Lauren D., Week 11

Cultural Competency 

“People never hurt others in moments of personal strength and bravery, when they are feeling good about themselves, when they are strong and confident. If we spent all of our waking moments in that place, then fighting for social justice would be redundant; we would simply have social justice and be done with it, and we could all go swimming, or fishing, or bowling, or dancing, or whatever people do. But it is because we spend so much of our time in that other place, that place of diminished capacity, of flagging energy, or wavering and somewhat flaccid commitment, that we have to be careful.”

These powerful words of Tim Wise, author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race From a Privileged Son, struck my heartstrings, as I continue seeking insight and knowledge on how I can support our younger generation in the successful movement for social inclusion, reform and change.  I have been beyond inspired by our weekly group of youth and young adults and their display of motivation and courage to challenge the injustices that continue to exist at both macro and micro levels of our society and community. But going back to the excerpt mentioned above, I ponder if so much hurt has been instilled within minority individuals from the place of other’s ignorance and the history of inequality for genuine acceptance and safety to swim with those who have wounded them.

As the youth and young adults this week continued to engage in the process of constructing our final exhibit of a life bridge, I am energized by their visions, teamwork and creativity. It creates true hope to witness the hands of diversity intertwining and working towards a shared purpose of community awareness.  The focus for this week included brainstorming the more intricate details of the action training plan targeted to educators and administrators in the local school systems.  The participants this week designed pre and post survey questions that attendees of the conference would answer in regards to cultural competency.

Pre-Conference Survey Questions included:

How competent do you feel you are on cultural diversity from a scale of 1-10?

Why did you rate yourself as you did?

What are your strengths regarding cultural competency?  Where do you lack knowledge?

Do you think you have any biases in regards to culture and race?

How do you handle your own biases in regards to race and culture?

How do you handle conflict in the classroom with minority students and white students?

Do you notice any racial tension in the classroom among students?

Is your classroom an open place for students to talk about racial conflict around the world?

Do you feel comfortable facilitating these dialogues?

Do you have a savior mentality towards minority students? (thinking you need to help them more)

Have you ever found yourself thinking minority students represent their whole culture? Give an example if you have.

Thinking about the language you utilize in the classroom, does it impact minority students? Give examples.

Post-Conference Survey Questions included:

How competent do you feel you are on cultural diversity from a scale of 1-10?

What do you know now that you didn’t know before this training in regards to cultural competency?

What might you do different in your classroom after this training?

How are you going to challenge the educational system to become more culturally competent?

How are you going to form your classroom to be more culturally competent?

How might you change or challenge your own biases?

These youth and young adults continue to amaze me!!!