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Running head: RAISING CULTURAL COMPETENCE AND SENSITIVITY

Raising Cultural Competence and Sensitivity

Theresa W. Vasquez

RAISING CULTURAL COMPETENCE AND SENSITIVITY

Review of Literature to Support Focus

1. Charles, J., Stevens, R. (2005). Preparing teachers to teach tolerance. Multicultural

Perspectives, 7(1), 17-25.

Summary of Source

Charles and Stevens review a program implemented at the University of South Carolina

Upstate to train teachers in how to teaching tolerance in their classrooms. A project “The

Shadow of Hate” was conducted to use culturally responsive materials to try to “bridge

prospective teachers’ need for increased multicultural knowledge and their need to use and

apply that knowledge in ways that foster understanding, respect and tolerance.” (Charles &

Stevens, 2005, p. 20) The program specifically addressed teachers’ “prior knowledge of

diversity” (Charles & Stevens, 2005, p. 20) and the need to increase personal cultural

knowledge before cultural sensitivity towards other cultures could be fully achieved.

Important Questions/ Take-Aways

It became clear to me after reading this article that in order to address students’ lack of

cultural awareness, I also need to address their lack of personal cultural awareness. I thus

decided to first address students’ superficial understanding of their own culture. In this

study, open-ended questions were used where students needed to “articulate the meaning

of discrimination and to make connections between diversity, history, discrimination…”

(Charles & Stevens, 2005, p. 22) Student papers and reflective journal writing was also

used. I decided to use these methods as well for collection of data in my RAP. Although I did

not use reflective journal writing this time, I would like to utilize it in the future.


2. Clark, A., Minami, N. (2015). Communication skills, cultural sensitivity, and collaboration

in an experiential language village simulation. Foreign Language Annals, 48(2), 184-

202.

Summary of Source

This article outlines the Intensive Arabic program at the University of Mississippi, where

students receive the equivalent of 7 years of language study in only 4 years. Students leave

the program with an Advanced or Superior Proficiency level according to the Oral

Proficiency Interview (OPI) (Clark & Minami, 2015, p.188). This article focuses on the

specific strategy of using cultural role-play simulations to teach language negotiation and

cultural understanding and sensitivity.


The strategies discussed in this article are really fascinating. My main takeaway is that

culture and linguistics must be taught together, not in isolation. One of the most powerful

ways to raise cultural sensitivity is to teach in throughout the whole course. Students will

learn to negotiate language as they “experience” the culture in a variety of ways. Also, it is

important for students to “engage in weekly interactions with native speakers” (Clark & Minami,

2015, p.189). I also really like the idea of creating a simulation in which students need to

work together to solve problems and create solutions, while negotiating meaning in the

language. I will continue to think about how I can incorporate more of these guiding

theories and methodologies into my own practice. One question I have is “How do I make

this simulation appropriate for lower level language learners (Spanish 2)?”


3. Gutiérrez, R. (2015). HOLA: Hunt for Opportunities-Learn-Act. The Mathematics Teacher,

109(4), 270-277.

Summary of Source

Gutiérrez discusses specific strategies to address cultural differences in learning styles of

all students, but specifically Latin@ students who are often marginalized or generalized

based of cultural stereotype.


Gutiérrez suggests various strategies I applied to try to increase cultural knowledge and

sensitivity and meet students where they are, including: creating a cultural questions box,

using student research and presentations to “hear what students have to say,” (Gutiérrez,

2015, p. 274) exposing them to the spoken word, raps, and culturally responsive music, and

creating journals or learning logs.

4. Howard, G. (2006). As diversity grows, so must we. Educational Leadership, March 2007,

16-22.

Summary of Source

In this article Howard discusses a 5-step process to creating a more culturally sensitive and

inclusive climate for our “diversity-enhanced” (Howard, 2006, p. 8) schools. He gives real-

world examples of schools that have successfully implemented each phase and how these

changes positively impacted administration, staff and students.



As I pursue my Masters in Teacher Leadership, I am always trying to find ways to share my

current learning with colleagues and I am thinking about how I can use this new

information and learning to be a teacher-leader in my school community. My big take-away

from this article is that it is very important to implement programs and changes at the

classroom level, but I would like my classroom practices to tie into the larger school

culture. Increasing cultural awareness and sensitivity requires involving families and

changing our school culture. For now however, I apply this to my RAP in that my classroom

can be a microcosm to test strategies that could one day inspire strategies that are applied

on a whole-school level.

5. Wilson, N. E. (2015). Cross-Examining Bigotry: Using Toulmin’s Argument Model and

Huckin’s CDA to Interrogate Overt and Covert Racist Arguments. The CEA Forum,

Winter/Spring. Retrieved from http://www.cea-web.org

Summary of Source

In this article, Wilson shares her experiences teaching students to analyze overt and covert

racism in text. This analysis leads students to reflect on their personal notions of racism

and stereotypes. Wilson shares strategies she has learned over time that facilitate

conversation among students from different cultural backgrounds, stimulate critical

thinking, and avoid causing students to feel defensive or from shutting down at the

mention of the unit’s content.

http://www.cea-web.org/



One of the main take-aways I had from this article way that addressing overt and

covert racism must be talked in a well-planned manner. Students will often push back, and

these discussions can be emotionally charged. Wilson gives specific examples of how to

diffuse some of these emotions. She recommends focusing on logical argumentation and

analysis to guide students to see the flawed logic of racist assumptions. In this way

“students are less likely to perceive and therefore resent the unit as yet another accusation

that they and their generation are bigots” (Wilson, 2015, p. 56).

Another idea I took from this article was the use of text and media to start

conversation about stereotypes and racism in society. Again, this takes the blame from

students and allows us to analyze it within our community or greater society, removing

personal blame. Also, I reflect upon how it is more important for students to reach their

own conclusions through critical thinking and analysis of media than through my anecdotal

stories or sharing of my own opinions or experiences.

Focus and Rationale Statement

At Juanita High School, a classroom of Spanish 2 students aged 14-17 years old

exhibit a lack of knowledge and understanding of cultures other than their own. They also

demonstrate only a superficial understanding of their own personal culture. Stereotypical

or racist comments about other cultures, specifically Spanish-speaking cultures, have been

heard in class various times this year, and students demonstrate in classroom discussions

and assignments a tendency to generalize Spanish-speaking people and their cultures,

associating one as the same as the other. This is an issue of concern because students of


Latino background feel misunderstood by their peers, students are not meeting National

Standards that require them to be able to compare and contrast aspects of their own

personal culture with aspects from Spanish-speaking countries, and students can not be

effective global citizens until they can appreciate and acknowledge diversity of peoples and

their distinct cultures.

The class is made up of students from diverse background, but 60% of students are

White. Kirkland itself is 80% White (according to the 2010 census). Most students have

never travelled outside of the country, and most do not have many native Spanish-speaking

friends. This provides for a general lack of understanding and appreciation of diversity. My

thoughts for this study were inspired by comments and discussions that had arisen in my

classroom earlier in the year regarding cultural generalizations, and also from the

observations of my colleagues that students arriving to Spanish 4 classes did not have a

deep understanding of diverse cultural practices and thus could not compare their own

cultural practices with those of other peoples.

My plan was thus to explore ways to expose students to diverse Spanish-speaking

cultures, create space for safe conversations about stereotypes and cultural

generalizations, and increase students’ knowledge, understanding, and appreciation for the

complexity of diverse peoples and their ways of life. I had two primary goals: To increase

student appreciation for the complexity of Spanish-Speaking cultures and to give them the

skills to be able to deeply compare and contrast their own culture with that of native

Spanish-speakers. In order to do these things, students would need to be able to recognize

values that different cultures hold and respect these values in a sensitive way. My

investigation has the potential to increase students’ awareness of cultural factors that


impact their personal lives and thus make them more sensitive to the way they react to

other people. It has the potential to create more culturally sensitive students and a more

welcoming, safe and open classroom environment. It also has the potential to give students

the tools to make deep comparisons between their own cultural practices and the practices

of people from other linguistic and cultural traditions and find value in these differences.

The Data

I used three types of data to assess students’ knowledge of complex cultural factors that

influence their own lives and lives of other people in Spanish-speaking countries.

Data Point #1

First, I collected student responses to two questions regarding general knowledge of

culture.

Question 1: List all the factors you can think of that are a part of one’s culture. (eg. Religious

affiliation) Give examples when necessary.

Question 2: What is your understanding of the difference between race and ethnicity. Give

examples when necessary.

I then used the following rubric to assess students’ depth of understanding:

4 (exceeds expectations)

3 (meets expectations)

2 (approaching expectations)

1 (below expectations)

Understanding of general

cultural factors

-Student is able to name a wide range of BOTH visible and invisible cultural factors.-Student can give examples for all factors.

-Student is able to name a wide range of BOTH visible and invisible cultural factors, giving some examples.

-Student can name a range of cultural factors, but most are visible only.

-Student can only name basic, visual aspects of culture.


A combined 73% of students were either below or approaching expectations, but not

meeting expectations (standard) at the time of the Baseline Assessment, and only 27%

were meeting expectations (at standard). After a variety of strategies were employed, a

combined 81% of students were either meeting or exceeding expectations.

UNDERSTANDING GENERAL CULTURAL FACTORS

Below ex

pectat

ions

Approac

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xpec

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ns

Meets

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Excee

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BaselinePost

Data Point #2

The second data point was a personal letter that students wrote, addressed to me. The

prompt was:

Write a letter to me explaining how your own culture and group identifications intersect to

form your personal identity. Explore what you think this may mean for you as a student and

as a local and world citizen.

I then used the following rubric to assess students’ depth of understanding:


4 (exceeds expectations)

3 (meets expectations)

2 (approaching expectations)

1 (below expectations)

Understanding of personal

culture

-Student demonstrates self-awareness.-Student demonstrates a deep understanding of both visible AND invisible factors that affect one’s personal culture.-Student can link cultural factors to his/her personal life.-Student can compare and contrast his/her personal culture with other diverse and complex cultures. These comparisons demonstrate respect for other ways of life.

-Student mostly demonstrates self-awareness.-Student demonstrates and understanding of both visible AND some invisible factors that affect one’s personal culture.-Student can link cultural factors to his/her personal life.-May be able to compare/contrast-Demonstrates respect for other ways of life.

-Student demonstrates understanding of visible and/or invisible factors that affect one’s personal culture, but recognized factors are limited.-Links to personal life may be superficial.

-Demonstrates little self-awareness.-Factors of personal culture are limited and superficial.-Links to personal life may or may not be present.

At the time of the Baseline Assessment (the original letter), a combined 66% of students

were below or approaching expectations regarding their depth of understanding of their

own personal culture. When the Post Assessment was collected and students were once

again asked to identify what groups they were a part of and how these groups affected their

culture, 41% were approaching expectations and 60% were at or exceeding expectations.

UNDERSTANDING OF PERSONAL CULTURE

Below ex

pectat

ions

Approac

hing e

xpec

tatio

ns

Meets

expec

tatio

ns

Excee

ds exp

ectat

ions

02468

101214

BaselinePost


Data Point #3

The final data point was based on teacher observation. During the first week of conducting

the RAP, I tallied how many student-to-student comments, comments shared during class

discussions and questions that demonstrate a general lack of understanding of cultural

complexity in their wording were heard. During that first Baseline period, 5 insensitive

comments were noted, and in the last week of the RAP, 0 were noted.

OBSERVATION: CULTURALLY INSENSITIVE COMMENTS/QUESTIONS

Baseline Post0

1

2

3

4

5

6

# of insensitive comments

Analysis of Data

Across all three data points students demonstrated improvement in their

understanding of factors that influenced their own personal culture, factors that influence

Spanish-speaking cultures, and their ability to respond to situations with cultural

sensitivity. I believe this is for a variety of reasons. A variety of strategies were

implemented to meet the Target Outcomes. Strategies employed were: explicit teaching of

cultural factors, both visible and invisible, that affect our lives, incorporation of cultural


learning into daily linguistic lessons and discussions, exposing students to native Spanish-

speakers, and utilization of a class “question/topic box” where students asked culturally

relevant questions that were then addressed or discussed in class.

The project itself required a high level of intentionality on the teacher’s part that

inherently trickles down to students and increases awareness of cultural issues. Normally

cultural teachings happen in isolation, as an afterthought, or do not happen at all as they

take a back seat to practice of vocabulary and grammar, which are seen as more concrete

and “necessary” aspects of the curriculum that are tested on. Cultural knowledge is seen to

be more subjective and thus is not usually tested. By focusing on raising cultural sensitivity,

I was naturally incorporating more intentionally cultural lessons into my repertoire. I

taught explicitly about cultural factors, and students were asked to explicitly reflect on

their own culture. Naturally this will raise awareness.

Secondly, listening to students and hearing “what students have to say” (Gutiérrez,

2015, p. 274) through creating a question/topic box helped me meet students where they

were at, both in regards to their cultural understanding, but also regarding specific

interests. Misunderstanding and generalizations were quickly flushed out and were able to

be addressed in a direct way.

Finally, exposing students to native speakers and conducting discussions regarding

diverse cultures and specific cultural factors, both visible and invisible, gives students the

opportunity to construct knowledge about other cultures on their own. El Café and Skype

Chats gave students the opportunity to connect with native-speaking students their own

age, ask questions in a safe, small group environment, and explore commonalities and

differences in personal cultures. As Clark and Minami (2015, p. 189) discuss, it is important


that students “also engage in weekly interactions with native speakers” in order to deepen

cultural understanding while negotiating language.

Reflection

This process has helped me visualize and understand each step in the Research

Action Process. As I worked through the process, I realized that I have been conducting a

less formal Research Action Project all year with my implementation of Organic World

Language and immersion teaching. Since this is a new model for teaching world language,

there is much tweaking that needs to be done. I will continue to use the RAP model to

identify questions and problems that I want to address, try a variety of methods to improve

outcomes, and re-assess to see if my interventions had any effect.

In addition, my PLC could significantly benefit from implementing some of the

structure and research that is built into the RAP. As of now, PLC meetings are loosely

defined and fairly unproductive. There is usually a general goal that defines our topic of

discussion, but data is never discussed nor shared. Frustrations are shared but rarely are

concrete techniques or strategies discussed. I would love to bring my learning from this

course to my PLC and suggest we follow some of the steps to conduct an informal Research

Action Project and compare results among students.

Next year, I want to use the interventions from this project, but at the very

beginning of the year. One of the main challenges I faced was the seemingly disjointed

nature of this topic. Due to significant time limitations, I was forced to implement an

unrealistic timeline for complex themes that need to be woven into a year’s worth of

activities and lessons, not taught in the isolated manner as was done for this project. Also, I


struggled with the use of English. Some of these concepts are challenging for learners, even

in their first language, and are not developmentally appropriate in the L2 (second

language). However, by introducing the Baseline Assessments in English at the beginning of

the year during “English Week”, I can then prepare students throughout the year to answer

the Post Assessment in Spanish, providing them with necessary vocabulary acquisition

throughout the year. I will still ask students to complete this English work in the future,

conducting letter writing during the second week of school. I learn a lot about students’

sense of personal culture and their English literacy in these letters, and I would then have a

whole year to intensely address cultural factors, which would be a more appropriate time

frame.

This project reveals that more explicit, scaffolded teaching of visual and non-visual

aspects of culture is needed. As language teachers, we are often so focused on moving

students through linguistic proficiency spectrums and teaching required vocabulary and

grammar, that we forget the reason we all fell in love with the language in the first place:

the culture and the people who speak the language. This project has given me the space to

focus on how to weave cultural knowledge into every lesson. It has made me reflect upon

the fact that culture must be woven into each activity or input, through commercials, video

clips, novels, other text, songs, comics, interaction with native speakers, cultural

homework, topics chosen for discussion. Linguistic practice happens with and through

these mediums, and should not be taught separate from them. Students should be taught

early on to find the similarities and contrast differences between their own way of life and

others. However, it became clear to me in this project that students first need to be

explicitly taught to identify what social groups they are apart of and cultural aspects of


their own. Many White students in particular struggled to do this at the beginning. This

teaching, in and of itself, is a significant and delicate undertaking. I am still not sure how I

will go about this next year, but I believe it is what I must start with before I can ask

students to contrast and compare. Overall this was a fairly successful first attempt at

Research Action and I look forward to seeing further positive results next year when I

implement the project from the beginning of the year and continuously weave culture into

lessons each day.

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