Blazing New Trails - Connexions

Preparing Future School Leaders to Foster Site Level Cultural Proficiency 305
There is a big difference between reading about cultural competence and what schools
say they do to achieve this and actually finding out for yourself how this environment
is created.
It seems to me that the school has developed a culture of learning at an individual
level. Teacher leaders have made efforts to meet the needs of individual students but
not always distinct cultural groups. I feel that teacher leaders, more so than the
principal, have helped to develop a sense of community and acceptance of all cultures
on campus.
I am also realizing that the most difficult part of investigation is not so much the
observations and data collection, but the transcriptions and subjective notes and
themes present in the data. I feel that this is going to be difficult for me, not looking at
hard data such as the survey, but instead analyzing the nuances and behaviors of those
we observed.
One thing that I’ve realized is that things like cultural awareness in education are very
subjective. For example, things that I would see as culturally aware, such as
differentiating instruction for students and using primary language support, were
things that some of the parents did not agree with. For them, being culturally aware
was treating all students equally and having them adopt the norms and language of the
school.
I have begun to look at my own school under the culturally proficient lens. Even
within my own library, I became increasingly aware of the book displays, posters,
student work, and projects on display. In some cases, I was pleased with the
observations at my own site, but I also noticed great areas of need.
I think with a truly culturally competent school you are going to find staff members
who truly understand, respect, and embrace the different cultures of the students they
serve. It is not a matter of having a cultural day or cultural event.
At the end of the project, in spring 2011, students reflected at a deeper level. They
continued to comment on the benefits of doing research rather than just reading about it. They
reiterated the advantages of working as part of a team which included sharing the work, having
others to dialogue with during the process, and being exposed to different perspectives when
working with data. They were more openly questioning and expressed feelings disillusioned
with their own site’s level of cultural proficiency. They expressed an understanding of how
important the principal’s role is in setting the cultural competency tone. They shared instances
where they, personally, had started working with parents and children in a different way. For
example, they even questioned their own willingness to genuinely welcome and include all
families. They learned that just because a school has a high overall score and they meet
adequate yearly progress (AYP), it does not mean that the achievement gap has been erased.
Students became aware that stakeholders’ priorities varied according to role. For example,
teachers and administrators had testing as a concern and many parents had a strong desire for
their children to adapt and be successful in a new system. The previous supporters of
quantitative research realized that the field of education needs both quantitative and qualitative
approaches in order to shape practice. Comments included:
Participating in this study has enabled me to look at my school site through a different
lens. For being such a diverse middle school, I don’t think we have an acceptable level
of cultural competence. It seems like we have many pieces in place—a principal who