4.5.6 Cultural Competency Survey

(Adapted from Diller & Moule, 2005)

Preface

This survey is for your personal reflection and growth. Reflecting on educational practice and perspectives improves your competencies. Teaching others provides a continuing set of experiences and opportunities to reflect on the educational process. You will be challenged by ideas, interactions, and experiences each day in the classroom. What will you make of these challenges? How will they affect your growth as a teacher?

This survey focuses on race and ethnicity. It is, however, most useful to think of it as an index of your growth in learning about differences that reflects an ever-widening perspective. This survey asks you to assess your cross-cultural knowledge as it currently exists.

Directions

Use the following key to assess your level of competence for each of the statements below.

U unfamiliar The information is totally new to me.

AW Awareness I have heard about it, but I don’t know its full scope, such as its principle

components, applications, and modifications.

K knowledge I know enough about this to write or talk about it. I know what it is, but I’m not

ready to use it. I need practice and feedback.

AP application I am ready to apply or have applied this information in my own work and/or life.

F facilitation I am ready to work with other people to help them learn this. I feel confident

enough to demonstrate and/or teach this to others, yet I know that my learning is

a lifelong process.

Please turn this page over.

Self-Assessment

Course: ______

Name: ______(for instructor only)

Where I Am Now (Circle one.) / Cultural Competencies
U AW K AP F / 1. I am aware of the problem of language, images, and situations that suggest that most members of a racial or ethnic group are the same (e.g. “All Asians are good at math.”
U AW K AP F / 2. I substitute factual and meaningful information for ethnic clichés. For instance, I avoid using terms and adjectives that reinforce racial and ethnic stereotypes.
U AW K AP F / 3. I try to address stereotypical statements when I hear them used by others.
U AW K AP F / 4. I avoid patronizing and tokenism of any racial or ethnic group (e.g. “One of my best friends is Black.”
U AW K AP F / 5. I understand the histories of oppressed groups (Native American, African American, Latino/Chicano, Asian/Pacific American) in the United States.
U AW K AP F / 6. I thoughtfully view books and films to see if all groups are fairly represented.
U AW K AP F / 7. I am aware of how my membership in different groups influences the power that I possess, and I am aware of how to constructively use that power.
U AW K AP F / 8. I understand racial identity development. I know how to evaluate personal attitudes, emotions, and actions around my own racism and prejudices.
U AW K AP F / 9. For White individuals: I am conscious of my racial identity development and its relationship to racial oppression in the United States. I think critically about what it means to be of Color in this country.
U AW K AP F / 10. For Individuals of Color: I am conscious of my racial identity development and its relationship to racial oppression in the United States. I think critically about what it means to be of Color in this country.
U AW K AP F / 11. I understand the concept of levels of curriculum reform (contributions/additive, transformation, social action. See Banks & Banks, 2001.

How I would explain my cultural identity:

May, 2010

Cultural Competency Survey, Pre and Post

EDU 230

22 course participants responded to the 10 items on this cultural competency survey at the beginning and end of the May term course. I think it will be interesting to compare this result with the off-campus course next May, 2011. I noted how many marks of improvement students indicated for each item and added up the improvement marks per 10 indicators. Despite some inflated self-assessments, I do think the most growth were in three indicators:

-  Aware of the problem of language, images and situations that suggest that most members of a racial or ethnic group are the same.

-  Aware of how my membership in different groups influences the power that I possess, and I am aware of how to constructively use that power.

-  Understand the concept of levels of curriculum reform from Banks’ framework.

The least growth was in two indicators:

-  Understand the histories of oppressed groups in the U.S.

-  Conscious of my racial identity development and its relationship to racial oppression in the U.S.

I see these areas of least growth as opportunities for instruction in the next EDU 230 course.

If I separate out the four males in this class, I note that 50% of them did not respond to explaining their cultural identity and 39% of the females in this class did not respond to explaining their cultural identity. In either case, this is too many who did not articulate who they are in terms of their culture. More typical responses were about their being aware, sensitive, or multicultural.

When asked, “To what extent are you a multicultural person?” almost all students rated themselves at 6 or higher on a scale from 0 to 10. Given this higher rating, the poorer response to explaining their cultural identity, and areas of least growth, I would guess that students continue to have varied explanation of what cultural identity means and their relationship with those people who are culturally different from them. Since most content in this May course is theory for these students, I should anticipate misconceptions and a poorer sense of cultural identity (ethnocentrism).