Culturally Proficient Educational Practices

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Culturally Proficient Educational Practices

• Rubric Session
• District School Board of Niagara
• Randall B. Lindsey
• October 5, 2007

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Session Purposes

• Engage in conversations and activities about the
  impact and influence of race, culture, ethnicity,
  language, sexual orientation, socioeconomics, and
  class on educational practice
• Introduce one of the cultural proficiency rubrics
  and explore its relationship to teaching,
  coaching, and leading

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In honor of

• Terry Cross

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Cultural Proficiency

• Is an inside-out approach
• Is about being aware of how we work with others
• Is about being aware of how we respond to those
  different from us

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Cultural proficiency is

• A mind set to guide educators and to build their
  confidence a paradigm shift for some
• The use of specific tools for effectively
  describing, responding to, and planning for
  issues that emerge in diverse environments
• Policies and practices at the organizational
  level, and values and behaviors of the leader
  that enable effective cross cultural interactions
  among students, teachers, administrators, and
  community
• A way of becoming and growing as a member of this
  community

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Name 5 Things

• Write 5 words or short phrases that describe the
  essence of who you are.
• These should be things that if taken away, you
  would not be the same person.

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Name 5 things - debrief

• What did you notice as you wrote your list?
• What did you notice as you shared your list?
• What did it feel like to have to cross items
  off your list?
• What did you learn about your colleagues?
• What did you learn about yourself?
• What conclusions can you draw about members of
  this group?

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Proficiency

• Downward Spiral Conversation

Incapacity
Pre-Competence
Destructiveness
Blindness
Competence
Upward Spiral Conversation
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Essential Elements for Effective Practice

• Assess Culture
• Value Diversity
• Manage the Dynamics of Difference
• Adapt to Diversity
• Institutionalize Cultural Knowledge

• The Essential Elements of cultural proficiency
  provide the standards for individual behavior and
  organizational practices

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Cultural Proficiency helps us to move FROM
TOLERANCE FOR DIVERSITY TO
TRANSFORMATION FOR EQUITY Destructiveness -
Blindness Precompetence
- Proficiency

• Focus on them and their inadequacies
• Tolerate, assimilate, acculturate
• Demographics viewed as challenge
• Prevent, mitigate, avoid cultural dissonance and
  conflict
• Stakeholders expect or help others to assimilate
• Information added to existing policies,
  procedures, practices.

• The focus on us and our practices
• Esteem, respect, adapt
• Demographics inform policy and practice
• Manage, leverage, facilitate conflict
• Stakeholders adapt to meet needs of others
• Information integrated into
• policies, procedures, practices.

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Curriculum Instruction Rubric
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Words often used to describe some groups and
implied terms for others

• Inferior
• Culturally deprived
• Culturally disadvantaged
• Deficient
• Different
• Diverse
• Third world
• Minority
• Underclass
• Poor
• Unskilled workers

• Superior
• Privileged
• Advantaged
• Normal
• Similar
• Uniform
• First world
• Majority
• Upper class
• Middle class
• Leaders

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Thinking about Change

• If you don't like something change it if you
  can't change it,change the way you think about
  it.
• - Mary Engelbreit

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3.2.1 Reflection

• 3 things I learned/affirmed from todays
  session
• 2 questions I take from todays learning
• 1 action I will take as a result of todays
  learning