Cultural Competence as an Ethical Requirement: A New Theoretical, Measurement, and Training Framewor

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Cultural Competence as an Ethical Requirement A
New Theoretical, Measurement, and Training
Framework

• Selcuk R. Sirin, Ph.D.
• Mary M. Brabeck, Ph.D.
• New York University
• Lauren Rogers-Sirin, Ph.D.
• Drew University

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Outline of Presentations

• Theory Introduction of James Rests
  four-component model and professional ethics
  literature.
• Measurement Introduction of Racial and Ethical
  Sensitivity Test.
• Training Introduction of an intervention program
  using the REST framework

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1. Conceptual Framework
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Growing need for culturally competent school
professionals

• Children of color and students for whom English
  is their second language are the majority groups
  in many, especially urban, schools.
• The number of minority students increased by 16
  from 1972 to 1999.
• 38 percent of public school students were
  considered to be the members of minority groups
  in 1999.
• 90 of teachers who work with these children are
  White and are predominately women.

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Two sources informed our conceptual thinking

• Rests (1983) four-component model of ethical
  behavior and professional ethics literature.
  James Rests theory of ethical behavior
• The codes of ethics as accepted by professional
  organizations.

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James Rests (1983) Four-component Model

• Rather than viewing ethical behavior as a unitary
  process, James Rest (1983) suggested a
  four-component model that explains ethical
  behavior
• 1. Ethical Sensitivity
• 2. Moral Judgment
• 3. Moral Motivation
• 4. Moral Action.

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Component I Ethical Sensitivity

• The identification of the salient ethical aspects
  of a situation.
• Recognizing different possible courses of action
  and the ways these choices will affect concerned
  parties.
• People who are ethically sensitive are aware of
  different possible choices of action and how each
  line of action can affect the parties concerned.
  They can conceptualize causeconsequence chains
  of events that might follow from ones action.
  The psychological processes of ethical
  sensitivity include empathy and
  perspective-taking skills.

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Component II Moral Judgment

• Formulating the morally ideal course of action by
  integrating various moral considerations and
  weighing moral principles.
• Make judgment about which line of action is more
  morally justifiable.

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Component III Moral Motivation

• Deciding what one actually intends to do. Simply
  because the morally ideal course of action has
  been defined does not mean that a person will
  choose to follow it.
• Moral motivation determines the importance given
  to moral values when compared to other motives.
• Failures in ethical action due to deficiencies in
  Component III occur when a person does not put
  moral values higher than other values such as
  protecting ones self, or gaining recognition or
  success.

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Component IV Moral Action

• Executing and implementing ones intentions.
• A person might be ethically sensitive, be able to
  make good moral judgments, and place a high
  priority on moral values, but if this person
  lacks the skills to behave in a moral way (e.g.,
  to assist a drowning man), or is distracted or
  discouraged, then moral failure will occur.
• Moral action requires a person to have moral
  character, ego strength, perseverance, strength
  of conviction, and courage.

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Professional Codes of Ethics

• There are 8 school-related professional
  organizations (AASA, ACA, APA, ASCA, NASP, NEA
  and Feminist Therapy Institute and the Office of
  Ethnic Minority Affairs etc).
• These organizations specified professional
  requirements for school psychologists, guidance
  counselors, social workers, administrators,
  teachers, and nurses.
• We reviewed each codes of ethics and through
  content analysis, we found 6 ethical principles
  which were used to develop the scenarios.

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Six Common Ethical Principles

• 1. PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE conducting oneself in
  a manner that brings credit to oneself and ones
  profession.
• 2. INTEGRITY being aware of ones professional
  values, needs, limitations and their effect on
  ones work.
• 3. PROFESSIONAL AND SCIENTIFIC RESPONSIBILITY
  upholding the standards of ones profession.

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Common Ethical Principles (cont.)

• 4. FOR OTHERS RIGHTS AND DIGNITY treat
  colleagues and students/clients with respect, and
  uphold the rights and dignity of all persons.
• 5. CONCERN FOR OTHERS WELFARE recognize the
  impact of adverse contextual factors in assessing
  problems and caring for students/clients needs.
  
• 6. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILTY act in socially
  responsible ways, try to reduce suffering and
  improve the well-being of others.

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According to our conceptual framework

• Cultural competence is a professional, ethical
  requirement for school professionals, not merely
  a personal choice.
• School professionals must acquire the necessary
  skills to act in accordance with the ethical
  codes of their profession.

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PART IIDevelopment of Racial and Ethical
Sensitivity Test (REST)
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What is Racial Ethnical Sensitivity Test (REST)?

• The Racial Ethical Sensitivity Test (REST) is a
  video-based measure of ethical sensitivity to
  racial and gender intolerance.
• The initial REST consisted of five videotaped
  scenarios and corresponding in-person interview
  protocols (Brabeck, Rogers-Sirin, 1998).
• The REST-CD (Brabeck Sirin, 2001) is the
  computerized version of the REST.
• The Quick-REST is the third, brief version of the
  REST.

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Rests theory of ethical development

• Rests first component, Ethical Sensitivity,
  provided the theoretical framework for this
  project.
• Specifically, we developed a measure to asses
  ethical sensitivity for professionals (e.g.,
  psychologist, counselors, teachers, coaches,
  social workers, principals,etc.) .

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Scripts based on real-life experiences

• In order to identify failures in ethical
  sensitivity that occur in real life, we reviewed
  incidences of intolerance appearing in newspaper
  articles and conducted focus groups with
  university students of color and women who
  reflected on their own experiences with
  professionals.
• From the information gathered, we wrote short
  descriptions of several instances of racial and
  gender intolerance. This information served as a
  base for our scripts.

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Production of the videos

• A professional playwright developed these scripts
  into complete scenarios, and professional actors
  were hired for final video productions.
• At the end of this process, we created five video
  tapes Faculty Lounge Basketball Practice
  Residence Hall Northside High Math Class.
• Each video depicts 5 to 9 real-life instances of
  intolerance that violates one or more of the six
  ethical principles.

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Computerized Version of the REST (REST-CD)

• The REST-CD was developed by digitizing the
  scenarios and importing all the items in the
  in-person interview to an interactive CD-ROM
  format.
• The REST-CD was created for two purposes 1) in
  order to make the REST more efficient by
  eliminating the costly in-person interviewing and
  transcription process, and 2) to standardize the
  interview protocol.

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Participants

• Participants were 219 school professionals
  ranging from graduate students to experienced
  teachers who work in NJ schools.
• There were 174 female and 45 male students whose
  ages ranged from 18 to 46 with a mean age of
  24.70 (SD6.58).
• More than half of the participants identified
  their ethnic and cultural background as White
  (56.9).

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Reliability of the REST scores

• Cronbachs alpha for the Faculty Lounge scenario
  was .82.
• Cronbachs alpha for the Faculty Lounge scenario
  was .90.

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Divergent Validity Discrimination Index

• We found that the correlations between the Quick
  Discrimination Index (Ponterotto et al.) and the
  Quick-REST scores were all in the expected range
  of -.47 and -.51 and provide support for the
  convergent validity of the REST-CD scores.
• At the same time, the moderate correlations
  indicate that the REST-CD is measuring a
  different construct from the CDI.

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Social Desirability Effects

• We found no significant relation between the
  Quick-REST and Social Desirability Index (SDI).
• There were, however, significant correlation
  between the SDI and the other measures in our
  study (.14, plt.05), indicating a clear advantage
  for using a video-based questionnaire.

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Important predictors of ethical sensitivity

• Gender Females scored significantly higher than
  males in both scales (FL and BP).
• Education Teachers with a graduate degree scored
  significantly higher than teachers with a
  bachelor degree.
• Teachers scored significantly lower than other
  professionals in the BP scale.

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PART IIIIncreasing School Professionals
Cultural Competence A Theory-driven Training
Program
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Stereotypes and Discrimination in Schools
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Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson (1995)

• Black and White participants took a simple verbal
  test.
• Half the participants were told that their
  performance would be an indication of
  intellectual ability (ability-diagnostic group).
• The other half were not told anything about the
  purpose of the test (nondiagnostic group).

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• The U.S. Department of Educations Office for
  Civil Rights continues to receive a high number
  of complaints about racial, ethnic, and gender
  harassment
• Racial and gender intolerance need not involve
  physical conflict or have a malicious intent to
  be detrimental.
• Disapproving and distrustful attitudes toward
  women and students of color can subtly be
  conveyed through a tone of voice, posture, and
  gesture, as well as in overt statements.

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Consequences of intolerance

• All of these intentional and unintentional daily
  acts of intolerance can adversely affect the way
  these students feel about themselves, their
  peers, and their schools.
• This, in turn, can affect adjustment to school
  and academic success, psychological well being,
  and even physical well-being.

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Steele and Aronson Continued

• Because there is a negative stereotype that Black
  people are intellectually inferior to whites, the
  researchers predicted that Black participants
  would underperform in relation to whites in the
  ability-diagnostic group, but not in the
  nondiagnostic group.

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Steele and Aronson Continued

• Their predictions were supported by their
  findings, and they concluded that when stereotype
  threat is activated, Blacks do not perform up to
  ability.
• In other research, Steele used similar methods to
  demonstrate how gender stereotypes negatively
  affect womens performance.

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Implications for School Professionals

• If one takes these results and applies the
  concept they illustrate to the school system, it
  is probable that many students of color and women
  underperform when there is no active attempt to
  counter the negative stereotypes that pervade our
  culture.

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Kailins Teacher Attribution Study (1999)

• Kailin (1999), conducted research on how teachers
  address racism in schools.
• They asked white teachers to describe incidences
  of racism in their schools.
• Their responses were coded in terms of the
  attributions they made about the causes of the
  racist incidences.

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Kailin continued

• They found that the majority of the teachers
  blamed the victim, meaning they attributed the
  cause of the racist incidences to the Black
  people involved.
• Further, in describing their reactions to racist
  behaviors of others, most did not say or do
  anything in response.

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Richmond et al. 1997

• Richmond et al. 1997 found that White educators
  who were asked to predict the IQ and GPA of
  African American and White students estimated the
  African American IQs and GPAs as significantly
  lower than the white students despite the lack
  of evidence to support these views.

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Hauser-Cram, Sirin, Stipek, 2004 When Values
Differ

• We investigated the effects of cultural mismatch
  between teachers and pre-k students parents.
• When teachers believed the education-related
  values of parents differed from their own, they
  rated children as less competent academically and
  had lower expectations for their future academic
  success even after controlling for childrens
  actual cognitive performance.

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Implications

• These studies show the painful reality of racism
  in modern American schools, and the urgent need
  to make educators and other school professionals
  recognize their professional responsibility to
  take an active stance against racism and sexism.

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The goals of this workshop

• Our goal in this workshop is to make schools more
  just environments and in turn, more conducive to
  learning in two ways
• by improving your ability to recognize ethical
  dilemmas related to race and gender,
• by increasing your effectiveness in responding to
  these dilemmas

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Discussion Questions

• Have you ever experienced or witnessed racism in
  the workplace?
• Have you ever experienced or witnessed sexism in
  the workplace?

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Racial and Ethical Sensitivity Training Philosophy
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Previous Training Efforts

• Although there have been many attempts to educate
  school-based professionals to increase tolerance,
  embrace diversity, and overcome stereotypes
  results are conflicting.
• Most efforts to increase tolerance and cultural
  competence have appealed to the changing
  demographics and increased diversity in the
  United States but have not offered a rationale
  based on professional ethics.

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Our Philosophy

• We reasoned that if aspiring professionals
  understand that their professions expect and even
  require certain kinds of ethically defensible
  behavior, they are more likely to adopt these
  behaviors.

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Effects of Training

• There is some evidence within professional
  psychology that knowledge of professional ethics
  increases ethical behavior.
• Some efforts have been made to ensure that
  school-based professionals take courses in ethics
  that help them to deal effectively with ethical
  issues in classrooms, and there is some evidence
  that courses in ethics can improve professional
  judgment.
• Researchers also suggest that taking
  multicultural courses can increase a
  professionals cultural competence.

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YOUR RESPONSIBILTY

• These principles all directly relate to issues of
  diversity and how school professionals should
  address them.
• School professions, including teaching,
  counseling, nursing and administration, expect
  their members to recognize when these principles
  are being violated, and how to deal with it.

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Video Math Class

• 5 min.

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Discussion Questions

• What ethical dilemmas did you see in the video?
• What ethical principles were violated in these
  incidences?

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• PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE conducting oneself in a
  manner that brings credit to oneself and ones
  profession.
• INTEGRITY being aware of ones professional
  values, needs, limitations and their effect on
  ones work.
• PROFESSIONAL AND SCIENTIFIC RESPONSIBILITY
  upholding the standards of ones profession.
• RESPECT FOR OTHERS RIGHTS AND DIGNITY treat
  colleagues and students/clients with respect, and
  uphold the rights and dignity of all persons.
• CONCERN FOR OTHERS WELFARE recognize the impact
  of adverse contextual factors in assessing
  problems and caring for students/clients needs.
  
• SOCIAL RESPONSIBILTY act in socially responsible
  ways, try to reduce suffering and improve the
  well-being of others.

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Ethical Issues in Math Class

• Mr. Rosss lack of self-awareness (Integrity)
• Mr. Rosss lack of information pertinent to
  teaching (Competence)
• Mr. Rosss lack of respect for his students
  (Respect for Others Rights and Dignity)
• Mr. Rosss differential treatment of his students
  based on race (Social Responsibility)
• Mr. Rosss differential treatment of his students
  based on gender (Social Responsibility)

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• This workshop is designed to address the first
  two of Rests components, ethical sensitivity,
  and moral judgment.
• We will be focusing on recognizing ethical
  dilemmas, and making decisions about appropriate
  responses.
• Component III and IV, moral motivation and moral
  action will involve you putting what you learn
  into action in your schools.

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• Rest was fond of quoting President Lyndon
  Johnson It is not doing what is right that is
  hard for a president. Its knowing what is
  right.
• Preparing professionals to discern the right
  course of action must start with the recognition
  of ethical issues.

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• Ethical sensitivity is the ability to identify
  the ethical issues in a situation by
• making inferences from individuals verbal and
  nonverbal behaviors
• identifying what others affected by the situation
  want or need
• anticipating their reactions to ones attempts to
  help
• responding with appropriate affect.
• Discerning that a situation requires a moral
  response is the first step in the process of
  moral action.

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• Moral judgment involves weighing the varying
  needs of the individuals involved, and
  considering the demands of professional codes of
  ethics, and ones personal sense of right and
  wrong.

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• Ethical dilemmas are not always clear-cut, there
  are frequently nuances and shades of grey that
  makes choosing a course of action difficult. A
  person must gather information about a situation,
  weigh various options, and choose the best course
  of action by incorporating all their knowledge
  about the situation and their professional
  obligations with their personal empathy and sense
  of justice.

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Discussion Questions

• Share a time or times in your life when you
  observed an ethical violation related to race or
  gender and were not happy about how you handled
  the situation.
• What might you have done differently?
• What made it difficult to take appropriate
  action?
• What barriers to action did you encounter?

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Video Northside High
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Discussion

• Identify the ethical violations.
• Discuss possible courses of action.

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Ethical Issues in Northside High

• Failure to respond appropriately when Terry was
  shot
• Ms. Hayes defensiveness and failure to respond
  appropriately to the boys concerns
• Ms. Hayes failure to provide services to Tino
  and Jamal
• Ms. Hayes failure to meet the student bodys
  needs
• Institutionalized racism in the school

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PERSPECTIVE TAKING
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• Oversimplifying allows one to avoid examining
  ones own ideas and thus avoid uncomfortable or
  unpleasant feelings such as guilt, confusion,
  fear or shame.
• For example, if you witness a teacher behaving in
  a racist way, you may want to simply say that
  person is racist and should be fired.

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But what if the issue is more complex than it
initially appears?

• What if there is a culture in the school that
  supports racism?
• What if the top-level administrators tend to
  overlook racist behaviors?
• Perhaps this teacher has the capacity to make
  changes and would be open to training.
• Perhaps if we reported the incident to the
  principal, he would gloss over it and view us as
  a complainer.

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• The initial desire to fire the teacher may not
  serve the needs of the teacher, the school, or
  even you, the observer.
• Saying I would fire him may make us feel good
  about ourselves (I am not racist, I do not
  tolerate racism), but considering the complexity
  of the situation is more difficult.

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• Recognizing that we have been passive about a
  racist culture may make us feel guilty.
• Considering the possibility that someone can
  change their racist views may make us feel
  nervous because that OTHER person may not be as
  different from as we thought.
• Realizing that our concerns may not be taken
  seriously can make us feel scared to take action
  or confused about how to do so.

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• As one learns to examine the complexities of an
  issue, ways of dealing with issues will evolve.
• Solutions will address the needs and
  perspectives of multiple individuals (i.e. the
  victim or victims, the perpetrator, the system
  within which the incident occurred), and will
  address the power and hierarchical issues
  involved.

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• The needs of those hurt by the racist or sexist
  incidents should take priority, and those with
  less power should be protected with greater care,
  but this can often be done while also addressing
  the needs of the perpetrator and/or system.
• For example, sensitivity training might be
  preferable to firing, or having a private
  conversation with someone might be preferable to
  going to a superior.
• If there are systemic issues, solutions might
  involve faculty meetings, or task-force groups,
  or going to the school board.

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• There are no solutions that will work in every
  scenario, but the solutions we arrive at are
  likely to be stronger if we can address the
  complexities of an issue effectively and
  respectfully consider the needs of all involved.

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Video Residence Hall
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Discussion Questions

• Identify the Issues
• Choose one issue and identify the individuals
  involved.
• Think about what the thoughts and feelings of the
  people involved might be, and what kind of power
  they have within the school.
• Select a course of action that you think
  addresses multiple needs and issues of power.

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Ethical Issues in Residence Hall

• Ms. Colbys poor group skills
• Ms. Colbys lack of cultural knowledge and
  differential treatment based on race
• Ms. Colbys undermining of the Latina girls
  emotional experience
• Underlying racism in the school policy
• Hiding behind policy vs. taking a stand
• Language as a human right
• Diversity as a strength in learning
• Ms. Harrisons responsibility to speak up
• Ms. Colbys treatment of Ms. Rezendez

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What is My Role?
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Discussion Questions

• What is your position in your school?
• Who do you have power over?
• Who do you answer to?
• Share a time when you have been hurt by someone
  with more power in your school.
• Share a time when you appreciated the way you
  were treated by someone with more power.
• What does this tell you about how you would like
  to handle your power?

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Video Faculty Lounge
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• What are the ethical issues?
• Who is involved and what are their perspectives
  and needs?
• What issues of power are at play here?
• If I were Ms. Highland, what course of action
  might I take in this situation?

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Ethical Issues in Faculty Lounge

• Mr. Lynchs lack of self-awareness and resulting
  stereotypical remarks
• Ms. Parkers lack of self-awareness and resulting
  stereotypical remarks
• Mr. Lynchs lack of cultural knowledge and its
  effect on his competence as a teacher
• Ms. Parkers lack of cultural knowledge and its
  effect on her competence as a social worker
• How Ms. Highland is treated professionally
• Ms. Highlands responsibility to speak out
• Confidentiality
• Ms. Parkers responsibility to speak out

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Summary
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• What we have tried to do today is change the idea
  that racial and gender attitudes are solely
  personal.
• As professionals, you are expected to uphold
  ethical principles that prohibit racist and
  sexist behaviors, and to act to counter racism
  and sexism when you encounter it.
• This is not a personal decision, it is a
  professional requirement.

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• In order to behave in an ethical matter, one must
  first
• recognize when ethical violations are occurring
  (ethical sensitivity)
• make a decision about an ethically appropriate
  course of action (moral judgment),
• decide to follow this course of action (moral
  motivation),
• follow through on this course of action (moral
  action).

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• In this workshop we have addressed ethical
  sensitivity by helping you become familiar with
  the ethical requirements of your fields, and
  through the use of videos, helping you learn to
  recognize when these requirements are being
  violated.

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• We addressed moral judgment by inviting you
  to consider issues of multiple perspectives and
  issues of power when choosing a course of action.
  Again, the videos provided the opportunity to
  practice applying these ideas to school
  situations.

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• Moral motivation and moral action are up to
• you! Now that you have the tools, it is up to
• each of you to find the motivation and follow
• through to take action against racism and
• sexism.