Something about us!

"WE NEED TO BE CONSCIOUS ABOUT THE DIFFERENCES WE HAVE, AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THESE FOR IMPROVING OUR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND OUR SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS"

Song

Jimmy Cliff

                                            I can see clearly now

ALL DIFFERENT BUT WE HAVE SOMETHING IN COMMON: A CULTURE THAT IDENTIFIES US.

DEFINITION OF LANGUAGE

What is Language?

Many animal and even plant species communicate with each other.  Humans are not unique in this capability.  However, human language is unique in being a symbolic communication system that is learned instead of biologically inherited.  Symbols  are sounds or things which have meaning given to them by the users.  Originally, the meaning is arbitrarily assigned.  For instance, the English word "dog" does not in any way physically resemble the animal it stands for.  All symbols have a material form but the meaning can not be discovered by mere sensory examination of their forms.  They are abstractions.

Do the following words sound or look like the animal shown here: canis , chien , hund , perro  ?(They all are words for dog in European languages.)

A word is one or more sounds that in combination have a specific meaning assigned by a language.  The symbolic meaning of words can be so powerful that people are willing to risk their lives for them or take the lives of others.  For instance, words such as "queer" and "nigger" have symbolic meaning that is highly charged emotionally in America today for many people.  They are much more than just a sequence of sounds to us.

A major advantage of human language being a learned symbolic communication system is that it is infinitely flexible.  Meanings can be changed and new symbols created.  This is evidenced by the fact that new words are invented daily and the meaning of old ones change.  For example, the English word "nice" now generally means pleasing, agreeable, polite, and kind.  In the15th century it meant foolish, wanton, lascivious, and even wicked.   Languages evolve in response to changing historical and social conditions.  Some language transformations typically occur in a generation or less.  For instance, the slang words used by your parents were very likely different from those that you use today.  You also probably are familiar with many technical terms, such as "text messaging" and "high definition TV", that were not in general use even a decade ago. 

Language and speech are not the same thing.  Speech is a broad term simply referring to patterned verbal behavior.  In contrast, a language is a set of rules for generating speech.  A dialect  is a variant of a language.  If it is associated with a geographically isolated speech community, it is referred to as a regional dialect.  However, if it is spoken by a speech community that is merely socially isolated, it is called a social dialect.  These latter dialects are mostly based on class, ethnicity , gender , age, and particular social situations.  Black English (or Ebonics ) in the United States is an example of a social dialect.  Dialects may be both regional and social.  An example is the Chinese spoken dialect and written form called nushu.  It apparently was known and used only by women in the village of Jiang-yong in Hunan Province of South China.  Women taught nushu only to their daughters and used it to write memoirs, create songs, and share their thoughts with each other.  While women also knew and used the conventional Chinese dialect of their region, they used nushu to maintain female support networks in their male dominated society.  Nushu is essentially gone now due to its suppression during the 1950's and 1960's by the communist government of China.  The last speaker and writer of nushu was a woman named Yang Huanyi.  She died in 2004.  Not all societies have distinct dialects.  They are far more common in large-scale diverse societies than in small-scale homogenous ones.

Over the last few centuries, deaf people have developed sign languages that are complex visual-gestural forms of communicating with each other.  Since they are effective communication systems with standardized rules, they also must be considered languages in their own right even though they are not spoken.

	Women in Papua New Guinea conversing in Pidgin English

A pidgin is a simplified, makeshift language that develops to fulfill the communication needs of people who have no language in common but who need to occasionally interact for commercial and other reasons.  Pidgins combine a limited amount of the vocabulary and grammar of the different languages.  People who use pidgin languages also speak their own native language.  Over the last several centuries, dozens of pidgin languages developed as Europeans expanded out into the rest of the world for colonization and trade.  The most well known one is Pidgin English in New Guinea.  However, several forms of Pidgin English and Pidgin French also developed in West Africa and the Caribbean.  There have been pidgins developed by non-European cultures as well, including the Zulus in South Africa, the Malays in Southeast Asia, the Arabs in North Africa, and several American Indian societies.  The most well known pidgin developed by American Indians is Chinook, which was used on the Northwest Coast of North America.

At times, a pidgin language becomes the mother tongue of a population.  When that happens, it is called a creole  language.  As pidgins change into creoles over several generations, their vocabularies enlarge.  In the small island nation of Haiti, a French-African pidgin became the creole language.  It is still spoken there by the majority of the population as their principle or only language.  The same thing happened among some of the peoples of Papua New Guinea , the Pacific Islands of Vanuatu , and Sierra Leone  in West Africa, where different versions of Pidgin English became creoles.  Similarly, on the outer banks of Georgia and South Carolina in the United States, isolated former African slaves made another version of Pidgin English into a creole known as Gullah  or Geechee Creoles also developed in Louisiana, Jamaica, and the Netherlands Antilles 

It is common for creole speakers to also speak another "standard" language as well.  In Haiti, for instance, the more educated and affluent people also speak French among themselves.  Their creole language is used on the street in dealing with poor Haitians.  The Gullah speakers of Georgia and South Carolina speak English when dealing with outsiders.  Which language is spoken depends on the social situation.  This same phenomenon is often found in societies with different dialects of the same language.  People may quickly switch back and forth between dialects, depending on the person they are talking to at the time.   This pattern is referred to as diglossia  or "code switching."  The African American situational use of standard and Black English is a prime example.  Black English is usually reserved for talking with other African Americans.  North American reporters and announcers on national television programs are often diglossic.  They must learn to speak with a Midwestern, European American dialect regardless of the region or social class they came from originally.  We become so accustomed to this that it is usually a shocking surprise to hear them speak in their own dialects.

Typically, the dialects of a society are ranked relative to each other in terms of social status.  In the London area of England, the upper class speak "public school" English, while the lower class often use a Cockney  dialect.  Because of the stigma against the latter, upwardly mobile Cockneys in the business world may take language lessons to acquire the "public school" speech patterns.

WHY IS IMPORTANT CULTURAL AWARENESS FOR FUTURE MODERN LANGUAGES TEACHERS?

People who do not know about culture ignore totally where they come from and are not able to take a valid position in front of it. As Culture is a changeable human creation composed by customs, believes, religion traditions, language, symbols, values, norms, laws and others (Edward B. Tylor, 1871), we should be aware that each person in the world is the product of their own culture. It identifies us and shows the way we perceive the world around us. This is the understanding cultural knowledge provides us. However, there are people who do not reflect upon their behavior as the result of culture and tend to think, conscious or unconsciously, that their culture or ethnic group is the correct one until the extreme of rejecting and discriminating other cultural or ethnic tendencies. Fortunately, this can be avoided by means of education, that is why I dare to state that future modern languages professionals as me should be well prepare in such as essential aspect of our lives as culture is, in order to face surely multicultural classrooms.

Cultural knowledge would be a great aid for new teachers with multicultural classrooms. Being a modern languages professional gives certain advantages as working in another country, therefore, it is easy to find multicultural classrooms, what would not be surely an easy task; nevertheless, in accordance with Charlotte M. Jones, what is important when there exists culture clash is to be open, knowledgeable, and not be afraid to talk about the cultural differences in class no matter what discipline the teacher is teaching (12). I share completely her thought since teachers work is not just give knowledge about a subject, but form integral people who respect differences and there is not better way to avoid misunderstandings than by communicating. When in the classrooms there is a space in which students can expose their ideas looking for clarifying the false stereotypes we have about culture and people, the relationship between students becomes more bearable.

Cultural understanding helps future professionals to treat their students as people that conceive their world in different ways because of their backgrounds. Knowledge about culture supports teachers because they comprehend how “culturally relevant and responsible instruction clearly shows that knowledge of students' family, community and socioethnic cultures, their languages, literacy practices, and values--can help  them address  interests and build on the skills of their students" (Abt-Perkins and Rosen, 254). A good example of teachers’ cultural knowledge is implemented in the schools in the United State where almost all the classrooms are multicultural. There teachers have a cultural competence that allow them to interact with their students from culturally diverse backgrounds. There, exists a great search for teachers who are able to mediate between intercultural students.

Although teachers have cultural knowledge they can not avoid ethnocentrism or prejudices they feel about certain cultures. This is a position managed by the traditional perspective which considers culture can not be corrupted because it would produce fragmentation. Thus, this position deems that culture is fixed, predetermined and essentialist and its main search is assimilation instead of integration (Taguieff, 1997,Hannoun, 1987). I am in total disagreement with this position since this missed way of seeing diversity provokes teacher and students lack of comprehension. As Orange and Horwitz who argues that a teacher's culture, language, social interests, goals, cognitions, and values, especially,  if different from the students', could conceivably create a barrier to understanding what is best for children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (p. 254). Cultural knowledge should produce awareness of diversity which can be used by the teacher in a way that enhances a better development in the classes since students can enrich their way thinking by hearing other perspectives of the world.

    Culture is only a word which does not denote what it really frames. When we deepen in what culture represents, we find innumerable aspects to reflect as cultural differences, ethnocentrism, relativism, racism, ethnic discrimination, subcultures, cultural awareness, and many others that help to comprehend it. The reflection about cultural issues makes us recognize how short of thinking we are sometimes since we believe that our conception of the world is the same everybody should have. Our way of thinking probably would change if we have cultural knowledge which could be called a capacity to clear our minds of prejudices and look culture with open mind. And, here is where education plays an extremely important role due to teachers can learn about culture in order to know how to manage students with different views of the world.

Conciencia Cultural...

Quiza no seamos de diferentes paises o de diferentes culturas, pero cada uno de nosotros tiene sus propias opiniones y pensamientos... Pero aun asi, buscamos las mejores maneras para tratarnos y hacer de nuestra amistad algo duradero y puro. cada uno tiene su propia cultura...

Jenny: Es la más cuerda ( como decimos por aqui) de todos, siempre ve las cosas de una manera muy logica y razonable. Nos da los mejores consejos y nos ayuda en todo.

Luisa: Ella es una loquita bastante agradable para todos nosotros, sale con cosas, con las que solo ella puede salir, es alegre y muy inteligente.

Mauro: el es otro loquito, con su forma de ser nos agrada, nos enamora con su voz y nos hace reir con sus disparates. Es relajado en el buen sentido de la palabra.

Finalmente yo... Creo que del grupo soy la de la mitad, ni muy loquita ni muy cuerda, eso si soy la mas relajada de todos, en el buen sentido de la palabra... jeje.... 

No es necesario ser de otros paises para tener nuestra propia cultura.

nuestras formas de ser y nuestros gustos son prueba de ello.

Los cuatro aun siendo muy diferentes tenemos nuestra propia conciencia cultural, nos aceptamos y respetamos el punto de vista del otro... Y cada cual con sus cosas...  Jenny con el deporte, Luisa con el ajedrez y el ajedrecista, jaja,  Mauro con la musica y su comida... Y por ultimo yo con el desespero total de estar donde quiero estar. 

CULTURAL AWARENESS Music

MGTM- ELECTRIC FEEL.

Lyrics.

All along the western front

People line up to receive.

She got the power in her hands

To shock you like you won't believe.

Saw her in the amazon

With the voltage running through her skin

Standing there with nothing on

She's gonna teach me how to swim

Ooh girl

Shock me like an electric feel

Baby girl

Turn me on with your electric feel

Ooh girl

Shock me like an electric feel

Baby girl

Turn me on with your electric feel

All along the eastern shore

Put your circuits in the sea

This is what the world is for

Making electricity

You can feel it in your mind

Oh you can do it all the time

Plug it in and change the world

You are my electric girl.

Ooh girl

Shock me like an electric feel

Baby girl

Turn me on with your electric feel

Ooh girl

Shock me like an electric feel

Baby girl

Turn me on with your electric feel

interesting article about culture and globalization

Does Globalization Destroy Culture?
July 8, 2008
Art Carden
Daily Sun News

The latest summit between G8 leaders brings with it the usual litany of complaints about globalization: environmental degradation, exploitation of sweatshop labor, and alleged Western capitalist hegemony. Some argue that globalization-induced increases in material well-being are superficial and trifling, sometimes quoting William Wordsworth’s statement that “in getting and spending we lay waste our powers.” The trade-offs include reduced cultural distinctiveness, increased social instability, and unsavory cultural by-products. The G8 protesters are correct that globalization has some costs; however, these costs are small relative to the benefits.

Globalization is an experimental process that produces a host of political problems because the process of “creative destruction” continually upsets the status quo. Incentives matter: if people can get rich by creating wealth, we are better off for it. However, if they can get rich by redistributing wealth, we are worse off for it. 

These insights also apply to cultural globalization. In a 2004 article in the American Economic Review, Bryan Caplan and Tyler Cowen argue that global cultural competition is beneficial. By preventing it, we deprive ourselves of new cultural forms as well as exposure to what the rest of the world has to offer.

One concern is that increasing globalization creates “winner-take-all” markets for cultural outputs. Globalization might mean that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will become the Last Action Hero, but it will also create niche markets in which everyone’s preferences, no matter how esoteric, can be satisfied. This is something the G8 protesters overlook.

Another concern is that globalization has undesirable moral consequences. At first glance, it appears that increased access to pornography is an identifiable cost of globalization and technological change. The actual effects are more subtle: as Clemson University economist Todd Kendall has shown, rates of sex crimes fell as internet pornography became more widespread. Those who are predisposed to commit sex crimes substitute such acts with pornography as it becomes more widely available. The moral costs of globalization and technology may in fact be benefits as people commit fewer brutal sex crimes.

The key to a robust cultural environment is to preserve the institutions that allow the search process to operate rather than trying to freeze cultural time. The market process is the process by which efficient modes of production are revealed.  According to 1973 Nobel Laureate F.A. Hayek, we can’t have that specific knowledge. Encouraging experimentation—and therefore giving people the freedom to fail—is essential to the discovery process.

Data from various polls suggests that on the whole, people do not trust globalization. As Bryan Caplan argues in his book The Myth of the Rational Voter, people have systematically biased views of economic processes. One needs only to scan newspapers or magazines to find large photo spreads of people investing scarce resources in attempts to maintain the status quo. Socially, these resources are wasted.

Global commerce in culture and morality can also be ennobling. In an oft-quoted passage, 19th century economist John Stuart Mill argues “[t]he economical advantages of commerce are surpassed in importance by those of its effects, which are intellectual and moral.” He points out that as commerce has replaced war as the chief way in which cultures engage one another, the opportunities to improve our “arts or practices” as well as “points of character” continue to expand.

Economists are criticized for an alleged blind faith in the market, particularly among those who are likely to be represented among the G8 protesters. However, our zeal for market processes does not represent blind faith or ideological slavery but a humble admission that human knowledge is too imperfect to articulate ideal solutions to broad social problems. The market is not an end unto itself; rather, it is a means by which the most effective ways to solve problems are revealed, as Hayek has pointed out and as distinguished economists like New York University development economist William Easterly have echoed. As noted by 1986 Nobel Laureate James Buchanan, the very essence of the market process is to define the arrangements that produce order and to discard those that do not. In the final analysis, we should not fret about the alleged moral and cultural depravity of modernity. Rather, we should maintain and preserve the processes and institutions conducive to the development of art and culture.

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Art Carden is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, California, and Associate Professor of Economics and Business at Rhodes College.

definicion de cultura

La cultura es el conjunto de todas las formas, los modelos o los patrones, explícitos o implícitos, a través de los cuales una sociedad se manifiesta. Como tal incluye costumbres, prácticas, códigos, normas y reglas de la manera de ser, vestimenta, religión, rituales, normas de comportamiento y sistemas de creencias. Desde otro punto de vista se puede decir que la cultura es toda la información y habilidades que posee el ser humano. El concepto de cultura es fundamental para las disciplinas que se encargan del estudio de la sociedad, en especial para la psicología, la antropología y la sociología. La Unesco, en 1982, declaró:...que la cultura da al hombre la capacidad de reflexionar sobre sí mismo. Es ella la que hace de nosotros seres específicamente humanos, racionales, críticos y éticamente comprometidos. A través de ella discernimos los valores y efectuamos opciones. A través de ella el hombre se expresa, toma conciencia de sí mismo, se reconoce como un proyecto inacabado, pone en cuestión sus propias realizaciones, busca incansablemente nuevas significaciones, y crea obras que lo trascienden.(UNESCO, 1982: Declaración de México)Aunque muchas de las concepciones sobre cultura en el lenguaje común tienen su origen en el debate de las ciencias sociales, o bien, existieron primero en el habla cotidiana y luego fueron retomadas por las segundas, aquí se presenta un repaso sobre la construcción histórica del concepto de cultura en las disciplinas sociales.

cultural diversity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDvLk7e2Irc

In this video we can see how culture varies. it is important to highlight that We must fight this cultural marxism which is destroying our society and ending our nations existance. and example of this is when you live in another country and you're sick and tired of people assuming the worst about you, so you want them to learn how to have some respect... But clearly that would be inconceivable to someone such as yourself.

cultural awarness

What is Cultural Awareness, anyway? How do I build it?

“A fish only discovers its need for water when it is no longer in it.

Our own culture is like water for the fish. It sustains us.

We live and breathe through it.”

by Stephanie Quappe and Giovanna Cantatore

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Cultural Awareness is the foundation of communication and it involves the ability of standing back from ourselves and becoming aware of our cultural values, beliefs and perceptions. Why do we do things in that way? How do we see the world? Why do we react in that particular way?

Cultural awareness becomes central when we have to interact with people from other cultures. People see, interpret and evaluate things in a different ways. What is considered an appropriate behavior in one culture is frequently inappropriate in another one. Misunderstandings arise when I use my meanings to make sense of your reality.

As an Italian it is almost automatic to perceive US Americans as people who always work, talk about business over lunch and drink their coffee running in the street instead of enjoying it in a bar. What does it mean? Italians are lazy and American hyperactive? No, it means that the meaning that people give to certain activities, like having lunch or dinner could be different according to certain cultures. In Italy, where relationships are highly valued, lunch, dinner or the simple pauses for coffee have a social connotation: people get together to talk and relax, and to get to know each other better. In the USA, where time is money, lunches can be part of closing a deal where people discuss the outcomes and sign a contract over coffee.

Misinterpretations occur primarily when we lack awareness of our own behavioral rules and project them on others. In absence of better knowledge we tend to assume, instead of finding out what a behavior means to the person involved, e.g. a straight look into your face is regarded as disrespectful in Japan.

Becoming aware of our cultural dynamics is a difficult task because culture is not conscious to us. Since we are born we have learned to see and do things at an unconscious level. Our experiences, our values and our cultural background lead us to see and do things in a certain way. Sometimes we have to step outside of our cultural boundaries in order to realize the impact that our culture has on our behavior. It is very helpful to gather feedback from foreign colleagues on our behavior to get more clarity on our cultural traits.

Projected similarities could lead to misinterpretation as well. When we assume that people are similar to us, we might incur the risk that they are not. If we project similarities where there are not, we might act inappropriately. It is safer to assume differences until similarity is proven.[1]

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Degrees of Cultural Awareness

There are several levels of cultural awareness that reflect how people grow to perceive cultural differences.

My way is the only way - At the first level, people are aware of their way of doing things, and their way is the only way. At this stage, they ignore the impact of cultural differences. (Parochial stage)

I know their way, but my way is better - At the second level, people are aware of other ways of doing things, but still consider their way as the best one. In this stage, cultural differences are perceived as source of problems and people tend to ignore them or reduce their significance. (Ethnocentric stage)

My Way and Their Way - At this level people are aware of their own way of doing things and others’ ways of doing things, and they chose the best way according to the situation. At this stage people realize that cultural differences can lead both to problems and benefits and are willing to use cultural diversity to create new solutions and alternatives. (Synergistic stage)

Our Way - This fourth and final stage brings people from different cultural background together for the creation of a culture of shared meanings. People dialogue repeatedly with others, create new meanings, new rules to meet the needs of a particular situation. (Participatory Third culture stage)

Increasing cultural awareness means to see both the positive and negative aspects of cultural differences. Cultural diversity could be a source of problems, in particular when the organization needs people to think or act in a similar way. Diversity increases the level of complexity and confusion and makes agreement difficult to reach. On the other hand, cultural diversity becomes an advantage when the organization expands its solutions and its sense of identity, and begins to take different approaches to problem solving. Diversity in this case creates valuable new skills and behaviors.

  In becoming culturally aware, people realize that:

 We are not all the same

Similarities and differences are both important

There are multiple ways to reach the same goal and to live life

The best way depends on the cultural contingency. Each situation is different and may require a different solution.

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How Do I Manage Cultural Diversity?

We are generally aware that the first step in managing diversity is recognize it and learning not to fear it.

Since everyone is the product of their own culture, we need to increase both self-awareness and cross-cultural awareness. There is no book of instructions to deal with cultural diversity, no recipe to follow. But certain attitudes help to bridge cultures.

Admit that you don’t know. Knowing that we don’t know everything, that a situation does not make sense, that our assumptions may be wrong is part of the process of becoming culturally aware. Assume differences, not similarities.

Suspend judgments. Collect as much information as possible so you can describe the situation accurately before evaluating it.

Empathy. In order to understand another person, we need to try standing in his/her shoes. Through empathy we learn of how other people would like to be treated by us.

Systematically check your assumptions. Ask your colleagues for feedback and constantly check your assumptions to make sure that you clearly understand the situation.

Become comfortable with ambiguity. The more complicated and uncertain life is, the more we tend to seek control. Assume that other people are as resourceful as we are and that their way will add to what we know. “If we always do, what we’ve always done, we will always get, what we always got.”

Celebrate diversity. As a company find ways of sharing the cultures of your diverse workforce, i.e., in 2002 Deutsche Bank carried out multiple initiatives around the theme of “tolerance: diversity, identity, recognition” which they called “Initiative Plus 2002.” They encouraged employee projects and organized an annual colloquium of global experts.

A CULTURAL COMPETENCE

To encourage culturally competent and linguistically appropriate exchanges and collaborations among families, professionals, students, and communities. These collaborations should foster equitable outcomes for all students and result in the identification and provision of services that are responsive to issues of race, culture, gender, and social and economic status.

The idea of more effective cross-cultural capabilities is captured in many terms similar to cultural competence.  Cultural knowledge, cultural awareness, and cultural sensitivity all convey the idea of improving cross-cultural capacity, as illustrated in the following definitions: 

Cultural Knowledge: Familiarization with selected cultural characteristics, history, values, belief systems, and behaviors of the members of another ethnic group (Adams, 1995).

Cultural Awareness: developing sensitivity and understanding of another ethnic group.  This usually involves internal changes in terms of attitudes and values.  Awareness and sensitivity also refer to the qualities of openness and flexibility that people develop in relation to others.  Cultural awareness must be supplemented with cultural knowledge(Adams, 1995).

Cultural Sensitivity: Knowing that cultural differences as well as similarities exist, without assigning values, i.e., better or worse, right or wrong, to those cultural differences (National Maternal and Child Health Center on Cultural Competency, 1997).

    When considering cultural competence; a concise, practical definition, and some explanation of relevant ideas are needed.  Cross, Bazron, Dennis, & Isaacs (1989) explored the concept of cultural competence in the system of care, and developed the definition and framework used here.  They are appropriately applied in the school–based programs that will be highlighted later in this discussion. 

 Cultural competence is defined as a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross–cultural situations (Cross et al., 1989; Isaacs & Benjamin, 1991).  Operationally defined, cultural competence is the integration and transformation of knowledge about individuals and groups of people into specific standards, policies, practices, and attitudes used in appropriate cultural settings to increase the quality of services; thereby producing better outcomes (Davis, 1997 referring to health outcomes).

    The word culture is used because it implies the integrated patterns of human behavior that includes thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions of racial, ethnic, religious, or social groups.  The word competence is used because it implies having the capacity to function in a particular way: the capacity to function within the context of culturally integrated patterns of human behavior defined by a group.  Being competent in cross–cultural functioning means learning new patterns of behavior and effectively applying them in the appropriate settings.  For example, a teacher with a class of African–American children may find that a certain look sufficiently quiets most of the class.  Often African–American adults use eye contact and facial expression to discipline their children.  However, this is not effective with all African–Americans.  Intra–group differences, such as geographic location or socioeconomic background, require practitioners to avoid overgeneralizing.  With other students, one might have to use loud demanding tones, quiet non–threatening language, or whatever is appropriate for those students.  The unknowing teacher might offend some students and upset others by using the wrong words, tone, or body language.  Being culturally competent means having the capacity to function effectively in other cultural contexts.

    There are five essential elements that contribute to a system's ability to become more culturally competent.  The system should (1) value diversity, (2) have the capacity for cultural self–assessment, (3) be conscious of the "dynamics" inherent when cultures interact, (4)  institutionalize cultural knowledge, and (5) develop adaptations to service delivery reflecting an understanding of diversity between and within cultures.  Further, these five elements must be manifested in every level of the service delivery system.  They should be reflected in attitudes, structures, policies, and services.

    Cultural competence is a developmental process that occurs along a continuum.  There are six possibilities, starting from one end and building toward the other: 1) cultural destructiveness, 2) cultural incapacity, 3) cultural blindness, 4) cultural pre–competence, 5) cultural competency, and 6) cultural proficiency.  It has been suggested that, at best, most human service agencies providing services to children and families fall between the cultural incapacity and cultural blindness on the continuum (Cross et al., 1989).   It is very important for agencies to assess where they fall along the continuum.   Such an assessment can be useful for further development.

 Operationalizing Cultural Competence in School Settings

    Prior to the passage of the Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, many children were excluded from public schooling because of behavior problems and a lack of school capacity to address their needs.  Under that legislation, now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the number of students with emotional disturbance included in mainstream education has increased, and continues to grow (Walker, Reavis, Rhode, & Jenson, 1985; Osher & Osher 1995).  As this segment of the student population in schools increases it becomes necessary to enhance school–based support for children.  In accord with Target 3 of the National Agenda, the Office of Special Education (OSEP), in the U.S. Department of Education, has funded several projects designed to implement culturally competent programs for children and youth with emotional disturbance.  Aspects of these cultural competence projects can be examined to illustrate the five elements of cultural competence referenced above.

Value Diversity

    Valuing diversity means accepting and respecting differences.  People come from very different backgrounds, and their customs, thoughts, ways of communicating, values, traditions, and institutions vary accordingly.   The choices that individuals make are powerfully affected by culture.  Cultural experiences influence choices that range from recreational activities to subjects of study.  Even how one chooses to define family is determined by culture.   In matrilineal societies, a child's maternal uncle plays a central role in care taking.  It is common for the father to reside in another domicile, minimizing his role in raising his wife's children.  Such a practice may be unfamiliar to people who define family patrilineally.  If a child's uncle from a matrilineal culture responded to a call from school, it may be important to know that his culture defines family according to this structure.  By accepting this cultural practice, this school can maximize its relationship with the child's family.

    Diversity between cultures must be recognized, but also the diversity within them.  Individuals are exposed to many different cultures.  School, television, books, and other activities  present opportunities for multicultural exposure.  People generally assume a common culture is shared between members of racial, linguistic, and religious groups.  The larger group may share common historical and geographical experiences.  However, individuals may share nothing beyond similar physical appearance, language, or spiritual beliefs.  Race is a social construct that people use to associate behaviors and attitudes with physical characteristics.  Assimilation and acculturation can create kaleidoscopes of subcultures within racial groups.  Other factors such as gender, geographic locality, and socioeconomic status can be more powerful than racial factors.  A Vietnamese couple may immigrate to America, and raise their children in a suburban area.  As a result, the children may identify more with American popular culture than that of their parents.  Recognizing intra–cultural differences help illuminate the complexities of diversity that challenge us.

     Racial and linguistic minorities are under–represented in educational and mental health occupations, and in some cases disproportionately over–identified as having emotional disturbance.  As a result many teachers and counselors come from a different racial and cultural heritage than the children and families they serve.  Some OSEP–funded projects organize activities in an attempt to promote better understanding of, and respect for, cultural differences.  Families and Schools Together (FAST), an eight–week program which primarily focuses on family empowerment through parent/professional partnerships, organizes weekly dinners with families participating in the program.  Each week a different family hosts dinner.  Participating families often represent a variety of cultural backgrounds.  During these dinners staff facilitate informal activities for families, designed to improve communication between family members.  For FAST staff to improve how they communicate with family members, they must respect how that family chooses to communicate.  After families graduate from the program, project staff also participate in support group meetings organized by family members.  These activities are effective because families and staff are able to respect each other's differences.   Community Approaches to Improving Child Success (CAICS), a project based in the Englewood, New Jersey school system, hosts weekend getaways for teachers, primary caretakers, and children in the program.  The retreats are designed to begin a process of moving away from blaming others (e.g. the school, "those" teachers, "bad" students) for children's behavior.  Participants, including children, are expected to move towards self– accountability.  Participants agree that the retreats provide opportunities to value and respect the practices of other cultures.  Everyone has an opportunity to develop an appreciation for other peoples' cultural perceptions and the reality of differences.  The program stresses the importance of understanding that "different" does not mean "wrong" in cross–cultural interactions.  FAST and CAICS project activities foster acceptance of, and respect for, cultural diversity.

Cultural Self–Assessment

    Through the cultural self–assessment process, school or program staff are better able to see how their actions affect people from other cultures.  The most important actions to be conscious of are usually taken for granted.  For instance, physical distance during social interactions varies by culture.   A teacher may be accustomed to not touching students, but some students could misread such behavior.  If physical reinforcement is valued in the students' culture,  the teacher's behavior may suggest that the teacher dislikes or is angry with them.  Such miscommunication can be avoided through cultural self–assessment and understanding the dynamics of difference.  If a person is aware of her or his own cultural behaviors, she or he can learn to modify them when appropriate.

    Not only do individuals have a culture to assess, but institutions, such as schools, have and embody a culture as well.   For example, in traditional American schools, students are expected to be in a classroom at specified times.  When students have problems they are expected to tell a teacher or counselor.  Most learning takes place through reading textbooks and note taking, and question asking is encouraged.  Teaching is very standardized; lecturing is  common.  However, all humans do not necessarily learn using this approach.  In societies focusing on oral communication, textbooks may not even exist.  The concept of an exact time is not used or reinforced in some cultural structures.  As a result, students whose cultural heritage includes traditions that differ from the standard American classroom may have difficulties, lose interest, or be incorrectly labeled.  Imagine the child accustomed to learning by example forced to learn by rote memorization of facts and theories.  Unless that child adapts to this new expected mode of learning, he or she could be considered less than capable by teachers and other students.  School culture should be assessed to determine the role it plays in identifying children with problems, and in reinforcing those problems.  Knowledge of these influences can help a school, or any organization serving diverse people.  The key is developing mechanisms that provide ongoing feedback and suggestions for change.

    Developing such mechanisms is a goal of Actualizing Cultural Competence in Educational and Preventative Techniques (ACCEPT), a project in Tucson, Arizona.  The program provides consultants to assist the development of cultural self–evaluation capabilities among school staff, project staff, and teachers involved with children in the program.  Consultants use surveys and discussions to help teachers and staff become more aware of their own cultural assumptions, and how those assumptions affect others.  The consultants assist school–staff in becoming aware of the organizational cultural processes of their school as well.  In addition to providing objective information, consultants assist school and project staff in developing tools for self–evaluation. These activities facilitate a continuous process of assessment used to support movement towards cultural competence.

Consciousness of the Dynamics of Cultural Interactions

    There are many factors that can affect cross–cultural interactions.  For example, biases based on historical cultural experiences can explain some current attitudes.  Native–Americans and African–Americans, among other groups, have experienced discrimination and unfair treatment from members of the dominant American cultures.  These experiences and the mistrust that grew from them is passed down among members of historically oppressed groups, but is often ignored within the dominant culture.  Thus there often exists an understandable mistrust towards members of the dominant culture by historically oppressed groups.  Similar dynamics should inform a system's policies and practices.  For example a social worker may be perceived as the person who breaks up homes.  However, if a social worker advocates for strategies to provide support in the home and in the school, she or he has demonstrated the desire to help the child, rather than separate the family.  If a school policy is modified according to legitimate concerns expressed by families, they begin to feel valued as partners in the process.  The families in the community have helped in policy development, rather than learning about policies developed by others.  Changes such as these create new group experiences to convey to members. 

    Staff and administrators of New Pathway’s, a program in Wichita, Kansas, have responded to negative associations that family members may hold regarding the role of social workers.  Social workers are often perceived as the people who remove children and separate families.  Many staff members are trained as social workers, but are redefining the social worker role as part of New Pathways.  New Pathways focuses on improving family functioning, using an adaptation of the ten–week FAST program to ensure the family role as the primary support mechanism for children.  To avoid confirming negative associations regarding social workers, staff have changed how they interact with families.  Meetings are held in the family's home rather than in offices.  Instead of wearing formal attire, staff dress in a manner perceived by the clients as respectful but unimposing.  Rather than completely on their own cultural rules, staff greet and refer to family members according to culturally appropriate titles.  Staff also follow the appropriate rules for body language, social distance and eye contact as defined by the family.  The project provides translators when family members are not comfortable with English, because staff members do not want to exclude valuable input due to language barriers.  By showing this cultural respect, staff and families have developed personal relationships.  Being aware of the possible affects of the dynamics of differences allows New Pathway's staff to provide a more productive cross–cultural intervention.

Institutionalization of Cultural Knowledge

    The knowledge developed regarding culture and cultural dynamics, must be integrated into every facet of a school, program, or agency.  Staff must be trained, and effectively utilize the knowledge gained.  Administrators should develop policies that are responsive to cultural diversity.  Program materials should reflect positive images of all people, and be valid for use with each group.  Fully integrated cultural knowledge may affect global changes in human service delivery.  For example, educational institutions and accreditation bodies might develop cultural competence standards to ensure teacher and administrator preparation.  Then these same professionals could collaborate with families to develop school policies that reinforce culturally familiar values to improve children's behavior.  The culturally competent teachers might use these policies to avoid more expensive interventions.  When interventions do become necessary, family and community input on cultural issues might be used in determining effective treatment.  Institutionalized cultural knowledge can enhance an organization's ability to serve diverse populations.  

    A program demonstrating institutionalized cultural knowledge is World of Difference.  The project serves a high percentage of African–American children in the San Francisco Unified School District.  Staff participate in professional development activities conducted by Dr. Wade Nobles, a recognized expert in cross–cultural training.  Classrooms are prepared with reading corners consisting of culturally relevant subject matter such as African children's stories, and lessons about influential African–Americans.  Morning rituals incorporate aspects of the students’ cultures by utilizing traditional African chant.  Academic support employs learning modalities that students are comfortable with, such as oral learning strategies.  World of Difference project activities provide for inclusion of food and child care during monthly family–school meetings.  Such culturally inclusive practices produce better outcomes for creating a bridge between school, home, and community, and serves as an example of how this program has integrated cultural knowledge in its service delivery system.

Adapt to diversity

    The fifth element of cultural competence specifically focuses on changing activities to fit cultural norms.  Cultural practices can be adapted to develop new tools for treatment.  Working with cultural groups that stress veneration of ancestors and invoking a sense of duty in children by illustrating the actions and values of their ancestors provides an example.  All children who are members of minority groups that have endured discrimination benefit from the legacy of civil rights activists.  If these children's traditional culture also places special emphasis on respect for ancestors, teaching the children of a responsibility to serve human kind similarly can provide a concrete purpose for them.  Being motivated by such a  purpose may help children to better manage their behavior.  Using relevant cultural matter to change services can affect positive change in children's behavior. 

    A child's cultural background provides traditional values that can be used to create new interventions.  For example, because of a need for culturally relevant academic and social–skills learning tools Kakoo ‘o ‘ia Na Lei, a program created for Hawaiian students with emotional disturbance,  demonstrated and evaluated use of an elementary school guidance curriculum.  The curriculum was locally developed in collaboration with Hawaiian kupuna (respected elders) through an earlier U.S. Department of Education grant.  The curriculum is built around stories containing characters that students can relate to.  It helps to guide the children through moral problem solving.  It illustrates, teaches, and reinforces over 71 specific social, coping, and self management skills through group discussion, small group activities, role playing, Hawaiian–style arts and crafts, and other activities.  The curriculum itself is also a treatment for children’s behavioral problems.  Pre– and post–test evaluations indicate improvements in clinical symptoms and aggressive and hyperactive behaviors (Smith, Leake, & Kamekona, 1998).  The tool invokes traditional cultural norms to develop problem–solving skills, and reduce the children’s behavior problems.  Interventions less effective can be replaced with the curriculum, adapting interventions to Hawaiian culture.  This example demonstrates how members of a child's family or community can provide invaluable input in the adaptation of services.  Collaborative teams using families, communities, educators, mental health practitioners, and others who care about children can collaborate to create service adaptations appropriate for many children.  The curriculum developed by one community's kupuna is now in various stages of implementation in 45 schools and agencies throughout the state of Hawaii.

    Reforms addressing the needs of children and youth with emotional disturbance have recognized the importance of cultural issues.  Developing cultural competence means improving cross–cultural capabilities by adapting services to the cultural context of families and children.  This report highlights some of the practices used by OSEP funded cultural competence programs to help others initiate similar activities.  While many resources are available to guide that process, developing cultural competence continues to challenge our creativity.  However, the dire situation facing our children today, and therefore our nation tomorrow, demands that we embrace this challenge.

Written by Mark A. King, Anthony Sims, & David Osher

Defining Cultural Competence