Highly Qualified & Culturally Competent

1. Highly Qualified & Culturally Competent Is It Too Much To Expect of Public School Teachers? Dr. Rodney Davis Troy University

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

3. 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?

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

5. 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

6. “Tragically, over the last seven and a half years of the Clinton-Gore Administration, our nation has experienced an education recession—a 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

7. 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 teacher’s 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.

8. Highly Qualified Defined • Hold at least a bachelor’s 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.

9. HQT Definitions Suggests…  Student Achievement Teacher • Degree • Certification • Content Knowledge  Focus is on Inputs

10. What HQT Doesn’t Say… • Doesn’t 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 • Doesn’t 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?

11. Is HQT Enough? “Given the growing diversity of America’s 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

12. Activity # 1: Recipe for Effective Teaching Your Turn The Effective Teacher

13. 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.

14. Where are we Diverse Now? Source 2000 US Census

15. What about in 25 years? South Southwest West

16. 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.

17. Object Fact/Truth Teacher Student Student Student Student Proficient Assess Traditional Teaching Model

18. Culture’s 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

19. Lunch!!!! Cultural Barriers May DistortThe Message Please Don’t call On me!! Pi squared? Pi are round! Cornbread are square! Culture

20. 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.

21. Places Products Food People Common Things Pictures Events Phrases Smells Sounds Sights ouches Activity 2: How are we diverse? Your Turn I am From. . .

22. “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?

23. 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.

24. 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 patient’s 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 patient’s healing. • Race, ethnicity, and language have a substantial impact on doctor-patient relationships.

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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)

28. Core Aspects of Cultural Competence • Proactive-Don’t 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.

29. 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.

30. 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)

31. 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 family’s attitudes toward education. • For some, western education has not been a positive experience.

32. 1 How do we create a culturally competent learning community? Children are affirmed in their cultural connections 7 Interactions stress collectivity as well as individuality Teachers are personally inviting 2 Principles for Building a Learning Community 6 Classroom is managed With firm, consistent loving control Classroom is physically inviting 3 Relationships Precede Learning 5 Changes made to accommodate culture are essential to learning 4 Students are reinforced for academic development Source: Creating Culturally Responsive Classrooms

33. Any Questions?