cultural competency training for schools.

1. Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities
Presents:
Cultural Competency

2. Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities
450 Columbus Boulevard, Hartford, 06103 | www.ct.gov/CHRO | (860) 541-3400
What is Cultural Competency?
Understanding and valuing diversity while managing the dynamics of cultural
differences.

3. Why is Cultural Competency Important?
 IMPROVING STUDENT
OUTCOMES
 SUCCESSFUL
EDUCATIONAL
EXPERIENCES
 RESPECT
 INCLUSIVE EXPERIENCE
 VALUES THE STUDENT
 MOTIVATION
 FAIRNESS
 RELATIONSHIP
BUILDING BETWEEN
STUDENTS/FAMILIES/
SCHOOLS/SUBJECT
MATTER
 SENSE OF SELF

4. Facts and Statistics
 1 OF 9 STUDENTS IS ESL (English is a second
language) or ELL
 5.9 MILLION CHILDREN
 DIFFERENT CULTURES
– LEARNING STYLES
– INFORMATION SHARING STYLES
– WAYS OF SOLVING PROBLEMS/DEALING WITH CONFLICT
– ie: teacher focused v. collaborative; memorization v.
experiment

5. Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities
450 Columbus Boulevard, Hartford, 06103 | www.ct.gov/CHRO | (860) 541-3400
Definitions:
 Culture: An integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thoughts, communications,
languages, practices, beliefs, values, customs, courtesies, rituals, manners of interacting,
roles, relationships, and expected behaviors of a racial, ethnic, religious or social group; the
ability to transmit the above to succeeding generations; is dynamic in nature. (National
Center for Cultural Competency, 2004)
 Ethnicity: Of or relating to large groups of people classed according to common racial,
national, tribal, religious, linguistic, or cultural origin or background. (National Center for
Cultural Competency, 2004)
 Race: a “construct of human variability based on perceived differences in biology, physical
appearance, and behavior.” (Haynes & Smedley, Eds., 1999)
 Gender Identity: A person’s internal sense of being male, female, or something else. Since
gender identity is internal, one’s gender identity is not necessarily visible to others.
 Sexual Orientation: A person’s emotional, sexual, and/or relational attraction to others.

6. Culture is a continual construction
 Each person has many cultures
– Ethnicity or ancestry
– Business or industry
– City or town
– Religion
– Generation
 An individual’s culture changes
over time based on many
influences they encounter
 While it changes, culture is
central to one’s own self-
definition

7. Gender vs. Sex
Gender
 Based on self-identification,
external expression and
cultural norms
 Is fluid and can change
throughout life
Sex
 Based on physical and
genetic properties
 Determined at birth

8. Racial/Ethnic/Religious/Economic Differences
 Not only African-
American/Hispanic/Cauca
sian/Asian
• U.S. Born, foreign born
• Differences between
countries
 Native English
Speaker/non native
 Holidays – religious and
cultural
 Live with
Parents/grandparents
 Working/non-working
 Home
owners/renters/shelters
 Other differences?

9. Cultural Blindness vs. Cultural Competency
 Cultural Competency
appreciates differences
and values them.
– Tries to integrate
differences into
interactions
– Seeks to look at things
through the eyes of
others
 Cultural blindness is
when you believe
cultural differences
don’t matter.
– Overlooks the
importance of culture
– Tends to result in looking
at people through the
lens of the viewer
Mason et al.’s Cultural Competence Model (1996)

10. Understanding Implicit bias
We all have our own
biases
 Unconscious
 Come out during stress
or times we don’t have
a “script”

11. Self-Awareness
 Recognize that your
own values,
assumptions and biases
may not be shared by
everyone
 TEST: Do you see a
rabbit or a duck in the
picture to the right?

12. Attitudes
 An attitude is your
evaluation of some concept
(person, place, thing, or
idea).
 Explicit attitudes are those
you deliberately think about
and report
 Implicit attitudes are
positive and negative
evaluations that occur
outside your conscious
awareness and control
Information taken from the Harvard Project Implicit at
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/faqs.html

13. Stereotypes
 Stereotypes are the belief
that most members of a
group have some
characteristic
– Women are nurturing
– Police officers like donuts
 Like attitudes,
stereotypes can be
explicit (thought about
and reported) or implicit
(beyond conscious
thought)
Information taken from the Harvard Project Implicit at
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/faqs.html

14. Example: The Doctor Riddle
A father and son have a car accident
and are both badly hurt. They are
both taken to separate hospitals.
When the boy is taken in for an
operation, the surgeon (doctor) says
'I can not do the surgery because
this is my son'.
How is this possible?

15. Doctor’s Riddle Examined
 Solution: The doctor was the boy’s
mother
 Recent research shows that older
generations tend not to get the right
answer
 Younger generations still show a bias
with about 15% of college students
able to get the right answer
 When children under 10 were given
the riddle in 2014, some students
answered “the boy has two fathers,”
showing an increased normalization
of LGBT parents but the same sex-
stereotyping
Richard Barlow, “BU Research: A Riddle Reveals Depth of Gender Bias,”
https://www.bu.edu/today/2014/bu-research-riddle-reveals-the-depth-of-gender-bias/

16. Institutional Bias
“Those established laws, customs, and practices
which systematically reflect and produce group-
based inequities in any society. An institution
may be biased whether or not the individuals
maintaining those practices have biased
intentions”
Henry, P.J. (2010). Institutional bias. In: J. F. Dovidio, M. Hewstone, P. Glick, & V. M. Esses
(Eds.), The Sage Handbook of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination (427). Sage;
Newburg Park, CA.

17. Examples of Institutional Bias
 Hiring choices based off
of networking
 Police racial profiling in
traffic stops
 Wage gap between men
and women
 School
meetings/activities
during the day

18. What are “Micro-Aggressions”
Brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages
to certain individuals because of their group membership.
 Assuming minorities are foreigners or from a different
country
– “But where are you originally from?”
 Clutching your purse when walking past young men of
color
 Making sexist or racist jokes because they are “all in
good fun”
Paludi, Michele A. (2012). Managing Diversity in Today's
Workplace: Strategies for Employees and Employers. Praeger.

19. What Message Is Sent by Micro-Aggressions
 Assumption of
Intellectual Inferiority
 Second-Class Citizenship
 Assumption of Criminality
 Assumption of Inferiority
 Assumed Universality of
the Minority Experience
 Assumed Superiority of
Majority Cultural Values
Derald Wing Sue; et al. (Summer 2008). "Racial Microaggressions Against Black Americans: Implications for
Counseling" (PDF). Journal of Counseling & Development. Retrieved 11 September 2014.

20. Influence of Stereotypes and Micro-Aggressions
Stereotype:
Women aren’t
as good as
men at math.
 In a controlled study, young girls who are
reminded about negative stereotypes
concerning math skills tend to
underperform.
 Boys tend to rate their math skills higher
than girls of equal measured ability. This
leads to more boys self-selecting STEM
majors in college which leads to more
men in those fields.
 This leads to stereotypes in that field. For
example, male associate professors are
2.5X more likely than women to be
promoted to full professors controlling
for age, seniority, field, and academic
productivity.
https://genderedinnovations.stanford.edu/institutions/bias.html

21. WHAT CAN YOU DO TO BE MORE
CULTURALLY COMPETENT

22. Most Important Thing: Recognize Your Implicit Biases
 Recognize that implicit
bias is natural and can
never be fully
eliminated
 Try to recognize your
own biases and
compensate for them
Information taken from the Harvard Project Implicit at
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/faqs.html

23. Take On a Mindset of Openness
 Be open to change and
encountering new things
 Understand that cultural
differences do not have to
get in the way of
meaningful relationships
 Don’t react negatively
when someone brings up
something against your
own belief system

24. Remember That Individuality is Key
Recognize that you may
have stereotypes about
other races but that
individuals need to be
respected and treated as
their own persons

25. Recognize Institutional Discrimination
Recognizing the power dynamics
of institutional bias and
discrimination and how they
affect disadvantaged groups can
help overcome differences
 Be aware that a person may
view certain institutions
differently
 Also be aware that what may
have been easier for you may
not be so easy for someone
else

26.  Color-blindness does
not work
 Be aware of individual
and group differences
and incorporate them
STRATEGIES con’t

27. Don’t Be Afraid of Language Differences
 If you meet someone who does not speak the same language
as you, it is okay to ask for help
 If you hear a word you are unfamiliar with, ask them what it
means. If you use a word they don’t understand, explain it to
them.
 Recognize the differences in language within a cultural group,
that there can be cultural variation within a language group,
and that there is variation in literacy levels across all language
groups.

28. Involve Those You’re Working With in What You’re Doing
 Be prepared to change what you’re doing and
how you’re doing it based on those you’re
working with
 For example, if you are a teacher teaching
students about history, listen to feedback from
students about what topics to go over or
about what kind of projects to do

29. Provide Positive Counter-Stereotype Role Models
 If you are having
speakers present, try to
get speakers that don’t
fit stereotypes.
 In a teaching
environment, include
modules on non-white
historical figures (and
not just in Black History
Month).

30. Students and Teachers are Individuals
 Get to know students/families
 Share cultures as part of lessons
– Avoid singling out/speak for the group
 Some parents have negative associations with
school
 There may be language/child care/other
issues

31. QUESTIONS