Día: A Catalyst for Developing Cultural Competence

1. Día: A Catalyst for Developing Cultural Competence Patricia Montiel Overall ALSC Program ALA 2008 Conference Anaheim, CA

2. Using Día to Share Cultures Culture is defined as the shared activities that occur in the daily lives of individuals or groups of people.

3. Cultural Competence A highly developed ability to know and understand individuals or groups from diverse cultural backgrounds.

4. Culture included: • Ethnicity • Religions • Geography • Living style WHAT ELSE? P. Montiel Overall 2008

5. Cultural Competence Continuum Full cultural competence Changes in policies, standards, and practices to increase outcomes. Professional development Cultural experiences Personal experiences Reading Cultural proficiency Cultural Competence Some Cultural Competence pre Cultural Competence Limited Cultural Competence Lack of Cultural Competence Cultural Blindness Cultural Incapacity

6. Plot your CC P. Montiel Overall 2008

7. How does Día help us become culturally competent? Cognitive domain Interpersonal domain Environmental domain P. Montiel Overall 2008

8. From Cross, T., Bazron, B., Dennis, K., & Isaacs, M. (1989) (1) Value diversity, (2) Conduct self-assessment, (3) Manage the dynamics of difference, (4) Acquire and institutionalize cultural knowledge and (5) Adapt to diversity and the cultural contexts of the communities they serve and incorporate the above into all aspects of policy making Patricia Montiel Overall, PhD University of Arizona

9. (1) Value diversity El día de los niños/El día de los libros demonstrates that diversity is valued in your library, especially when it is ongoing rather than once a year (April 30th) P. Montiel Overall 2008

11. (2) Conduct self-assessment Knowledge of what you won culture is and what you know about yourself and others moves you away from cultural incompetence.

12. (3) Manage the dynamics of difference How do you manage diverse groups that use your library? Does the collection represent this diversity? Do you promote the use of this collection P. Montiel Overall 2008

13. (4) Acquire and institutionalize cultural knowledge through • Reading, more reading, more reading • Professional development, more…. • Education, more…. • Personal experiences, more …. P. Montiel Overall 2008

14. (5) Adapt to diversity and the cultural contexts of the communities they serve and incorporate the above into all aspects of policy-making What cultures are represented in your community? Are all cultural groups served equally? Are all groups considered when policies are being made? Are members of your community, adults and children, invited to the table to help make decisions? P. Montiel Overall 2008

15. References • Jingle Dancer by Cynthia L. Smith –Ill. Cornelius Van Wright & Ying-HwaHu (2000) • Woman Who Watches Over the World by Linda Hogan (2007) • Beautiful Blackbird by Ashley Bryan (2004) • Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kanohata (2005) • Antonio’s Card/La Tarjeta de Antonio by RgobertoGonzález. Illus. by Cecilia Concepción Álvarez. • Becoming Naomi León by Pam Muñoz Ryan (2005). • No Place to Be: Voices of Homeless Children by Judith Berck (1997). • Cultural Competence for Librarianship by Patricia Montiel-Overall submitted for publication (2008).

16. How does this translate into what we do as children’s librarians? Cultural Incapacity (incompetence) • Know nothing about multicultural children’s literature and doesn’t want to know about multicultural children’s literature. P. Montiel Overall 2008

17. Lack of cultural competence- Doesn’t know about other cultures because there hasn’t been a need to know. • WHAT ELSE?

18. Limited cultural competence-Know a little bit about different cultures (superficial knowledge). Knows there are books out there but doesn’t know what they are. • WHAT ELSE?

19. Some cultural knowledge- Knows about some books and uses them on occasion. • WHAT ELSE? P. Montiel Overall 2008

20. Cultural competence- Has a broad understanding about diverse cultures. Knows who the current authors of multicultural children’s literature are and knows about award winning books especially for one or two cultures. • WHAT ELSE? P. Montiel Overall 2008

21. Culturally proficient- Is extremely knowledgeable about multiple cultural groups, knows authors and illustrators, knows award winning books, can use language in storytelling… • WHAT ELSE?

22. Día websites: http://www.patmora.com/ P. Montiel Overall 2008

23. Cien mil gracias Patricia Montiel Overall overall@u.arizona.edu The University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science