Highly Qualified & Culturally Competent

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Highly Qualified Culturally Competent

• Is It Too Much To Expect of Public School
  Teachers?

Dr. Rodney Davis
Troy University
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Purpose

• Explore Cultural Competence
• Inform so we can lead others
• Create a dialogue between educators
• Initiate change

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Outline

• Introduction
• Highly Qualified vs. Effective Teacher
• Activity 1 Recipe for Effective Teaching
• Diversity Brings New Challenges
• Activity 2 I Am From Poems
• Is There a Doctor in the House?
• Cultural Competence Defined
• Do We Need to be Culturally Competent?
• How do we Pursue Cultural Competence?

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Introduction

• NCLB Profoundly Impacted Education
• Changed what is taught
• Who teaches it
• How its taught
• How we assess what is taught
• Depending on your perspective
• The government is intruding into a States right
• The government is taking direct action to improve
  schools
• If successful, NCLB will change the face of
  education for the next 50 years!

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Four Guiding Principles

• Stronger accountability for results
• Teeth in the legislation
• Increased flexibility and local control
• Funding comes in state level activity grants
• Expanded options for parents
• Increased voice in school choice
• Substantive role in volunteerism
• Emphasis on teaching methods that have been
  proven to work
• Scientifically based research

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Tragically, over the last seven and a half years
of the Clinton-Gore Administration, our nation
has experienced an education recessiona decline
and stagnation in student achievement. Too many
schools are not teaching our children basic
skills, such as reading and writing. Too many
schools are plagued by violence and disorder that
hinder learning and development. And children who
want to excel in subjects like math and science
are not given enough opportunities to realize
their potential. George W. Bush
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Teacher Quality

• Concern, Too many classrooms are being led by
  professionals who lack qualifications.
• Most often, educators who are teaching out of
  field
• Research has shown that next to the parent,
  teachers are directly responsible for student
  achievement.
• Rod Paige asserted that a teachers general
  cognitive ability combined with experience
  content knowledge linked to teaching
  effectiveness.
• NCLB Goal Highly Qualified Teacher in Every
  Classroom by end of 05/06 School year.

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Highly Qualified Defined

• Hold at least a bachelors degree from a four
  year institution (degree must require an academic
  major in a field math vs. math education)
• Hold full state certification
• Demonstrate subject competence as measured by
  some type of exam.

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HQT Definitions Suggests

• Degree
• Certification
• Content Knowledge

?
Student Achievement
Teacher
?
Focus is on Inputs
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What HQT Doesnt Say

• Doesnt say anything about effective teaching.
• Goal of education is learning not just
  achievement.
• We all may know someone who meets the definition
  of HQT but is ineffective in the classroom
• We also may know someone who does not meet it and
  is still effective.
• No connection between credentials and creating
  learning environments
• Doesnt address the need for educators to be
  prepared and willing to use culture to create a
  positive learning environment.

What does an effective teacher look like?
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Is HQT Enough?

• Given the growing diversity of Americas
  public school students and the demands that all
  students meet AYP adequate yearly progress
  there is substantial evidence that teachers need
  more than context knowledge to be effective.
• Berry, 2004

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Activity 1 Recipe for Effective Teaching
Your Turn
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Diversity Brings New Challenges

• Harold Hodgkinson predicts by the year 2050
  elementary and secondary classrooms will be
  composed of 51 ethnic and racial minority
  students.
• Flowers predicts that current minority
  populations will be the majority in as little as
  20 years.

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Where are we Diverse Now?
Source 2000 US Census
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What about in 25 years?
South Southwest West
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What is the Classroom Impact of Increased
Diversity?

• Acceptance that the homogeneous classroom is a
  relic of the past.
• Faculty must reflect diversity.
• Preparation programs must be modified to help
  pre-service teachers to be prepared to work with
  diverse populations.
• Curriculum must be written to not only pay lip
  service to diversity awareness but to
  wholeheartedly incorporate it.
• Teaching practices must change.
• Realization that culture impacts learning.

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Traditional Teaching Model
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Cultures Impact on Learning

• Culture is
• Reference framework that helps us to interpret
  our world. (Surbone, 2004)
• Set of learned beliefs and behaviors that control
  how members of the group view the world. (Robbins
  in McClean, 2004)
• Culture is a lens through which the individual
  views the world which can enhance or impede the
  learning process.

Communication
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Cultural Barriers May Distort The Message
Lunch!!!!
Please Dont call On me!!
Pi squared? Pi are round! Cornbread are square!
Culture
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Tried and True Methodologies
Tried and true methodologies that were successful
in years gone by may not meet the needs of a
multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi- lingual, and
multi-cultural classroom the next generation of
teachers will stand before.
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Activity 2 How are we diverse?

• Places
• Products
• Food
• People
• Common Things
• Pictures
• Events
• Phrases
• Smells
• Sounds
• Sights
• ouches

Your Turn
I am From. . .
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I Am From Reflections

• What similarities and differences among the
  members of your small group did you notice in
  your discussion of the I Am From poem?
• What did you learn about race and culture from
  this activity?
• How do the different elements in your personal
  culture and I Am From inform/influence/motivate
  the work you do how you do it and why you do it?

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Is There A Doctor in the House?

• Cultural Competence is a relatively new term for
  educators.
• Not much written about it.
• One will find 1365 medical psychological
  journal articles on this topic.
• Articles span a plethora of major journals
  including Journal of the American Medical
  Association.
• These articles date as far back as 1990 and as
  recently as last month.
• They show that the medical profession is
  seriously considering the elements of effective
  care and the role that culturally competent
  healthcare providers play in it.

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Some of the Progressive Conclusions

• America is much more diverse today than 20 years
  ago.
• It will only become more diverse.
• This diversity means increased diversity in the
  healthcare practice
• The diversity is not limited to one region of the
  country.
• Sensitivity to diverse populations is not enough
• Practitioners need to be proactive in their
  understanding of culture and have the ability to
  use a patients beliefs in the care protocol.
• Ex. May mean that hospital gowns need to be
  redesigned to reflect differing understandings of
  modesty.
• One size fits all does not really fit all.
• Effective healthcare treats the individual as an
  individual and recognizes that culture plays a
  role in the patients healing.
• Race, ethnicity, and language have a substantial
  impact on doctor-patient relationships.

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Some of the Progressive Conclusions

• New ways of working with and relating to the
  patient are needed.
• Providers need to be open to alternative
  medicines and holistic approaches to healthcare.
• Understanding the culture of the patient is
  important in providing quality service.
• Healthcare workers will need to be specially
  trained to work with diverse populations.
• This means they must be culturally competent
• The training will not be a one-shot-wonder but an
  on-going effort.
• The objective is providing effective care for the
  patient
• Caregivers that are not culturally competent may
  impede the healing process.
• The results of culturally incompetent care can be
  serious for the patient.
• Leaders in healthcare must take a proactive
  approach in helping their employees to become
  culturally competent

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These conclusions beg the question, if they are
true for the medical profession, one that is
client/patient centered, are they not also true
for the educational profession that promotes its
child-centeredness?
Answer
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Medical Definitions of Cultural Competence

• A willingness to recognize and accept that there
  are other legitimate ways of doing things, as
  well as a willingness to meet the needs of those
  who are different, including those with
  disabilities. (Cartledge, 2002)
• Campinha-Bacote has defined cultural competence
  as the process in which the health care provider
  continuously strives to achieve the ability to
  effectively work within the cultural context of a
  client, individual, family or community. This
  process requires nurses to see themselves as
  becoming culturally competent rather than being
  culturally competent. (Doutrich, 2004)
• Barrera Kramer define cultural competence as
  the ability of service providers to respond
  optimally to all children, understanding both the
  richness and the limitations of the
  socio-cultural contexts in which the children and
  families as well as the service providers
  themselves may be operating. (Le Roux, 2002)

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Core Aspects of Cultural Competence

• Proactive-Dont Wait, Take Charge!
• So knowledgeable of other cultures that the
  teacher, is so comfortable that they can create a
  learning environment that is culturally friendly
  and conducive to individual learning for all
  students.
• It is much more than a simplistic awareness or
  sensitivity of diversity.
• Before one can understand other cultures the
  individual must understand his or her own culture
  and how it influences their behavior.
• A willingness to be culturally competent.
• No one can be forced to be or become anything.
  The desire begins with the individual.
• Cultural competence is more than understanding
  race or gender.
• It involves knowledge and action in relation to
  beliefs, values, rituals, and language.
• Cultural competence extends beyond the patient or
  the student but includes the family and the
  larger cultural group.

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A Working Definition

• Knowledgeable of the specific elements of other
  cultures as well as their own.
• Sensitive to the needs of students from other
  cultures.
• Able to incorporate the values, beliefs,
  traditions, customs, rituals, religion, and
  language of diverse cultures into the teaching
  and learning process.
• Aware of the perceptions of distinct culture
  groups towards education and public schooling.
• Able to communicate with parents and students
  from other cultures.
• Willing to use alternative methods that make
  material culturally relevant to the students.
• Understands that because students come from
  different cultures, they do not see the world
  through the same lens.
• Therefore, what is appropriate to one culture may
  not be appropriate to another.

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Is There a Relationship Between Effective
Teaching Cultural Competence?

• Dr. Richard Carmona, U.S. Surgeon General,
  supports this belief when he stated, We have to
  really appreciate the culture these patients come
  from and embrace it, because we cannot be
  effective in our jobs as health professionals
  without understanding how patients understand
  their health and illness. (Odom-Forren, 2005, p.
  79)

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Why Become Culturally Competent?

• Our classrooms are becoming and will continue to
  become more diverse.
• Having the ability to work with multiple cultures
  and racial groups strengthens the effectiveness
  of a highly qualified teacher.
• A greater degree of participation by the student
  in the learning process.
• Using terms and techniques that are culturally
  responsive may encourage students to participate
  in the learning process to a greater degree.
• This action tells the student that their beliefs
  are important and relevant to the learning
  process.
• A reduction in the failure rate.
• How many students fail each year because they are
  not being taught by someone who understands how
  culture impacts the learning environment?
• Cultural competence may help to change students
  and their familys attitudes toward education.
• For some, western education has not been a
  positive experience.

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How do we create a culturally competent learning
community?
1
Children are affirmed in their cultural
connections
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Interactions stress collectivity as well
as individuality
Teachers are personally inviting
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Principles for Building a Learning Community
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Classroom is managed With firm,
consistent loving control
Classroom is physically inviting
3
Relationships Precede Learning
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Changes made to accommodate culture
are essential to learning
4
Students are reinforced for academic development
Source Creating Culturally Responsive Classrooms
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Any Questions?