Cultural Competence by Lillette Sheridan

Religion and its effect

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-11 16:22:20 UTC

Children that grow up religious have an easier time with social skills, but a much harder time with academics compared to other children. Religion has the most positive effect when combined with a focus on academics, that way the child can reap the benefits of religion and avoid falling behind in school. Religious children don’t fare better than nonreligious children, and vice versa.

Culture and it's effect

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-11 16:38:13 UTC

A child’s abilities will differ depending on culture, but overall, they do best when they’re able to be a part of the community they live in. The purpose of raising a child is to give them the tools they need to succeed in their society, and those tools will be different across the world. Two children from different countries may not have the exact same skills, but they will both be able to connect with others in their country.

Economic status and it's effect

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-11 17:25:01 UTC

Having a lower socioeconomic status affects children negatively when they don’t have access to necessary resources like food, water, and healthcare. When those resources are not able to be accessed, children have a higher chance of developmental problems, cognitive delays, and behavioral problems. Just having less money is not the issue, but rather the access to resources, so in countries where even the poor have their basic needs met, these issues are not found.

Gender and it's effect

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-11 18:12:13 UTC

Babies and toddlers are aware of gender as early as nineteen months because adults treat them differently based on gender, and from there, learn what is associated with gender (like pink versus blue). Female babies and toddlers often learn words that describe people (mom, brother, aunt) and male babies and toddlers learn words that describe objects (car, toy). Children take what they’ve learned from their gender socialization and act accordingly, with boys and girls developing differently based on what is expected of them.

Sexual orientation and its effect

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-11 19:22:09 UTC

Children with a sexual orientation that isn’t heterosexual tend to have a lot of struggles in life, which affects their development. These struggles don’t stem from their orientation itself, but rather society’s reaction to it. Children growing up in a more conservative family or country, where things like homosexuality are looked down on, are more likely to have suicidal ideations and depressive symptoms. Children that grow up in an accepting family or country are more likely to not have suicidal ideation and depressive symptoms.

Implicit bias explained

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-11 19:25:56 UTC

Importance of unlearning implicit bias

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-11 19:28:17 UTC

Implicit bias definition

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-11 19:31:09 UTC

Implicit bias is, in simple terms, a bias that you don't know that you have. Everyone has them, and it affects the way they interact with the world and the people around them.

Cultural Competence definition

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-11 19:36:20 UTC

Cultural competence is the ability to respectfully interact with people from other cultures. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you know everything about their culture, but just that you are respectful of their differences and can adapt as needed.

Importance of cultural competence

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-11 19:42:04 UTC

It’s important to be able to communicate and respectfully interact with other people, even when you might not share the same background. This is important because you will interact with people from different cultures, and you’ll want it to go well. It’s becoming less and less likely every year that you’ll never meet someone with a different background because of things like globalization, so things like cultural competence become a necessary skill.

Classroom Setting

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-11 19:51:47 UTC

I think in the classroom, the best thing I can do when working with all of these factors is helping the kids where it's needed. The religious kids need more focus on academics, the LQBTQ kids need extra moral support, and it's important that I keep my expectations for girls and boys the same. I think if I focus on what they need individually, they'll all see some amount of progress.

Implicit bias in the classroom

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-11 20:11:15 UTC

Obviously, I can't be aware of my implicit biases because then they wouldn't be implicit, but I can take the time to unlearn them when I do become aware of them. I don't want my students to suffer just because I was too stubborn to admit my shortcomings to myself. I want my students to be comfortable in my classroom, so I need to make sure I put in the work to make my classroom a safe place.

Valuing Diversity

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-11 22:27:31 UTC

Valuing diversity is a big part of cultural competence because it gives you a reason to desire cultural competence. Knowing that diversity adds complexity into important topics, and that understanding diversity gives you the key to those complex topics, gives you the drive for gaining cultural competence. Understanding the way race, gender, economic status, and religion shape experiences and communication is valuable, especially in today’s world.

Ongoing self assessments

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-11 22:27:53 UTC

Because implicit bias is something you aren't aware of, it’s important to look at your actions and figure out why you do them. You need to be aware of yourself, and keep an eye out for possibly biased actions. You don't need to be obsessed with it, but you need to get in the habit of self reflection in order to have cultural competence.

Managing differences

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-11 22:28:09 UTC

Understanding how to deal with the differences that you have with the people you work with is crucial for cultural competency because that’s the biggest hurdle. You need to be able to understand someone and communicate with them effectively, despite any differences you have. If you can’t get past your differences, you won’t have cultural competency.

Willingness to develop cultural knowledge

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-11 22:28:34 UTC

Part of cultural competency is being open to learning about different cultures. Knowing more about other cultures gives you the necessary tools to communicate with other people from other cultures, which is obviously the point of cultural competency.

Adapting to the cultural needs of the community

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-11 22:28:56 UTC

Community where a majority of the parents and students speak more Spanish than English needs someone that is willing to work with interpreters, otherwise, I'm not doing as good of a job for them as I do for the English speakers, which I feel is needed for cultural competency.

Applying cultural competence in the classroom

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-11 22:29:19 UTC

Taking the time to learn about my student’s cultures will make me more helpful to them in the classroom, and make it much easier for me to help them with their cultural needs. It’s very important to help my students with their cultural needs instead of expecting them to just adapt because their culture is important to them, and should therefore be important to me.

How does implicit bias affect students and their families?

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-12 01:53:13 UTC

A teacher’s implicit bias would affect their students and their students’ families because the teacher would not think to question their bias at all. They might treat the student or their family worse than they treat the rest, and not even realize it. The student may not get as good of an education as their peers, and the parents may not receive the same amount of teacher/parent communication, which would affect the student’s future.

Hypothetical

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-12 02:01:42 UTC

Peter is not treated the same as his classmates. His teacher seems to think that because he’s Asian, he doesn’t need the same amount of help with his schoolwork, and therefore doesn’t stop by to help him during the school day. However, Peter is actually having a lot of trouble in school. Every time he gets the courage to tell his teacher he’s having trouble, she brushes him off. When he does badly on tests, she tells him that she knows he isn’t trying his best, even if he is. It’s incredibly demoralizing, and Peter is starting to give up on school altogether.

Peter’s situation is improved when he’s moved to a different classroom at his parent’s request. His new teacher pays attention to him and has noticed that he struggles in a lot of areas. She makes sure to help him in the ways he needs to be helped. Peter feels a lot better about school, and about himself.

Implicit bias in education

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-12 02:02:48 UTC

Unconscious bias in the classroom

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-12 02:03:47 UTC

Understanding teacher bias

kyarb1220 — 2025-02-12 02:05:01 UTC