Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet

Professional development in the field of education encompasses an ongoing series of trainings or courses that help educators consistently review, research, and revise skills that teach and engage students more effectively and efficiently. When connected with education and cultural competence, professional development involves a conscientious effort at the individual and institutional level to improve educational outcomes for increasingly diverse student populations. This goal is accomplished by researching and acknowledging the significant and unique role that culture plays in education. Knowledge gained from these professional development practices can lead to improved academic achievement, successful teaching strategies, and positive relationships within the classroom and with families in the school community.

Overview

Empirical research and theoretical scholarship demonstrate that cultural competence has become prominent not only in the field of education, but also in health care, business, social work, and psychological professions. Performance standards that include cultural competence indicators and advocacy are promoted by numerous national organizations, such as the National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC), the National Association for Social Workers (NASW), and the National Education Association (NEA), as well as state and federal governments.

Educators and social scientists concerned with addressing the cultural barriers, differences, and contributions of underrepresented groups in schools and other institutions in the United States date back to the early 1900s. For example, Carter G. Woodson made a forceful argument in the 1930s about the negative effects of the invisibility and misrepresentation of African American contributions in school programs and institutional practices in his influential book The Mis-Education of the Negro. He believed that these inaccurate portrayals represented a larger phenomenon of mis-education that led to inferior self-perceptions, subordinate school achievement, and menial roles for African Americans. Since Woodson published his book, community activists, educational researchers, and school practitioners have expressed the need for multiculturally centered and culturally relevant curriculum and instruction in order to address the widening achievement gap between mainstream White students and some groups of color. Psychologists and health care specialists were among the first professionals to use cultural competence as a means of responding to the widespread racial and ethnic disparities in their respective areas of human services. The term began to appear consistently in health care and mental health scholarship in the late 1980s and early 1990s and is now used by educators with increasing frequency, as is evident in the publications of scholars such as Nancy Gallavan, Jerry Diller, and Jean Moule.

Cultural Competence and Education

Scholars agree that developing cultural competence requires being responsive to a variety of common and unique cultural contexts. Cultural contexts are more than celebrations, foods, celebrities, and holidays. As Frederick Erickson, Young Pai, Susan Adler, and Linda Shadiow explain, culture includes shared norms, rituals, beliefs, values, and traditions from an individual's generational social history. It influences how people from various ethnic, racial, religious, linguistic, and social groups use symbols and interpret expectations for behaving, communicating, thinking, creating, and judging. When combined with culture and education, competence suggests the ability to successfully teach, reach, and promote students who come from diverse cultural backgrounds. Thus, cultural competence represents a significant and challenging skill. It is significant because in schools, multiple identities and cultural contexts are present, and challenging because the linguistic, racial, ethnic, and cultural heritages of many educators are different from those of the children and families they serve. These factors suggest that there are greater opportunities for cultural misunderstandings or missed cultural cues that can widen the achievement gap and diminish the overall quality of schooling for culturally diverse students.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

Loading