Mr. Ramirez presented the first part of a three-part workshop which I can best describe as helping people better appreciate and promote diversity. Yesterday, what hit me hardest was a label that was new for me - cultural competency. Ramirez defined cultural competency to mean "the ability to navigate and relate effectively in a society of cultural variation."
I have to admit here that I decided to attend this particular workshop because I'm entering the end of my teaching career, and I really don't want to participate in another English or SAT prep workshop at this particular time, and I cringe when I'm confronted with what I affectionately call the "rednecks" and their limited view of other cultures and races. In fact, I humbly admit that when I hear about some mass shooting somewhere in the world, I literally think to myself that that particular person somewhere sat in a high school and completed coursework with teachers. I wonder how I would feel if a mass shooting involved one of my former students, and I had felt signs even then with that student of her/his racism and didn't do enough about it.
This label of cultural competency, though, is something I've been thinking about for a long time, and it's something I've been working on while I didn't exactly have a name for it. In fact, I do want my students to possess cultural competency; I do want them to be able to navigate and relate effectively in a society that may include cultural variation if their post-secondary training options take them that direction.
And what's important...it's okay if their post-secondary options don't take them to cultural variation. If their life takes them in a direction that doesn't include cultural variety, that's okay. This is something that also arose in yesterday's workshop; we shouldn't feel guilty or awkward if our community or our workplace for us doesn't necessarily include cultural variety. The important aspect is that if our community or workplace develops variety, then we should have the skills and comfort to "navigate" and "relate".
(As a side note I would also add that even if our home, family, community, and workplace don't have cultural variation, we should be open to and seek out opportunities to keep our cultural competency "skilled" and ready for use.)
I think I got sidetracked in this blog, so let me return....
I want my students to have cultural competency; I want them to be able to navigate and relate in a society of cultural variation, so they are prepared if and when variety develops in their lives.
AND THE MAGIC QUESTION IS....how do I do that? I'm a white male with very little diversity experience. I teach in a school district with virtually no cultural diversity. (We were reminded yesterday that a lot of diversity exists everywhere, even if little or no cultural diversity exists.) I live in a community with virtually no cultural diversity.
Another sidetrack....I have often wondered how our world might be better off if rather than four years of required English, we instead had three years of required English and one year of a required high school course that included content on good parenting. Why not have a course on cultural competency? In fact, I'm even okay with a semester of good parenting and a semester of cultural competency. Wouldn't our world be a better place if we helped students learn good parenting skills and cultural competency skills? Maybe we would have fewer mass shootings if we focused on these things and not increasing the number of guns needed.
So for the next few weeks, I'm going to concentrate on trying to find ways to continue increasing the cultural competency of students. I already try to push multicultural books. I can also continue to do the following
- journal topics
- passages I use for SAT style reading practice
- prompts I use for SAT style essay practice
- continue indigenous people literature and slave literature units
And now the big one and perhaps most challenging - bring non-white guests into the classroom. And perhaps the "topic" is .... "Help my culturally incompetent students become just a little more competent by sharing yourself - your story and your concerns, anxiety, and excitement for our world today."
That's something that Mr. Ramirez started out with yesterday. It took over two hours for everyone to introduce themselves, but one of the questions he had everyone write down to share with the group was "What concerns, anxiety or excitement do you have?" The reason this question was included was to show us that despite any and all differences we might have, we all share some common concerns, anxiety, and excitement. And when we are able to better recognize our similarities, we then can better "navigate" and "relate" to each other.
Can I find folks that would be willing to share themselves five times in a school day? Would they be interested and willing to share their stories and concerns, anxiety, and excitement to help us - students and me - increase our cultural competency skills?
Honestly and perhaps selfishly that's one area of disappointment I had yesterday - most of the attendants at the conference were white middle-aged folks, just like me and there were NO other teachers from rural school districts. (That really depressed me.) One weird realization, though, was that a "concern" from all of the other attendants was a difficulty in getting more diversity in the teaching staffs at the various school districts. They expressed concern that while their student populations had more diversity than their teaching staffs, and that they wished they could increase diversity in the teaching staffs.
I'm looking forward to meeting again with Mr. Ramirez in a few weeks.
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