Cultural Competency Equity, and Social Justice

1. Cultural CompetencyEquity, andSocial Justice Portland State University July 2014 John Lenssen

2. Culture refers to integrated patterns of human behavior that include the: language, thoughts, communication, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and norms of racial, ethnic, religious, or social groups.

3. Defining Culture • Often used interchangeably with race and ethnicity • Way of perceiving, believing, evaluating, and behaving. It is the blueprint that determines the way we think, feel, and behave. • Groupings of people based on shared values beliefs and behavioral norms • Includes both subjective (e.g., values, norms, etc.) and physical aspects (e.g., buildings, dress, foods, etc.; Triandis)

5. Deeply Held, Harder-to Recognize Components of Culture • Perception of time (Hall) • Perception of space (Hall) • Individualism-collectivism • High context-low context (Hall) • Importance of hierarchy • Modes of self-expression • Modes of thinking • Importance and rigidity of gender roles • Nature of change • Humans’ relationship to the natural world

6. “Schools must embrace the worlds from which their children come, while at the same time teaching them what they need to know to succeed in the broader, dominant culture.” Lisa Delpit

7. Cultural Competency What is cultural competence? Put most simply, it is the ability to successfully teach students who come from cultures other than your own.” Diller and Moule

8. Hierarchy of Cultural Competency Unconsciously Competent Consciously Competent Consciously Incompetent Unconsciously Incompetent

9. The Guiding Principles (Cultural Proficiency) • Culture is a predominant force; you cannot NOT be influenced by culture. • People are served in varying degrees by the dominant culture. • It is important to acknowledge the group identity of individuals. • Diversity within cultures is important; cultural groups are neither homogeneous nor monolithic. • Respect the unique needs that members of dominated groups may have.

10. A Courageous Conversation Engages those who won’t talk Sustains the conversation when it gets uncomfortable or diverted Deepens the conversation to the point where authentic understanding and meaningful actions occur.

11. Four Agreements of Courageous Conversations Stay engaged. Speak your truth. Experience discomfort. Expect and accept non-closure.

12. Courageous Conversations

13. Changing the Discourse in Schools • “Discourse II conversations tend to be about uncomfortable, unequal, ineffective, prejudicial conditions and relationships in a school.” • “Any real effort to make substantive (systemic) change must begin with a Discourse II dialogue in schools, one that blames no one and deconstructs what is really going on.”

14. Discourse II Quotations • In your small group discuss your quotation. • Develop a one minute presentation for the class - highlighting your take-away from the quotation.

15. Discourse I Deals With: Singular truths Improving what exists Techniques, methods, and content Discourse II Deals With: Multiple stories Changing something significant Learning and school relationships Courageous Conversations:Changing the Discourse in Schools

16. Symptoms Discipline and control The familiar Answers and solutions Causes Alienation and resistance The uncomfortable Dilemmas and mysteries Discourse I Discourse II

17. Ability and merit Dropouts The work of adults Reproduction Privilege and oppression Pushouts The learning and experience of students Transformation Discourse I Discourse II

18. Initiating Discourse II On the topic of student discipline, and being mindful of the disproportionate discipline data in your school: develop Discourse II questions intended to deepen the dialogue and lead to systemic change.

19. We Must Examine and Engage in Dialogue Around: • Assumptions • Beliefs • Values • Expectations • Visions

20. Listening To Each Other When we begin listening to each other, and when we talk about things that matter to us, the world begins to change. Everyone has the capacity to be able to figure out how to make a difference. Listening and talking to one another heals our divisions and makes us brave again. Margaret Wheatley, Turning to One Another

21. : 9 Healthy Ways to Communicate • Reflect back what is being said. Use their words, not yours. • Begin where they are at, not where you want them to be. • Be curious and open to what they are trying to say. • Notice what they are saying and what they are not.

22. 9 Healthy Ways to Communicate 5. Emotionally relate to how they are feeling. Nurture the relationship. 6. Notice how you are feeling. Be honest and authentic. 7. Take responsibility for your part in the conflict or misunderstanding. 8. Try to understand how their past affects who they are and how those experiences affect their relationship with you. 9. Stay with the process and the relationship, not just the solution.

23. Beliefs What beliefs guide our work?

24. Student Intelligence Student Potential Responsibility Learning Readiness To Learn Student Ability Morality Grading Discipline Leadership Beliefs

25. Values What are the values that we expect, teach, and support in our schools? What are the hidden values that are communicated?

26. Time Respect Honesty Competition Achievement Grading System Effort Compliance Responsibility Safety Cooperation Knowledge Family Talent Citizenship Turf Values

27. Practices What are our conscious and unconscious practices?

28. Homework Suspensions Grouping Celebrations Grading State assessments Recognition Student government Practices (with potential for unintended negative impact)

29. Expectations • All students can learn. vs. • I am responsible for all students learning.

30. Expectations • I have high expectations for all students, but realistically I do not expect all students to meet benchmarks. Vs. • I have high expectations for all students, and I am disturbed when all students do not meet benchmarks.

31. External OppressionExternal oppression is the unjust exercise of authority and power by one group over another. It includes imposing one group’s belief system, values and life ways over another group.Women’s Rural Advocacy Programs

32. Institutionalized Oppression Institutionalized oppression is the systematic mistreatment of people within a social identity group, supported and enforced by the society and its institutions, solely based on the person’s membership in the social identity group.

33. Internalized Oppression External oppression becomes internalized oppression when we come to believe and act as if the oppressor's beliefs system, values, and life way is reality. “Self-hate" and "internalized racism" are other ways of saying internalized oppression. The result of internalized oppression is shame and the disowning of our individual and cultural reality. Women’s Rural Advocacy Programs

34. Microaggressions • Brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults to the target person or group.

35. Types of Microaggressions • Microassault • Microinsult • Microinvalidation

36. “Have you ever been hurt and the place tries to heal a bit, and you just pull the scar off of it over and over again.”Rosa Parks

37. Response to Microaggressions • Step One: Select one type of microaggression. • Step Two: Script a specific statement that fits within the type of microaggression. (statement could be a microaggression that focuses on a different form or oppression) • Step Three: Brainstorm several responses to the microaggression. • Step Four: Select one response to present to the group.

38. Privilege • Million dollar privilege • White privilege • Male privilege • Class privilege • Heterosexual privilege • Education status privilege

39. Unearned Advantage This latent system of “unearned privilege” is about having the benefit of the doubt -- not because of who you are and what you have done, but because of how people perceive you as a member of a favored group.

40. White Privilege Peggy McIntosh defines white privilege as, “an invisible package of unearned assets… like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks.”

41. White Privilege ChecklistPeggy McIntosh I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.

42. White Privilege Checklist I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race. I will feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.

43. Characteristics of White Consciousness • Universal perspective • Doesn’t everyone experience life the way that I do? • Individualism • I earned this through hard work and effort. • Avoidance • This isn’t my problem. • Decontexualization • How does this particular situation have anything to do with race?

44. Ego Identity Formation • Most research on identity formation has been provided by Erik Erikson. • Identity is a subjective sense of wholeness that is achieved during adolescence through an identity crisis (turning point). • Those who fail to achieve a secure identity are faced with identity confusion, a lack of clarity about who they are and what their role is in life.

45. Several Models of Ethnic Development have been proposed • Many researchers agree that an achieved identity is the result of a crisis or awakening, which leads to a period of exploration or experimentation and finally to a commitment or incorporation of one’s ethnicity.

46. What is ethnic identity development? A sense of group or collective identity based on one’s perception that he or she shares a common racial/ethnic heritage with a particular racial/ethnic group Racial identity development theory concerns the psychological implications of racial-group membership, that is belief systems that evolve in reaction to perceived differential racial-group membership.

47. Unexamined Ethnic Identity • Characterized by the lack of exploration of ethnicity. • Existing models suggest that minority subjects initially accept the values and attitudes of the majority culture. • Including internalized negative views of their own group held by the majority.

48. Conformity In this stage, people of color identify strongly with White Dominant Society, permitting the White society to define their worth and value. Individuals in this stage often accept negative stereotypes about themselves and their group. In addition, they know very little and are not interested in learning about their own ethnic heritage or history. Such persons usually associate with primarily White people and have very little to do with members of their own ethnic group.

49. Dissonance • In this stage, persons have experiences, or gain insights, that cause them to question their conforming attitudes, and cause confusion and conflict. • They question values of the dominant culture they have previously held in high esteem.

50. Dissonance They become more aware of racism, oppression, and stereotyping. Ethnic minority individuals may attempt to develop friendly relations with members of their own ethnic group with whom they have previously not been able to identify.