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Seeing Cultural
Competency in Its Many Forms
By Willie McKether and
Lynne Hamer
The Truth Contributors
One of many important
lessons we’ve learned from our community conversations is
that cultural competency comes in many forms and is not new.
Rather, engaging in conversations has helped to flesh out
what cultural competency means and has positioned us to add
to the national discussion about the topic. This was
demonstrated in our last article where we highlighted
retired teacher Mattie McAlister’s “brand” of cultural
competency in her classrooms.
This week, we are pleased
to highlight the excellent work of two currently employed
teachers who exhibit their own brand of cultural competency
in their daily work. We consider theirs to be cultural
competency for democratic culture. Continuance of our
democratic society requires not only that citizens vote, it
requires that we live together in ways that follow and
foster democratic ideals.
Democratic culture
requires that all individuals’ voices and contributions be
valued, and recognizes that democracy cannot survive and
thrive without this. Learning democratic culture and
learning to be citizens in a democracy only happens if it is
taught intentionally, purposefully, and consistently. This
is exactly what our featured teachers do.
Willamarie Scott and
Patricia O’Connor teach a combined fourth and fifth grade
class. They call it“The Classroom for the Gifted and
Talented” – with the slogan, “Where being gifted and
talented is not a prerequisite! Come as you are!!!”
Willamarie Scott is a
native of Buffalo, New York and earned her BA in Psychology
and Masters in Education from The University of Toledo. She
has been teaching grades four through eight for 18 years.
Currently she is completing her Ph.D. in Gifted and Talented
Education at the University of Toledo.
Patricia O’Connor grew up
in Toledo and Mansfield and earned her BA in Education from
the University of Toledo and masters of Education from
Heidelberg. She has been teaching grades one through eight
for 14 years. Scott and O’Connor started co-teaching three
years ago and have never looked back.
“We continue it because it
works! We see tremendous growth, both socially and
academically, in our students throughout the year, and we
receive great encouragement and support from parents,” said
O’Connor.
O’Connor and Scott’s
classroom is fully inclusive, meaning students with
disabilities who in other situations might be isolated in
separate special education classrooms are included as full
and valued participants in the regular classroom. The
teachers are fiercely insistent on this point and create a
classroom environment where all students learn that
appreciation of themselves and others is required. That is,
all their students experience and thus learn democratic
culture.
Scott and O’Connor
have attended nearly all of our Monday night community
conversations and consistently provide insights from the
real world of teaching, although never claiming to represent
the voice of all teachers. They have also brought along many
parents who have also become consistent participants in the
conversations. The Monday night group has been intrigued by
O’Connor and Scott’s descriptions of what they do and their
vision for public, democratic education.
Where all students are
gifted and talented….
In a recent presentation
on their“Classroom for the Gifted and Talented,” O’Connor
and Scott described the “Trailblazers,” which is the name
their 2014-15 class chose for itself. They also created a
class motto: “Making good choices and lighting the way.”
The class year began with
a week of team-building activities, during which students
learned key concepts and terminology for the creation of
their class culture. The students worked together to hammer
out a “Class Compact” which has hung prominently on their
wall all year. This document proclaims their classroom to be
a “learning community where all will experience tolerance,
respect, and empathy.”
The Compact lays out
expectations of what students will do—and what teachers will
do. For example, students will “be respectful, listen when
others are talking, listen to the teacher, work hard for
privileges, and never put another student down.”
Teachers will “be
prepared, let the students earn privileges, have high
expectations, communicate with parents, be flexible, and be
nice.”
The Trailblazers
accomplish much of their work as group work, essential for
learning to work together for both individual and social
good. Again, students collaborated with teachers to create
group work guidelines: The first two, “be
respectful” and “communicate
quietly,” would be found in most group’s guidelines. The
remaining four, however, communicate beyond logistics to
ethics: “Don't let your group down,” “Everyone tries,” “Stay
with your group,” “Help each other out.”
These guidelines
emphasize that individuals’ contributions are vital for
group success, and that conversely, group support is
essential for individual success.
Thus, the lessons of
living in society are largely learned through everyday
activity. However, O’Connor and Scott also choose curricula
that provide the knowledge and tools necessary for full
participation in democratic society. In their presentation,
we saw their students “preparing to present findings from
non-fiction reading on voting rights.”Significantly,
students learned presentation skills necessary for
participation, while they learned—and taught—the history of
why participation matters.
Respect, Tolerance,
Empathy
On a recent visit to their
classroom, it was obvious from the beginning that what they
had described during their presentation at our Community
Conversation was reflected in their daily practices.
Accompanying the “Class Compact” and “Motto” documents the room was filled with
posters and signs that reflected themes of
Respect,
Tolerance
and Empathy.
On the day of our visit,
students were assigned to work in groups on a science
project that focused on motion, force and friction. The
children were excited about the science project. In their
small groups, the students were responsible for
collaborating on a project that resulted in a poster which
required a presentation and explanation. Even though we
could not stay for the entire day and see the end result,
the teamwork and shared leadership was simply amazing. As
we silently went from table to table, we could hear
creativity, serious negotiations, disagreements and
resolution.
The Ultimate Compliment…
“It’s like they’ve established a community within the
school”
(Parent).
Most of us in the
educational field are driven not only by a desire to teach,
but to know that we’re making a difference. While we see it
in the classroom when we see that “light bulb” go off, we
too infrequently hear a thank you from the customer. In
this case, parents.
In a follow up
conversation with a parent who has a son in Scott and
O’Connor’s class, we got an earful from a very satisfied
parent/customer. She told us that before enrolling in the
class, her son was not motivated about school. Now, she
said, school is the cornerstone of his life.
“My son used to cry at
the very thought of going to school. Now, he cries if he has
to miss. One day he got sick at school and we had to make
him come home. He thinks he will miss something if he’s away
from school.”
As social scientists, we
largely think about and see the world through the lens of
culture, or as we’ve said before, a way of life that
ultimately produces a way of seeing the world. “Culture” is
by ancient definition a fertile, nurturing phenomenon:
Sharing its root with “agriculture,” one of its most basic
meanings is “cultivation,” leading to “growth.”
The approaches O’Connor
and Scott take in their classroom seem to work according to
the teachers, but perhaps more importantly, according to the
parents and to the kids in the classroom. One male student
with an aspiration of someday playing professional football
told us, “Our teachers give us challenging problems to work
on, and are always ready to help. They won’t
let us give up.”
Another randomly selected
student from the class room, with aspirations of someday
owning her own beauty salon, said, “They’re the best
teachers I’ve ever had. They are always willing to help,
and the pace is nice.” That is, Scott and O’Connor provide
challenge, help, and opportunity to keep working until the
job is complete.
These teachers have
created in their classroom a culture based on relationships
and on individual and group responsibility, where everyone
is expected to strive for excellence. And what comes out of
this culture is a worldview held by students that they must
do their very best in all they do, and that they will
contribute to the good of society by doing so.
It is vitally important to
note that, though Scott and O’Connor are outstanding human
beings, what they accomplish is a result of their pedagogy
and methods, not simply because they are who they are. That
is to say, all teaching professionals, no matter what their
heritage or personal gifts, can and must learn to use
methods that are effective for all students and that prepare
citizens for our democratic society.
We gladly highlight the
good work of these two very fine public schoolteachers, and
we know there are equally inspired and culturally competent
teachers scattered throughout the area’s districts. Please
consider this our invitation to come to the Monday evening
community conversations and share what you are doing.
The authors of this column
are on the faculty at the University of Toledo and
facilitate the group “Community Conversations for School
Success.” Willie McKether is associate dean in the College
of Language, Literature and Social Science and Associate
Professor of Sociology/Anthropology, and Lynne Hamer is
professor of Educational Foundations and Leadership and
directs UT@TPS. Everyone is welcome to join in the
Community Conversations, which take place the first and
third Mondays of every month, 6:30-8:00 pm, at the Kent
Branch of the public library. Our next conversation is April
20 and will feature speakers from the Lucas County Juvenile
Court on innovative work in Toledo toward stemming the
school-to-prison pipeline. For more information or to get
on our email list, please contact Lynne Hamer, 419-283-8288,
lynne.hamer@utoledo.edu,
or Willie McKether, 419-309-4931,
willie.mckether@utoledo.edu.
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