Cultural Proficiency : A Manual For School Leaders Essay

Among staff behavior at my school site, I’ve seen and heard comments that reflect points from one end to the other on the Cultural Proficiency Continuum. Culturally destructive comments heard for the past several years such as “these parents need to learn English” to “our parents don’t support the teachers here” and more show that some teachers and staff I work with have a long way to go before being considered culturally proficient. On the other hand, I’ve heard comments that demonstrate cultural competence. The 2nd grade teacher that successfully recruited Spanish speaking parent volunteers to her classroom-and they continue to volunteer in her room this year even though their child is in another classroom! Thankfully, my school has several teachers that make it a priority to understand all families, and to make all members feel welcome and valued in their classrooms and school.

We have to provide multiple opportunities for students to grow and learn. We need to be a culturally diverse school district that accepts everyone and encourages a pluralistic culture. We need to work together with our

Relocating into a senior care facilities can be a frightening experience for the aging population. Getting familiar with new surroundings, new organization structure, and new people that can cause anxiety to rise. For a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer individual, this experience can be traumatic. The fear of harassment, hostility, and neglect by healthcare providers and caretakers can keep LGBTQ people from seeking care until their health begins to critically decline. LGBTQ cultural competency training is highly recommended for healthcare professionals and social service organizations. The greatest barrier that prevents quality health care for LGBTQ people is the lack of competence among the healthcare professionals.

Cultural competence has to do with one’s culture. Culture affects among other factors, how children are raised, how families communicate, what is considered normal or abnormal, ways of coping with issues, the way we dress, when and where we seek medical treatment, and so forth. I should know because I come from a very cultural home where it is considered bad to talk to a male doctor about anything gynecological.

I would advise Carolyn to study the makeup of our changing nation and evidence of this as seen in our neighborhoods. She should make an effort to learn more about the new cultural groups moving into the community and school so that she is informed and better able to serve the changing community. It’s not enough just to know which groups comprise the community, but she should learn the customs and provide communication in different languages as well. However, it’s not just Carolyn that needs to make this effort, her staff needs to do the same and purposely include all groups within the school atmosphere. The knowledge that the school leaders are willing to make an extra effort to learn about different cultural groups, new students, and their

America now is a very culturally diverse nation; most of the minority and immigrant population lives in cities, which indicates that the public school classrooms in urban areas are full of versatile cultural identities. According to the 2000 Census record, minority and immigrant populations has grown in increasing numbers, and most of those people live in urban areas and attend public high schools; also, the level of residential segregation still remains as high as in 1990, which proposes new problems for immigrants and minorities. Monocultural schools are very rare and the global society is very multicultural; it is very logical to prepare students in schools to enter this diverse society (Le Roux 48). Teachers are largely responsible

Culturally Responsive Teaching is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students' cultural references in all aspects of learning (Ladson-Billings, 1994). This approach to teaching encompasses how knowledge is both communicated and perceived by the students. The teacher must have a good relationship with the parents, have high expectations, learn about their students culture, have culturally mediated student-centered instruction, willing to reshape the curriculum, and be a facilitator in order to accomplish this method of teaching. These are key points a teacher must be willing to do if they intend to be an effective teacher especially in a highly culturally diverse area like central

In 1995, Delpit published Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. Although the excerpt analyzed in this paper is from a larger work, it was written by Delpit (1995) as a self-contained speech. This excerpt includes many of the concepts Delpit believes to be the basic cultural conflicts in the classroom, which are stereotyping, child-deficit assumptions and student isolation and invisibility. Delpit's goal is to "remove the dynamic of oppression that are inherent in any classroom…that come together when (primarily white) teachers spend time with 'other people's children'" (Delpit, 1995, pg.69). Through Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom, Delpit lays the foundation for multicultural

Step 6: The larger issue stems at the school administration. They need to make new policies about implementing lessons into the classroom about diversity in families. They should also make a parent meeting once a year about the different families at the school and how everyone can be more understanding and compassionate for diversity in the schools.

Understand cultural competence and why is it important especially for that have a diverse workforce.

Gaining learning and experience about other cultures background will enrich my multicultural knowledge. Therefore, as an educator I must learn about others culture. As I begin to learn about others cultures I will understand how values influence the ways families interpret the instruction that feels right to them. A close study on Figure 3.1 implies that a teacher’s point view or the way the students are treaty can affect their learning. It keeps narrating the story of a teacher that had to learn her students’ roots, their culture values, to get to know them in order to reach them in an academically level. The cultural values are very important and cannot be overlooked, they shape our intrinsic motivation. Many families try to keep their values and belief intact at home, so their children when they step in a classroom. Monica Brown, is the Department editor of Diversity Dispatch, argues in her article, Educating All Students: Creating Culturally Responsive Teachers, Classrooms, and Schools, that nowadays it is noticeable the diversity growths in schools, however, this is not the problem. The problem is the way teachers have responded to the diversity growth. (Brown, M. 2007). Therefore, this will affect the students learning. Brown cross with a strong point in regarding the lack of sensitivity some educators show towards their students’ culture. As educator I don’t want to be one of many teachers Monica Brown speaks on her article. I will understand that I must respect my

Being culturally proficient means that you are able to effectively respond to issues that arise from diversity in many cultural settings (Lindsey, Robins, & Terrell, 2009). A person's level of cultural can be described using the Cultural Proficiency Continuum (Lindsey et al, 2009). In the book White Teacher, the author Vivian Gussin Paley, explores her experiences as a teacher and how these experiences helped her gain cultural proficiency and move upwards on the cultural proficiency continuum.

The leader is an African American female from Jackson, Mississippi. She was born and raised in the city of Jackson and received her educational degrees from a Mississippi Institution. She stayed in the area of Jackson to continue to motivate and build a stronger school district. This professional was very aware of her own culture because she expressed it in a multitude of ways. She was very active in the church; she attends as well as the community. She held various after school activities that involved all of the community to attend like PTA meetings, Pep Rallies, School Picnics, Parties, Prayers meetings, etc… She also likes to involve her staff to

According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, cultural competence comprises of “understanding and appropriately responding to the unique combination of cultural variables that [individuals] bring to interactions (2004).”

and to build a world culture of human beings who resolve disputes in ways that