Conclusion and Biography

Take the time to reflect on what you have learned about yourself, your beliefs, and your perceptions of others. The following questions were posed throughout this toolkit. 

• What does it mean to be culturally competent and why does it matter in the context of education? 

• Why should educational leaders and educators build their cultural competencies? 

• How can they help foster cultural awareness and understanding in the populations they serve?

• How does cultural competence intersect with concepts of equity, diversity, and inclusion?

• What forces can be created in educational institutions to bring about purposeful and ethical cultural changes?

Skills and Understanding Demonstrated by Culturally Competent Educational Leaders and Teachers

• They honour and make an effort to understand the histories, cultures, languages, and traditions of diverse communities.

• They value the different abilities and interests of the people/populations they serve.

• They respect differences in the lives and experiences of people outside of the institution.

• They learn about, encourage, and allow for different ways of knowing and expertise found in different cultures and communities.

• They recognize that oral traditions and cultural stories have value; that diversity contributes to the richness of our society.

• They understand that helping leaners grow and develop depends in part on a strong sense of cultural identity and feeling of belonging where they live and learn.

• They take steps to identify and challenge their own cultural biases, assumptions, values and beliefs.

• They demonstrate an ongoing commitment to further develop their own cultural competence.

Section Adapted from: Module 8: Cultural Competence & Cultural Humility 

Q: What does this all mean for educational organizations? 

To align with ethically important social changes, leaders, educators and stakeholders of school and other educational institutions need to work together to build an understanding of the kind of institution they want to shape for the future. We need to look at social, economic and political trends and make educated guesses about who the future audience will include and what these people will be expecting from the organizations. 

In order to guide and bring about cultural change in schools and other educational institutions, leaders, educators and stakeholders need to consider each organization's distinct situation. We  need to ask Ourselves:

• What goals and positive outcomes are we aiming for? 

• What is our purpose? 

• What are our shared, core values? 

Bridwell-Mitchell says, “without being really clear about the core, it becomes even more difficult to change and influence culture in the way that one might hope” (Public school culture and organizational theory, 2013). 

In essence, defining strong core values and socially relevant goals will help educational institutions, leaders, teachers and other stakeholders create a vision for the future. This vision will act as a target for the community and consistent messaging will lead people there. The organization, leaders, teachers and stakeholders can then elicit change through personal Interactions which are the “moments when culture is being born and reinforced” (Public school culture and organizational theory, 2013).

Q: What does this all mean for our society at large? Reflect on your learning in relation to the quote below.

"In our increasingly diverse societies, it is essential to ensure harmonious interaction among people and groups with plural, varied and dynamic cultural identities as well as their willingness to live together. Policies for the inclusion and participation of all citizens are guarantees of social cohesion, the vitality of civil society and peace" ("UNESCO universal declaration on cultural diversity: UNESCO," 2001).

Biography: 

Rachel Oke is currently a home-based Academic Upgrading Coordinator with Northern Lakes College, Alberta. This website was created as the Capstone Project for her Professional Master of Education (PME), with a concentration in Global Education from Queen's University. In addition, she holds a BA, in Cultural Anthropology, and a B.Ed (Post Degree Professional Program), from the University of Victoria. 

Rachel has experience working as an educator within formal school systems, museum settings, as well as providing professional development opportunities for teachers in Kampala and rural northern Uganda. She has worked as a high school humanities teacher, elementary generalist, and elementary math specialist. Prior to being a teacher, Rachel worked at several different museums in British Columbia and Alberta, as well as Porto Alegre, Brazil. Her background includes public program design, development and assessment; delivery of educational programs based on exhibits and provincial school curricula; exhibit curation, coordination, production; as well as research and development. She has collections management experience in Art, Cultural History, and Natural History departments. 

Top Image: Japanese textile, cotton; indigotin dye, plain weave, stenciled, circa 19th century; Edo period (1800–1850), George Washington University Museum,  https://de1.zetcom-group.de/MpWeb-mpWashingtonGeoWashUniv/v?mode=online#!m/Object/49256/form/ObjCatalogViewFrm