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Cultural Competencies,Part IV: Race & Ethnicity

Maggie Rivas

April 11, 2007

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Objectives

Intended outcomes for this session:• Participants will increase their awareness on the racial and

ethnic competencies needed to work effectively with English language learners (ELLs).

• Participants will engage in an examination of their own cultural, ethnic, and racial identities and enhance their awareness of how people’s identities develop.

• Participants will increase their understanding of the implications of bicultural and panethnic heritage identity and of issues that students may face.

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Shrinking White Majority, U.S.

Racial-Ethnic Composition 1980-2040Racial-ethnic composition: 1980-2040

80 72 64 57

1212

1313

11 16 2246

8

6

1980 2000 2020 2040

Hispanic

Asian / P.I.

American Indian

Black

White

Source, U.S. Census Bureau

1980 2000

2020 2040

Hispanic

Asian/PI

American Indian

Black

White

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Let’s test ourselves:

Which of these students do you think is Hispanic?  Look at them carefully...

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How did you do?

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Competency I

Maintaining High Expectations for All Students

The teacher• distinguishes differences from deficits or disabilities,

• seeks to become aware of low expectations or other inequitable treatment of students, and

• demonstrates high expectations by engaging all students in challenging curriculum.

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Competency II

Supporting Students’ Identity Development

The teacher• understands the importance of identity

development;

• recognizes students’ internal strengths, respects their identity, and supports identity development; and

• respects students’ home languages and dialects.

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Competency IIIRecognizing and Preventing Institutional Racism

Within the School

The teacher• joins others to establish a policy of zero tolerance,• advocates a policy of disaggregating data, • challenges school and district policies that reflect low

expectations of students, • supports equitable policies which promote cultural

groups in advanced and gifted programs and in college,• supports policies of equitable resource allocations, and• ensures that families knows students’ rights in evaluation

and special services.

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Competency IVRecognizing and Preventing Cultural Racism

Within the School

The teacher• works with families to design projects;

• ensures that instructional and assessment practices are appropriate; and

• works with others to ensure that resources are unbiased, representative, and relevant to students.

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Competency VRecognizing and Preventing Individual Racism

The teacher• deal immediately and constructively with ethnic and

racial situations;

• works with educators, families, and others to identify and implement a conflict-resolution approach;

• collaborates with colleagues to determine the school experiences of students from different backgrounds; and

• uses strategies that support students’ understanding and appreciation of each other.

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Competency VI

The teacher• identifies and supports the ways in which parents and

families prefer to interact with schools,

• learns about the students’ community and cultural knowledge,

• engages with families so they understand course options and how to support students’ best choice, and

• engages other colleagues to provide a safe environment for students to address unequal and destructive power relationships and conflicts.

Recognizing and Addressing Unequal Power Relationships in the School and Community

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Reflection

What is your racial, ethnic, and cultural identity? What other aspects of identity are important to you?

What is your earliest recollection of someone being included or excluded from your group based on race, ethnicity, or culture?

What is your earliest recollection of being “different” or excluded based on race or culture? Describe a time when your “difference” made a difference.

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Small Group Work Questions Recall and reflect on your earliest and most significant

experiences of race, culture, ethnicity, or other aspects of identity.

Think about yourself as a cultural being whose life has been influenced by various historical, social, political, economic, and geographical circumstances.

Make connections between your own experience and those of people different from you.

Chart and share with group.

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Definition

PANETHNIC IDENTITY: defined as occurring when groups who have had previously distinct ethnic or national

identities are "consolidated into a single racial or in the case of Latinos, ethnic,

category. (Omi, 1999: 29)

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Definition

RACE: a socially constructed category of people, grouped on the basis of physical characteristics, including skin color, hair, and facial features. Color terms such as Red, Yellow, White, and Black have often

been used to denote racial groups.

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Definition

ETHNICITY: membership in or identification with a group that has

common geographic origins, history, culture, language, and often religion.

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Definitions

It is important not to confuse the term minority with ethnic group.  Ethnic groups may be either a minority or a majority in a population. Whether a group is a minority or a majority also is not an absolute fact but depends on the perspective. 

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Discussion• Did anything surprise you about Young’s

experience? If so, what? If not, why not?

• Is there anything in your own experience, or in the experience of a student you know, that parallels Young’s experience?

• How might Young’s identity struggles affect her classroom behavior?

• What can a teacher or other school personnel do to influence the experiences of students like Young?

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Supporting Student’s Identity Development

Read pages 20–23 and answer the following questions:

• What implications does supporting students’ identity have in my work or teaching?

• What further research do I need to do?

• Whom do I need to talk to about this and what work can we do together?