Essential Elements
- Assess Culture: identify the cultural groups present in the system and claim your own differences (i.e., departmental cultural assessment)
- Value Diversity: develop an appreciation for the differences among and between groups, recognize that differences add value to the environment (i.e., diversity activities in office)
- Manage the Dynamics of Difference: learn to respond appropriately and effectively to the issues that arise in a diverse environment; if conflicts arise, reframe differences so diversity is not perceived as a problem to be solved (i.e., providing mediation convo and space to learn how to conduct tough convos)
- Adapt to Diversity: change and adopt new policies and practices that support diversity and inclusion (i.e., providing curriculum and information about change)
- Institutionalize Cultural Knowledge: drive the changes into the system and organization
Barriers to Cultural Proficiency
- Unawareness of need to adapt
- Resistance to change
- Systems of oppression and privilege
- A sense of entitlement: believing all ones personal achievements and societal benefits one has accrued are due solely to merit and quality of one’s character
HOW TO OVERCOME BARRIERS:
- attend workshops on diversity
- personal reading on cultural proficiency
- become aware of one’s biases and stereotypes
- invite students to share about their family holiday practices in order to give students a window into peers’ cultural traditions
- invite guest speakers from different backgrounds
Principles of Cultural Proficiency
- Culture is a predominant force
- People are served in varying degrees by the dominant culture (need to recognize there is privilege among dominant cultures; colleges primarily built for the dominant culture may lack services that respond to unique needs of minoritized students)
- There is diversity within and between cultures
- Every group has unique culturally-defined needs (need to understand experiences to develop programs and services that are more supportive)
- People have personal identities and group identities (cannot generalize and treat all individuals within a culture the same because they have multiple identities)
- Marginalized populations have to be at least bicultural
- Families, as defined by culture, are the primary systems of support
- The diverse thought patterns of cultural groups influence how problems are defined and solved
- The absence of cultural competence anywhere is a threat to competent services everywhere
Cultural Proficiency Continuum
Do I Bake Pretty Chocolate Cupcakes:
1. Destruction: eliminate differences; elimination of other people’s culture; see the difference and stomp it out (ex: supporting ICE visiting campuses and screening students)
2. Incapacity: demean differences; believe in superiority of one’s culture and behavior that disempowers another’s culture; see the difference and make it wrong (ex: “Asian students come to this country and succeed. Why wouldn’t the other students coming to this country do so as well?”
3. Blindness: dismiss differences; acting as if cultural differences you see do not matter or not recognizing that there are differences among and between cultures; see the difference and act like they don’t (ex: “I don’t see color. I just see students.”)
4. Pre-Competence: respond inadequately to the dynamics of difference; awareness of the limitations of one’s skills or an organization’s practices when interacting with other cultural groups; see the difference at times, but respond inappropriately (ex:
“I value all cultures. On the last day of finals, I have a day where students each bring food representing their country.”)
5. Competence: engage with differences using the essential elements as standards for individual behavior and organizational practices; see the difference and value it (ex: If a student makes a derogatory remark, counselor uses it as a teachable moment)
6. Cultural Proficiency: esteem and learn from differences as a lifelong practice; knowing how to learn about and from individual an organizational culture; interacting effectively in a variety of cultural environments; advocating for others; see the difference and esteem it as an advocate for equity (ex: active in a committee that helps create culturally relevant lessons into the curriculum)
Why is Cultural Proficiency important?
- Learn and develop an understanding of other perspectives
- Students can learn to work together
- Educators can attend workshops on diversity
- One can become aware of own biases and stereotypes
- Makes us better able to advocate for our students
- Helps address achievement gaps and what can be done to support disadvantaged students (i.e., places to study, healthy meals, finances)
4 Tools for Developing Cultural Competence
- Barriers: caveats that assist in overcoming resistance to change
- Guiding Principles: underlying values of the approach; a response to the barriers
- Continuum: language for describing both health and non-productive policies, practices, and individual behavior and values
- Essential Elements: behavioral standards for measuring the planning for growth toward cultural proficiency
