Cultural Competency

Throughout my life, I have experienced many situations where, had the other person had more cultural competency training, our encounter would have been more positive. Most of the situations that have stuck with me took place in high school. I was usually the only or one of just two minority students in my higher level courses. I had a teacher who continuously mispronounced my name all year, even after I repeatedly corrected her, and other teachers who always wanted me to speak for my race when we were discussing racial tensions in books or the news. I was complimented on how well I knew a topic, even though no one else in class would get complimented. As an adult, I have been followed in stores or profiled solely based on the color of my skin. But those high school encounters stuck with me the most, I think because I felt like my teachers should have known better, that they should have been setting a better example for how my fellow students should handle those situations.

Cultural competency is the ongoing, lifelong process by which people learn to value and respond respectfully to individuals of all cultures. When we start to view our students and colleagues through a cultural competency lens, we begin to build lasting relationship and rapport.

Cultural competency has been known to:

• Reduce racial and gender profiling
• Reduce the disproportionality of students referred to special education and increase the number of students of color getting referred to gifted and talented programs
• Reduce the number of discipline referrals of students of color to numbers equal to their white counterparts

To become more culturally competent, one needs to:

• Value diversity
• Have capacity for cultural self-assessment
• Be conscious of the dynamics that occur when cultures interact
• Have knowledge of different cultural practices and world views

Here are some strategies to use for school counselors to be more culturally responsive when addressing the needs of students:

• Create an identity safe office/school
• Foster growth mindsets
• Emphasize high standards and capabilities for all students
• Self-assess implicit bias
• Cultivate inclusivity
• Expose students to counter-stereotype exemplars
• Understand the difference between intention and impact
• Be aware of how colorblindness can make students feel

When working with colleagues, school counselors can use these strategies to be more culturally responsive:

• Workshops focused on building cultural competence and culturally responsive philosophy
• Guest speakers to address special topics
• Inventory of current building and classroom practices
• Departmental task-focused group to build philosophy, curriculum, assessments and instructional practices
• Focus groups that read a book together to promote cultural responsiveness and discuss relevance to own practice
• Regular consultation on implementation and practice

Every day is an opportunity to change our mindsets and learn a little more so that we become more culturally responsive school counselors. For me, Dr. Ray Terrell of Miami University said it best: “An important aspect of cultural competence is not so much what we learn about other people, but what we learn about ourselves and our reactions to other people.”

Contact Monica Bryant, NvSCA Eastern Region VP, at mbryant924@gmail.com.