Culturally Competent School Leaders: What Teachers and Administrators Who Work with Hispanic

1. Culturally Competent School Leaders: What Teachers and Administrators Who Work with Hispanic/Latino Students Should Know Dr. Jaime A. Castellano Consultant, Author, Researcher, Practitioner jaime.castellano@yahoo.com (561) 308-0683

2. What is Cultural Competency?A Leadership Perspective Institute for Educational Leadership (2004: Washington, DC) �Preparing and Supporting Diverse, Culturally Competent Leaders� Identified five primary themes for consideration�

3. Five Considerations for Preparing and Supporting Diverse, Culturally Competent Leaders Educational leaders who are not culturally competent cannot be fully effective. Culturally competent leaders work to understand their own biases as well as patterns of discrimination.

4. Five Considerations for Preparing and Supporting Diverse, Culturally Competent Leaders Much of what culturally competent leaders must know and be able to do is learned in relationships with families and communities. Culturally competent leadership develops over time and needs to be supported from preparation through practice.

5. Five Considerations for Preparing and Supporting Diverse, Culturally Competent Leaders 5. State and local policies need to build a sense of urgency about preparing future Culturally Competent leaders.

6. The Cultural Proficiency Continuum(Lindsey, Nuri Robbins, and Terrel, 1999, 2003) Cultural Destructiveness: See the difference, stomp it out. (The elimination of other people�s culture.) Cultural Incapacity: See the difference, make it wrong. (Belief in the superiority of one�s culture and behavior that dis-empowers another�s culture.)

7. The Cultural Proficiency Continuum(Lindsey, Nuri Robbins, and Terrel, 1999, 2003) Cultural Blindness: See the difference, act like you don�t. (Acting as if the cultural differences you see do not matter.) Cultural Pre-competence: See the difference, respond inadequately. (Awareness of one�s limitations or an organization�s practice when interacting with other cultural groups.)

8. The Cultural Proficiency Continuum(Lindsey, Nuri Robbins, and Terrel, 1999, 2003) Cultural Competency: See the difference, understand the difference that difference makes. *Manage the dynamics of difference *Get training about differences *Adapt to diversity *Change *Institutionalize cultural knowledge

9. The Cultural Proficiency Continuum(Lindsey, Nuri Robbins, and Terrel, 1999, 2003) Cultural Proficiency: See the difference and respond positively and reaffirmingly. (Knowing how to learn about individual and organizational culture; interacting effectively in a variety of cultural environments.)

10. Cultural Competency: A Self Awareness Exercise Please answer the following question Yes or No. Have you thought about your own socioeconomic status, gender, racial, and ethnic identity and the various ways in which you are similar to, yet different from, the students and adults you work with?

11. Cultural Competency: A Self Awareness Exercise Please answer the following question Yes or No. Have you thought about how your own socioeconomic status, gender, race, and ethnic identity has influenced how you learn and/or how you teach?

12. Cultural Competency: A Self Awareness Exercise Please answer the following question Yes or No. Have you talked about how your own cultural background influences how you teach your students and/or your working relationships with adult colleagues who are of a different socioeconomic status, race, gender, and ethnicity?

13. Cultural Competency: A Self Awareness Exercise Please answer the following question Yes or No. Have any people who are different from you with respect to your socioeconomic status, race, gender, and ethnicity shared with you how they think these same factors influence how they learn or teach?

14. Cultural Competency: A Self Awareness Exercise Please answer the following question Yes or No. Have you thought about how your teaching and learning styles, influenced by your own cultural background, are perceived by colleagues and peers who are of a different socioeconomic status, gender, racial, or ethnic group?

15. Cultural Competency: A Self Awareness Exercise Please answer the following question Yes or No. Do you think that your school or district�s most rigorous academic programs should reflect student demographics with respect to socioeconomic status, race, gender, and ethnicity?

16. Cultural Competency: A Self Awareness Exercise Please answer the following question Yes or No. Are you willing to publicly advocate for the inclusion of students into your school or district�s gifted education program who are poor, minority, and culturally and/or linguistically diverse?

17. How Did You Do? 6-7 Points: On Lindsey, Nuri Robbins, and Terrel�s Cultural Proficiency Continuum (2003) you would be considered at the cultural competence stage. �See the difference, understand the difference that difference makes!� - Lindsey, Nuri Robbins, and Terrel (2003)

18. How Did You Do? 4-5 Points: You are on your way ! Understanding and acknowledging your own biases and prejudices paves the way for greater cross-cultural communication and understanding. Share your insights with others!

19. How Did You Do? 0-3 Points: OK, we have some work to do. Personal reflection about your experiences with diversity may be a good starting point. It may be easier to first talk with an expert whose background is similar to yours.

20. Intelligence and Hispanic/latino Students About three-quarters of IQ differences between individuals are attributable to heredity, (Kirp, 2006). If heredity defines the limits of intelligence, experience largely determines whether those limits will be reached. Research shows that the influence of genes on intelligence is dependent on class, (Turkheimer, 2003).

21. Intelligence and Hispanic/latino Students Turkheimer (2003). Environmental factors-not genetic deficits- explain IQ differences among poor minorities. This emerging view allows that genes can influence the impact of experiences and experiences can influence the �expression� or activity levels of genes.

22. Intelligence and Hispanic/latino Students Impact on heritability of IQ .10 for families on the low end of the economic spectrum .72 for families on the high end of the economic spectrum Impact on heritability of environment Was 4 times stronger in the poorest families than in the higher status families Minorities and the poor perform worse not because of their genes, but because they are raised in an environment lacking in resources, Turkheimer (2003).

23. Perpetuating Myth or Promoting Fact?You Decide In order for our best, brightest, most gifted and talented Hispanic/latino students to be successful in school and in life they must be exposed to gifted white students in order to better prepare them to compete in an environment controlled by the white majority.

24. Culturally Responsive Teachingfor Hispanic Students: A Moral Imperative A positive, powerful, and relevant approach to education for Hispanic/Latino students should focus on two very important teaching and learning components. 1. Relational Pedagogy 2. Instructional Pedagogy

25. Activity:Choose Your Neighbor A doctor and nurse A rock band A single mother of five children A minister and his wife A former police officer

26. What�s in a Logo?