Cultural Competency for Educators
As the Quad Cites becomes increasingly diverse, many educators need development to build cultural competency. Today’s society requires that everyone possess the skills for dealing with all people. At Performance Learning in Davenport, Iowa, we offer a professional development course in cultural competency for schools and districts across the Quad Cities and surrounding areas.
Cultural Competency In The Classroom
Today’s Quad City classrooms require that instructors possess cultural competency for teaching all students. Robust instructional strategies and culturally sensitive curricula are critical. More important is an instructor who is sensitive and responsive to the unique differences of each student.
Recognizing the need to strengthen specific cultural competencies to reach and teach all students requires an understanding of new ideas and a willingness to view instruction through varied cultural lenses. Performance Learning will empower you with the skills to:
Have high academic standards and expectations for each and all students. Exude publicly, positively, and enthusiastically the belief that each student can achieve those standards.
Get to know your students well: academically, socially and emotionally. Visibly demonstrate a connectedness with each one of them.
Welcome students into your room as a place that is also theirs by including representations of students and their cultures in the classroom.
Boldly promote and protect psychological safety for everyone.
Scaffold, make room for, develop and champion the intellectual leadership of students
Apprentice your students into the learning community. Don’t assume they come to you knowing how to be successful in your class. Teach the skills and routines they’ll need to be successful even if you think they already know. (Some won’t!)
Learn the cultures represented in your classroom. Intentionally build connections between in and out of school experiences.
Demonstrate to students that you value their home culture and language.
See all students as developing experts.
- Remember that test scores do not correlate with a student’s ability to engage with challenging ideas.
- Provide scaffolding into cognitive skills to allow opportunity for students to think deeply about content.
The teacher-student relationship has so many subtle nuances across race, gender, and class lines that opening our eyes to these nuances would make us better educators. Time and again, we see a growing number of educators willing to forgo the need to jump directly into teaching, educators who are more into getting to know the students.
Here at Performance Learning, we take pride in customizing our trainings for maximum relevancy and effectiveness to meet the needs of our clients across the Quad Cities. For more details and information, contact us at 563-650-4743.
