Transcript Cultural Proficiency Tools for School Leaders

Cultural Proficiency
Tools for School Leaders
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Your Facilitators
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Kikanza Nuri Robins, EdD
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Principal, The Robins Group
Randall B. Lindsey, PhD
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Interim Dean, California Lutheran University
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Associate, The Robins Group
Co-Authors of the Cultural Proficiency books
(Corwin Press)
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Cultural Proficiency
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A mind set; a way of being
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The use of specific tools
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Policies and practices within organizations
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Values and behaviors of individuals
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The gift of Terry Cross
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A Culturally Competent System of Care, 1989
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An Inside-Out Approach
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Tied to your core values
Using your organizational structure and
systems
Described with your language
Building on your organizational norms and
traditions
Infused, transformed, and bolstered with
the tools of Cultural Proficiency
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Cultural Proficiency Helps
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To create learning communities
among and between educators and
students
To align your values and educational
philosophies with your daily practices
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A Moral Frame for Teaching
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A commitment to practice in an exemplary way
A commitment to practice toward valued societal
ends
A commitment not only to one’s own practice,
but to the practice itself
A commitment to sharing knowledge and skills
with other professionals
A commitment to the ethic of caring
Sergiovanni, 1994
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Education
in and for Democracy
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The best case for public education has always been that
it is a common good.
As the main institution for fostering social cohesion in an
increasingly diverse society, publicly funded schools
must serve all children, not simply those with the loudest
or most powerful advocates. This means addressing the
cognitive and social needs of all children, with an
emphasis on including those who may not have been
well served in the past.
Michael Fullan, The Moral Imperative of School Leadership
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Major Equity Events
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Mendez vs. Westminster - 1947
Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education 1954
School desegregation cases
Public School Accountability Act - 1999
No Child Left Behind - 2002
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The Tools of
Cultural Proficiency
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The Continuum
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The Essential Elements
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Behavioral standards for measuring, and planning for, growth
toward cultural proficiency
The Barriers
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Language for describing both healthy and non-productive
policies, practices and individual behaviors
Caveats that assist in responding effectively to resistance to
change
The Guiding Principles
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Underlying values of the approach
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The Continuum
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There are six points
along the cultural
proficiency continuum
that indicate unique
ways of perceiving and
responding to
differences.
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Cultural
destructiveness
Cultural incapacity
Cultural blindness
Cultural
pre-competence
Cultural
competence
Cultural proficiency
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The Power of Context
It is not the heroic actions of tackling
complex societal problems that count;
instead, “the power of context says that
what really matters is the little things.”
Fullan 2003
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Activity
Words often used
to describe some groups and implied terms for others
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Inferior
Culturally deprived
Culturally disadvantaged
Deficient
Different
Diverse
Third world
Minority
Underclass
Poor
Unskilled workers
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Superior
Privileged
Advantaged
Normal
Similar
Uniform
First world
Majority
Upper class
Middle class
Leaders
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Activity
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Examples along the Continuum
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Reflect on comments you have heard,
situations you have experienced, and events
you have observed
Where would you place them on the
continuum?
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Research-Based Pedagogy for
Narrowing the Achievement Gap
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Teachers have a clear sense of their own
cultural identities.
Teachers communicate high expectations for
learning and a belief that all students can
succeed.
Teachers are committed to achieving equity for
all students and believe they are capable of
making a difference in students’ learning.
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Narrowing the Gap,
continued
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Teachers cease seeing students as the other.
Teachers provide academically challenging
curriculum that includes the development of
higher-level cognitive skills.
Teachers guide students to create meaning
about content in interactive, collaborative
environments.
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Narrowing the Gap,
continued
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Teachers provide learning tasks that students
see as meaningful.
Teachers provide a curriculum with multiple
perspectives.
Teachers scaffold new and challenging
curriculum to existing student resources and
knowledge.
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Narrowing the Gap,
continued
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Teachers explicitly teach students to know and
maintain a sense of ethno-cultural pride and
identity.
Teachers encourage parents and community to
become partners in students' education.
Parents are given a significant voice in making
decisions related to school programs and
resources.
B. Williams, Closing the Achievement Gap, 2003
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The Essential Elements
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The Essential Elements
of cultural proficiency
provide the standards
for individual behavior
and organizational
practices
Assessing Culture
Naming the
differences
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Valuing Diversity
Claiming the
differences
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The Essential Elements (cont.)
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Managing the Dynamics of Difference –
Reframing the differences
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Adapting to Diversity -
Training about the differences
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Institutionalizing Cultural Knowledge –
Changing for differences
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Activity
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Making Room at the Table
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Examine a few of the tables at which you sit.
How did you get there?
Do you have a voice?
How do you help or hinder others who want
to sit at the table?
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The Barriers
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The barriers to cultural
proficiency are systemic
privilege and resistance
to change
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The presumption of
entitlement
Systems of
oppression
Unawareness of
the need to adapt
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The Guiding Principles
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The Guiding Principles are
the core values, the
foundation upon which the
approach is built
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Culture is a predominant
force
People are served in
varying degrees by the
dominant culture
Acknowledge group
identities
Diversity within cultures
is important
Respect unique cultural
needs
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Courageous Leadership
There are many persons ready to do what is right
because in their hearts they know it is right. But
they hesitate, waiting for the other [one] to make
the first move – and [the other], in turn, waits for
you. The minute a person whose word means a
great deal dares to take the openhearted and
courageous way, many others follow.
Marian Anderson, 1956
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The Moral Imperative
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Listening . . . requires not only open eyes
and ears, but open hearts and minds. We
do not really see through our eyes or hear
through our ears, but through our beliefs.
. . . It is not easy, but it is the only way to
learn what it might feel like to be
someone else and the only way to start
the dialogue.
Lisa Delpit
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A Culturally Proficient Vision
Equity will be a reality when children from minority
racial, cultural, socio-economic, and linguistic
backgrounds experience statistically similar rates
of meeting high standards as do children from
the majority culture.
Bay Area Educational Equity Task Force
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