Developing as a Culturally Competent Educator
By Etienne A. Kouakou
Public schools today have an unprecedented percentage of LEP/ELL/ESL students. These three terms refer to students for whom English is a foreign or second language. Many of these students are challenged by the workload in a language of which they may have, at best, some rudimentary knowledge (Crawford, 2000; Florida Consent Decree, 1990; New York Education Department, 2013). The increasing presence of these students requires attention from educators if they are to succeed academically as mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act. Federal, state and local governments have taken several actions to address the challenges Limited English Proficient students (LEPs) face. However, much more remains to be accomplished to ensure that students designated as LEP do not fall behind. First and foremost, it seems, is the necessity to train teachers by helping them acquire cultural-awareness competence.
Self-assessment of Cultural Competence
As a native of the Ivory Coast, I grew up in an ethnically diverse country, where nepotism dictated who had access to civil service positions even when such positions required a competitive examination as part of the recruitment process. Since 1996, I have lived in the United States, where I have taught in various diverse settings like Jersey City, the South Bronx and Manhattan. In all these venues, I have interacted with students, teachers, and administrators of various nationalities, ethnicities, and races. In my interactions, I have always been cognizant of the differences in cultures, and I have exercised caution when I was uncertain. From experience or by word of mouth, I have familiarized myself with some of the behavior patterns of each nationality or race present in my classes. I know, for example, that Asian students tend to be quiet participants, preferring to be called on before they participate. They also tend to cling to the traditional notion of the teacher as the repository of knowledge and defer to their instructors’ teachings. Contrary to Asian students, I have found many Hispanic students, especially Dominicans, to be particularly vocal. These may sound like stereotypes, but they constitute an important set of information to have and work with while remaining aware of the possible exceptions.
Over more than two decades of teaching, I have learned about the various master statuses and how they may affect our perception of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. and force a lopsided interpretation of reality (Rosenblum and Travis, 2012). Hence, I always exercise caution when dealing with diverse groups. I manage to avoid generalizing and jumping to conclusions. Asian students may be quieter in general, but there are some who like to participate actively and occasionally share a joke in class. Dominicans may be vocal in general, but this characterization cannot, and should not, be pinned on any one group because groups are comprised of individuals with their own personalities that need to be acknowledged. Lumping members of one group together based on preconceptions is in no way different than the actions of the power structure that has forced upon the general public a dichotomized perception of American society, where most people tend to perceive their lived realities in black and white (Rosenblum and Travis, 2012).
Lessons from a Cultural Awareness Course
The course, which I took as part of my doctoral studies in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) was rich in theoretical frameworks, especially those presented in the “Framework Essay” at the beginning of the textbook by Rosenblum and Travis (2012). Understanding the distinctions between sex and gender, disabled people and people with disabilities and many other dyads clarified many misconceptions I may have had prior to taking the course. The personal experiences that followed each framework essay spoke to me personally. Indeed, I live in an ethnically diverse neighborhood where blacks from Africa and African Americans usually have a divergence of views on everyday-life situations. As discussed earlier, lumping people together because of their physical appearance can be detrimental and misguided. Intrinsically, an African American is born and grows up in the United States, where the dominant culture is Eurocentric or Caucasian. Hence, the average African American does not have much in common with the average African, culturally speaking. The former tends to cling to an atavistic notion of what is perceived as the ancestral culture. However, it is important to acknowledge that more than 300 years on the American continent have blurred much of what little culture the first African Americans brought with them. Tales of African origin, like the Anansi stories, have withstood the passage of time, but not much else remains concerning the day-to-day practices of African culture. Hence, despite their similarity in pigmentation, Africans and African Americans see the world through two essentially different lenses.
Throughout the course, my mind was focused on the constructivist notion that all the master statuses are created for political, social, and economic reasons. The more I pondered this question, the more I became puzzled and enlightened at the same time. Lumping black people or Native American tribes together may have been motivated by exclusionary thinking, a sort of divide-and-conquer mindset. This thinking may have been necessary as the first slave rebellions threatened the established power structure and the need for free labor on Southern plantations. At the same time, one must recognize that for the colonists who did not understand the languages spoken by native tribes or the African slaves, language differences may not have been obvious. It was therefore logical to find a generic term for all the people who spoke like the locals or an incomprehensible “Gibberish.” Classifying people based on their skin color was equally a simple way to distinguish the various sub-groups.
In general, what captured my interest were the positive aspects of the dichotomizing of society. Thanks to the dyads (black/white, gay/straight, disabled/able-bodied), it is easier for the federal, state and local governments today to address discrimination issues, including repairing past discrimination through affirmative action and laws that target minorities specifically. Many of those laws, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, were founded on a desire to do right by members of minority groups who had been treated unfairly in the past. Laws like the one above led to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which mandates an even playing field for all students regardless of language background. Essentially, this mandate means that all educators must be cognizant of the diversity within their classrooms. One size does not fit all, and this reality needs to guide the way lessons are planned and delivered, as well as the content and the choice of materials to teach and assess it.
Targeted Intervention
With my current level of experience, I feel that I am equipped to address the needs of three groups that are representative of the local community: African Americans, Hispanics and Africans. My language skills and personal experience allow me to interact successfully with each of these groups. I have had to negotiate some of the cultural divides in my home life as well as my work life, for my partner is from another culture. Living with a partner from another culture present many bumpy roads. Learning to navigate these roads, however, can become a professional asset if it is negotiated tactfully. In fact, learning with my spouse and interacting with her and her family has been the equivalent of the kind of language and cultural immersion Yanhui (2013) recommends for teacher candidates and in-service teachers who want to teach in diverse communities.
Apart from the language immersion component, Yanhui suggests three approaches for schools of education to address their teacher candidates’ cultural awareness needs: field work in neighborhoods where the demographics of the potential school of assignment is predominant, attending conferences on diversity, and studying abroad. As a native of the Ivory Coast, I have resided and worked extensively in that country as well as the United States. I have attended conferences on diversity and had adequate teaching experience with diverse groups for over two decades. Additionally, I am fluent in French, and Spanish, which makes communication with students and their parents easy because of the demographics of the neighborhood.
Although I currently feel comfortable working with Asian students in the various pre-college ESL classes I teach, I am interested in learning more about Japanese, Korean and Chinese cultures, as I am always in contact with students from those cultures. With preconceptions aside, it is paramount to experience cultures first-hand to be an effective teacher of students from these backgrounds.
Working with Caucasian Students
All my professional life has been with minority students. I am therefore apprehensive when it comes to working with Caucasian students, not because I feel that I am less qualified, but mainly because of the possibility of unconscious biases or racism that may result from the situation. Rosenblum and Travis (2012) argue that even among those in the dominant group who support diversity, some may be reluctant to engage in direct interactions with members of minority groups. Caucasian people may not be conscious of their biases and stereotypes and therefore have never attempted to fight them. This is an apprehension that I might have to overcome to be able to function in a predominantly Caucasian class. The situation of racism is real but practically imperceptible. For example, a professor that I admired for being very knowledgeable and rigorous in her class could not obtain tenure at a local college because she received poor ratings in her methods classes from students who were primarily Caucasian. A few months after she left the college, a Caucasian professor was hired. This may be coincidental, but the fact remains that the previous professor was African American in an overwhelmingly Caucasian class, and it is likely that she was subject to bias.
This apprehension set aside, I feel that I can be as effective as with my minority students. I currently work with teacher candidates in a TESOL program where most students are Caucasian. In my second semester of field supervision, my interactions with my mentees have been smooth. To work with secondary school students, however, I will have to use culturally relevant materials, which are readily available since our educational system was designed primarily with that group in mind. But with the latent racism, even if unconscious, I might have to work twice as much as I currently do to earn my students’ trust.
Additional Knowledge
As a teacher of a predominantly Dominican student body, one of my goals is to travel to the Dominical Republic to imbue myself with as much of the local culture as possible. Such a trip would be invaluable for many reasons. First, it would be a cultural immersion trip for me, one that would help me gain a deeper understanding of Dominican culture to better understand my students. Second, I would like to observe some classes and possibly collaborate in teaching a few classes to compare teaching approaches in the Dominican Republic with mine. Most Dominican students feel comfortable in my classes, and I believe this is due to my Spanish language skills. I am curious to know what other reason may explain the level of comfort my Dominican students experience in my classes. Finally, I have seen some academic challenges in my classes and many have told me about the shortfalls of their educational system. Personally, I have observed some serious punctuation problems, which have me wondering if Spanish punctuation taught in the Dominican Republic is essentially different from English punctuation. The problem is crucial as even those with some college background continue to struggle with run-ons and fragments because of faulty punctuation.
Action Steps
Another student population I wish to learn more about is the Asian population, specifically Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. One of the student populations I am most in contact with is the Asian. I need to acquire a better understanding of Asian culture in general and specifically of Chinese, Japanese and Korean cultures. As non-Asian, I tend to see all Asians as people who share the same culture. While the nationalities listed above certainly have some cultural traits in common, they also differ in many areas. Should the opportunity become available, I would do the following:
1. Organize a culture-oriented festival every semester that would include various dishes, dances and other forms of artistic expression.
2. Work in a school in Chinatown for at least a year to compare the teachers’ approaches to those of the rest of the city of New York.
3. Attend cultural seminars on the cultures of the three countries listed above to become familiar with the various cultures from an intellectual standpoint. This would help me better appreciate the social immersion in Chinatown.
4. Sign up for a language immersion program in any of the three countries. This would allow me to appraise their approach to teaching languages to foreigners, which can be invaluable in designing approaches for students from the countries visited.
Conclusion
The demographics in American public schools has experienced major changes over the past two to three decades. Today, many schools are in charge of educating children who speak a foreign language at home. At the same time, the necessity arises to give these linguistically deficient students the tools to compete with their native English speaker peers. No Child Left Behind mandates that no student should be left by the wayside because of their language skills or national origin. Many school districts in New York and other states have implemented state-mandated curricula that address the needs of LEP students. These curricula use culturally-sensitive materials and strive to maintain communication between students’ home and their school as smooth as possible. Many schools in New York City provide language services for students and their parents through ESL programs and Dual Language schools where the necessity arises. The time is ripe for teacher education programs to acknowledge this dire need and train teachers who are ready to support culturally diverse students.
References
Crawford, J. (2004). Educating English learners: language diversity in the classroom. 5th ed. Los Angeles, CA: Bilingual Educational Services.
Critical multicultural pavilion: Awareness activities (accessed at http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/activityarch.html)
Florida Consent Decree (1990). (Accessed at http://www.fldoe.org/aala/cdpage2.asp)
Hidalgo, N. 1993. Multicultural teacher introspection. In Perry, T. and Fraser, J. (Eds.) Freedom's Plow: Teaching in the Multicultural Classroom. New York: Routledge.
New York City Dual Language Programs (2010). Bilingual Education Student Information Survey (Accessed at http:// www.cfn107.org/uploads/6/1/9/2/6192492/dual_language_ programs.pdf)
New York City Education Department English Language Learners (2013). The Division of Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners (accessed at http://schools.nyc. gov/Academics/ELL/defaukt.htm)
New York City Education Department (2013). Spanish Native Language Curriculum Guide (accessed at http:// schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/CF6EDD53-9581-44FF- B390-8F5AEA5461F7/0/SNLACGFinal092413_khFINAL. pdf)
Rowsell, J., Sztainbok, V., & Blaney, J. (2007). Losing Strangeness: Using Culture to mediate ESL teaching. Language, Culture and Curriculum, (140-154) doi: 0.2167/lcc331.0
United States Education Department, No Child Left Behind (accessed at http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml) Yanhui, P. (2013). Preparing Culturally Competent PreK-12 Educators. New England Reading Association Journal, 49(1), 77-80.