CULTURAL PROFICIENCY/IMPROFICIENCY
Cultural Proficiency is first a mindset that says, “I have to be curious about my students’ cultures and learn about them. If I don’t, my students can’t make adequate connections to the content I am attempting to teach because I won’t be able to embed the learning in culturally relevant examples.” Zaretta Ham- mond (2015) is not just saying: “I will create an environment of respect for your
Essential Beliefs Cultural Proficiency and Anti- Racism
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culture.” She is saying: “I will take the chains off your capacity to process infor- mation.” The incongruence between a student’s home culture and the culture of the school is the issue to be resolved by knowing the home culture of students of color. This mindset then provokes the use of skills to apply that knowledge in the design of culturally relevant lessons. These are vital skills for American teachers, even those who teach predominantly white students. It cannot be omitted from any text that attempts to profile the full range of generic pedagogy as we do here.
There is a scene in the French movie The Class in which a language arts teacher is trying to get his students to write a personal essay about their lives. These 8th graders, who are a very mixed group from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, are resisting him. At one point, a student says, “There might be things we’re ashamed to write about.” The teacher asks for an example. A Senegalese Muslim student says, referring to his Tunisian buddy in the back, “You can be ashamed of a friend’s Mom.”
Teacher: “So Boubacar, why? She isn’t pretty enough for you?”
Student: “No, no. For instance, Raba’s mom, she offered me a sandwich. But I refused because I was ashamed.”
Teacher: “Ashamed to eat with Raba’s mother?”
Student: “No, it’s not that.”
Teacher: “It doesn’t make sense. Explain it to me.”
Student: “There’s nothing to explain. I just don’t want to eat with her out of respect.”
Teacher: “You never eat with people you respect, out of respect!?”
Student: “I mean, c’mon. She’s not my girlfriend!”
Teacher: “You can only eat lunch with your girlfriend? Or “a” girlfriend? Tell my why, Boubacar, I am interested.”
Student: “I can’t even explain it to you. Anyway, I’m ashamed even to talk about it. I hang out with Raba. He’s my boy! So I respect his mom. I’m not going to eat in front of her.”
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Teacher: “So now we’ll know that if Boubacar eats in front of us, he is demonstrating an utter lack of respect.”
Student: “No, it’s not like that. Oh God. Look, you just can’t understand.”
Teacher: “So I’m not smart enough to understand the great Boubacar?”
Student: “No, it’s just that you’re not going to get it.”
Teacher: “All right.” [He moves on.]
This teacher is Eurocentric in interpreting what his student says. He never thinks that cultural differences could account for different behaviors or opin- ions. In this same scene, he goes on to interact this way with two more students who speak respectively from a Chinese and Tunisian cultural frame.
Even without knowing anything about Boubacar’s culture, a culturally aware teacher might suspect there was a cultural reason and inquire into it. Why might it be that Boubacar respects Raba’s mom, and therefore he says, “I’m not going to eat in front of her”? Could there be a norm in Boubacar’s culture that children do not eat in the presence of adults? Would eating at her kitchen table violate a cultural norm? A teacher proceeding from this insight might instead respond as follows:
Teacher: “Can you say more about what you mean by ashamed of a friend’s mother?”
Student: “Raba’s mom, she offered me a sandwich. But I refused be- cause I was ashamed.”
Teacher: “So there was something you felt ashamed about because she offered you something to eat.”
Student: “No, I would be ashamed to eat in front of her.”
Teacher: “Oh, and so I’m guessing that would violate an important norm in your culture. What is it in your culture, Boubacar, that makes it disre- spectful to eat in the presence of adults?”
Student: “Well, you just don’t do that!”
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With a culturally proficient teacher, students feel included, that they have a place in the classroom because their culture is acknowledged, and recognized as having value.
Teacher: “…because it’s a sign of respect for children not to, is that right?”
Student : “Yes.”
Teacher : “Thanks, it’s important for us to know that so we can avoid putting anyone in an embarrassing situation when we’re in the company of folks from Senegal.”
With a culturally proficient teacher, students feel included and that they have a place in the classroom because their culture is present, acknowledged, and recognized as having value in the artifacts of the class and the examples that are used in lessons. At the very least, they experience curiosity and respect for their cultural norms and values.
Cultural improficiency is about a lack in one’s understanding of people from cul- tures other than one’s own. It makes students feel misunderstood and alien, like strangers in a strange land. The opposite, cultural proficiency, enables behaviors in the classroom that acknowledge and value the culture of those different from oneself.