STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING CULTURAL COMPETENCE AMONG PRE- SERVICE TEACHERS Calli Lewis, Ph.D. California State University, Bakersfield Mandy Lusk, Ph.D.

STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING CULTURAL COMPETENCE AMONG PRE-SERVICE TEACHERSCalli Lewis, Ph.D. California State University, Bakersfield

Mandy Lusk, Ph.D. Clayton State University

Kelly Carrero, Ph.D., BCBA Shippensburg University

Staci Zolkoski, Ph.D. University of North Texas

Creating a Safe Environment for Exploring Sensitive Issues

Cultural Competence Continuum

Cultural destructiveness

Cultural incapacity

Cultural blindness

Cultural pre-competence

Cultural competence

Cultural proficiency

Cross, Bazron, Dennis, & Isaacs, 1989

ACTIVITIES FOR PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS

Photo Activity • Time: approximately 30 minutes• Quiz: Show pictures of diverse people and ask the class

to identify each by race.• For example: This is A.J. What is his race?

Harvard Implicit Associations Test• https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

• This online activity assesses individuals’ racial preferences.

• The results may challenge individuals’ strongly held beliefs about themselves. Time should be allotted for debriefing and discussion afterward.

Picture Drawing

• Draw a picture of a family students believe will be in their classroom. • Discuss drawings, diversity, and the reality of public education. • Students draw another picture of a family.

• Students write a description of their own families.

(Lyon, 2009)

ARTICLES FORPRE-SERVICE TEACHERS

Article and Reference Summary Helpful Hints

Borrero, N. (2011). Entering teaching for and with love: Visions of pre-service urban teachers. Journal of Urban Learning, Teaching, and Research, 17, 18-26.  

This article explains practitioners’ perceptions of teaching in urban settings.

This article emphasizes the multiple diverse facets of teaching in urban schools.

Landra, K., & Sutton, T. (2008) You think you know ghetto? Contemporizing the Dove ‘Black IQ Test’. Teaching Sociology, 36(4), 366-377.  

The article discusses cultural bias in intellectual ability assessments. The article also contains an assessment containing questions relating to African American culture.

Students may want to focus on the assessment and answers they did or did know the answers to. The instructor may need to help guide the discussion back to the issue of bias in assessment. 

McIntosh, P. (1989). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. Peace and Freedom, July/August, 10-12. 

The article draws attention to a multitude of ways in which white individuals

The article is a bit dated, instructors will want to familiarize themselves with the article before introducing it to the class in order to relate some of the concepts to more current concepts.  

Milburn, W. & Palladino, J. (2012). Preservice teachers’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions of LGBTQ bullying intervention. The American Association of Behavioral and Social Sciences Journal, 16, 86-100.  

This article examines the unique aspect of addressing LGBTQ bullying for pre-service teachers.

The article outlines specific strategies that pre-service teachers can help in the classroom for the LGBTQ population of students.

BOOKS FOR PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS

Amazing Grace (1991)Kozol, Jonathan

• This book describes the vast

differences in resources between

schools in affluent areas and schools

in low-income areas.• The book is somewhat dated, yet it

should be noted that these

differences remain throughout the country.

The Sprit Catches You and You Fall Down (1997) Fadiman, Anne

This book chronicles the true story of a

young Hmong girl who is considered to

have a spiritual gift that is, in western

culture, identified as epilepsy. The book

documents the clash between the family’s

desire to honor their daughter’s gift and

the Americans’ desires to treat the epilepsy.

Microagressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation(2010) Sue, Derald W.  

Sue’s book explores the topic of

unintentional bias. The book examines

the psychological effects of

unintentional bias on both the

perpetrator and the victim.

The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom (2008) Delpit, Lisa

• Delpit’s texts can be used to articulate how cultural power is

embedded in language. The texts detail those concepts

through the use of vignettes and personal dialogue of how

educators have used language as a way to segregate and

alienate students from lower socioeconomic classes. • Some students may come to the classroom with a higher

level of understanding about culture than others. Subsequently,

students may react with intense, and possibly hostile, attitudes

to the exposure of new knowledge. This may be accompanied

by feelings of anger and resentment as they navigate their

complicity, often unwittingly, in the process of stereotyping,

bias, and deficit thinking.

VIDEOS FOR PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS

Title and URL Summary Helpful Hints

The Invisibles: The Children of Rural Education  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ph4kMj90D4 

This video examines the realities of rural education, which include rising student enrollment, increase in poverty rates and racial and ethnic diversity.

This video provides research to enhance teachers in a rural setting.

 Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV36efjBKRU 

This video helps teachers with new approaches for teaching students with cultural differences.

Teachers will learn activities that explore historical and person perspectives for teaching diverse students.  

Substitute Teacher - Key & Peelehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7FixvoKBw

Humorous skit serves as a vivid display of reversed racial assumptions. A raw, provocative display portraying the reality of daily school life for many students from diverse cultures and how easily a European-American teacher can subtly embed dominant cultural behaviors.

A strong caution, do not show this video until the students have gone through much preliminary activities and readings concerning culture. Also, the skit contains profanity, which some students may find offensive.  

WEBSITES FOR PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS

Websites for Pre-Service Teachers• Multicultural Education & Culturally Responsive Teaching

• http://www.ithaca.edu/wise/multicultural/

•  Resources for Addressing Multicultural and Diversity Issues in Your Classroom• http://www.nea.org/tools/resources-addressing-multicultural-diversit

y-issues-in-your-classroom.htm

• Multicultural Education Internet Resource Guide• http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/Multi.html

ACTIVITIES AND RESOURCES FOR USE IN THE FIELD

Title of Activity How to Implement Helpful Hints

 It’s a Small World After All

 Throughout the school year, select one country per week identifying where one student’s descendants or immediate family migrated from in the world. Be sure to teach major points of interest about that country, especially identifying it on a world map.

 For this activity, students enjoy learning about the food, music, population, geographical region, and various hobbies to do in each country. Photos and videos can also help students learn more about the country. Feel free to have the particular student from that country help lead the lesson.  

 Name that Tune  

 This game expands students’ awareness of music played in other countries. Play an excerpt of a song from another country. Students can name the specific country where the song originated.  

 The teacher may want to share songs from countries you have previously studied in class. You may want to give students a list of three choices of the countries (pictures or words) and have them choose from the list.  

Title How to Implement Helpful Hints

  Bon Appetit  

  The teacher will discuss, with the class, the various foods cooked in other countries. The teacher and students can research recipes from specific countries. After discovering native recipes, the teacher and students can cook these international foods.  

  The teacher will want to have the students cook various foods from the recipes on the specific week they are learning about that particular country. The teacher can share interesting facts about various ethnicities (e.g., Asian countries eat rice with most meals).  

 Let’s Celebrate 

 The teacher will discuss major holidays and special dates specific to countries around the world. Students can research the origin of these dates and place them on an international calendar posted in the classroom.  

 The teacher can make sure he/she briefly discusses the major holiday or special dates specific to the country on its specific day.

 I Love Being Me  

 At the beginning of the year, the teacher can have his/her students each design a shoebox which describe themselves. Each student will present and explain the components of their shoeboxes. If the student agrees, the teacher can display these shoeboxes around the classroom.

 The teacher can construct a rubric for this project, which encourages individual creativity and honesty from each student. This project promotes individualization and allows other students to understand and respect individual differences.

Into the Beautiful North (2009) by Luis Alberto Urrea

• This book is about a poor, young

Mexican woman who dreams of a

more blissful world. • This book is intended for students

on the secondary level.

Jumpstart the World (2011) by Catherine Ryan Hyde 

• This book is about a young woman

who falls in love with a transgender man. • This book is intended for students

on the secondary level.

Mulan, the Storyteller’s Candle (2008) by Lucia Gonzalez 

• This book is about cousins who

moved from their Puerto Rico to

New York City. This story explains

the astounding effect of moving

countries has on the cousins. • This book is intended for students

on the elementary or primary level.

Scorpions (1988) Walter Dean Myers

• Scorpions is realistic novel about a

young African American male who

becomes involved with a gang.• Scorpions was written for students

in grades 3-8.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson (2010) by John Green and David Levithan 

• This book is about two young men

meeting with the same names;

however, one man is gay and the

other straight. They find a mutual

respect and love for each other

through a series of comical events. • This book is intended for students

on the secondary level.

Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China (1996) by Ai-Ling Louie 

• This book gives a reader a glimpse

of the Chinese culture with a plot

much like Cinderella. • This book is intended for students

on the elementary or primary level.

Final Thoughts

Given the continued concerns regarding CLD students being disproportionately represented in special education, it is imperative that pre-service teachers become culturally competent and are well prepared to work with CLD students (Ford, 2012; Lee, 2012).

Any strategies/resources you would like to share?

References• American Psychological Association. (2003). Guidelines on multi-cultural education, training, research,

practice, and organizational change for psychologists. American Psychologist, 58, 377-402. • Artiles, A. J., Bal, A., Trent, S. C., & Thorius, K. K. (2012). Placement of culturally and linguistically

diverse students in programs for students with emotional and behavioral disorders: Contemporary trends and research needs. In J. P. Bakken, F. E. Obiakor, & A. F. Rotatori (Eds.), Behavioral disorders: Identification, assessment, and instruction of students with EBD (pp. 107-127). East Sussex, United Kingdom: Emerald Books.

• Borrero, N. (2011). Entering teaching for and with love: Visions of pre-service urban teachers. Journal of Urban Learning, Teaching, and Research, 17, 18-26.

• Carrero, K.M. & Lusk, M.E. (2013). Preparing special educators to work with culturally and linguistically diverse students with challenging behaviors. Multicultural Learning and Teaching. 9(1),15-32. doi: 10.1515/mlt-2013-0003

• Cross, T. L., Bazron, B. J., Dennis, K. W., & Isaacs, M. R. (1989). Towards a culturally competent system of care: A monograph on effective services for minority children who are severely emotionally disturbed. Washington, DC: National Institute of Mental Health, Child and Adolescent Service System Program. 

• Delpit, L. (2008). The skin that we speak: Thoughts on language and culture in the classroom. New York, NY: The New Press.

• Fadiman, A. (1997). The spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures. New York, NY: Noonday.

• Ford, D. Y. (2012). Culturally different students in special education: Looking backward to move forward. Exceptional Children 78(4), 391-405.

References• Gonzalez, L. (2008). Mulan, the Story Teller’s Candle. San Francisco, CA: Children’s

Book Press. • Green, J & Levithan, D. (2010). Will Grayson, Will Grayson. New York, NY: Dutton

Books. • Hyde, C. (2011). Jumpstart the World. New York, NY: Random House Children’s Books. • Ithaca College. (2014). Multicultural education & culturally responsive teaching.

Retrieved from http://www.ithaca.edu/wise/multicultural/• Key, K.M. & Peele, J. (2012). Substitute Teacher – Part 1. Retrieved from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7FixvoKBw.• Kozol, J. (1991). Savage inequalities: Children in America’s schools. New York, NY:

Crown.• Laundra, K., & Sutton, T. (2008). You think you know ghetto? Contemporizing the Dove

‘Black IQ Test, Teaching Sociology, 36, 366-377. • Lee, S. (2012). Knowing myself to know others: Preparing preservice teachers for

diversity through multicultural autobiography. Multicultural Education, 20(1), 38-41.• Louie, A. (1996). Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China. New York, NY: Pilomel

Books. • Lyon, A. F. (2009). Teaching others: Preservice teachers’ understandings regarding

diverse families. Multicultural Education, 16(4), 52-55.

References• McIntosh, P. (1989). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. Peace

and Freedom, July/August, 10-12.• Myers, W. D. (1988). Scorpions. New York, NY: Amistad.• Milburn, W. & Palladino, J. (2012). Preservice teachers’ knowledge, skills, and

dispositions of LGBTQ bullying intervention. The American Association of Behavioral and Social Sciences Journal, 16, 86-100.

• National Education Association. (2014). Resources for addressing multicultural and diversity issues in your classroom. Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/tools/resources-addressing-multicultural-diversity-issues-in-your-classroom.htm

• Project Implicit (2014). Implicit association test – Racial attitudes. Retrieved from:https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/education.html

• Reyhner, J. (2014). Multicultural education internet resource guide. Retrieved from http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/Multi.html

• Sue, D. W. (2010). Microagressions in everyday life: Race, gender, and sexual orientations. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.

• Urrea, L. (2009). Into the Beautiful North. New York, NY: Back Bay Books.