also helping them access appropriate for the “politically popular dialect form in this country” – Standard English (p. 169). various grade  First, it is essential to recognize that language and dialect are intimately connected to family, levels community, and identity. For that reason, correcting a student’s language or suggesting it is wrong implicitly suggests that something is wrong with the student him or herself. Instead, Delpit suggests making the study of language diversity part of the curriculum.

Examples of studying language diversity at different grade levels:  Young children can read and discuss picture books written in the dialects of different cultural groups and compare words, syntax, and approaches to storytelling.  Students in all grades can be positioned as “language detectives,” where they interview different people and analyze different radio and television programs to find similarities and differences in the ways people express themselves.  Older students can use drama (plays, acting, video production) to “get the feel” of speaking Standard English within the context of performance – and not under constant threat of correction. Delpit states: “Playing a role eliminates the possibility of implying that the child’s language is inadequate and suggests, instead, that different language forms are appropriate in different contexts” [emphasis added] (p. 170).

All of these activities would involve study (and discussion) of the conventions of Standard English. However, this study would be framed in terms of adding to students’ written and verbal repertoires, so that different language forms can be deployed in the situations for which they are most advantageous.

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