Día: A Catalyst for Developing Cultural Competence

Día: A Catalyst for Developing

Cultural CompetencePatricia Montiel Overall

ALSC ProgramALA 2008 Conference

Anaheim, CA

Using Día to Share CulturesCulture is defined as the shared activities that occur in the daily lives of individuals or groups of people.

P. Montiel Overall 2008

Cultural Competence

A highly developed ability to know and understand individuals or groups from diverse cultural backgrounds.

P. Montiel Overall 2008

Culture included:

◊ Ethnicity◊ Religions◊ Geography◊ Living style

WHAT ELSE?

P. Montiel Overall 2008

Cultural Competence Continuum

Full cultural competence

Lack ofCultural Competence

Limited Cultural Competence

Some Cultural Competence

Cultural proficiency

CulturalIncapacity

CulturalBlindness

Changesin policies, standards, and practicesto increase outcomes.

CulturalCompetence

pre Cultural Competence

Professional developmentCultural experiencesPersonal experiencesReading

Plot your CC

P. Montiel Overall 2008

How does Día help us become culturally competent?Cognitive domainInterpersonal domainEnvironmental domain

P. Montiel Overall 2008

Patricia Montiel Overall, PhD University of Arizona

From Cross, T., Bazron, B., Dennis, K., & Isaacs, M.

(1989) (1) Value diversity, (2) Conduct self-assessment, (3) Manage the dynamics of difference, (4) Acquire and institutionalize cultural knowledge and

(5) Adapt to diversity and the cultural contexts of the communities they serve and incorporate the above into all aspects of policy making

(1) Value diversity

El día de los niños/El día de los libros demonstrates that diversity is valued in your library, especially when it is ongoing rather than once a year (April 30th)

P. Montiel Overall 2008

(2) Conduct self-assessmentKnowledge of what you won culture is and what you know about yourself and others moves you away from cultural incompetence.

(3) Manage the dynamics of differenceHow do you manage diverse groups that use your library? Does the collection represent this diversity? Do you promote the use of this collection

P. Montiel Overall 2008

(4) Acquire and institutionalize cultural knowledge through◊ Reading, more reading, more reading

◊ Professional development, more….

◊ Education, more….◊ Personal experiences, more ….

P. Montiel Overall 2008

(5) Adapt to diversity and the cultural contexts of the communities they serve and incorporate the above into all aspects of policy-makingWhat cultures are represented in your community? Are all cultural groups served equally? Are all groups considered when policies are being made? Are members of your community, adults and children, invited to the table to help make decisions?

P. Montiel Overall 2008

References◊ Jingle Dancer by Cynthia L. Smith –Ill. Cornelius

Van Wright & Ying-Hwa Hu (2000) ◊ Woman Who Watches Over the World by Linda Hogan

(2007)◊ Beautiful Blackbird by Ashley Bryan (2004)◊ Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kanohata (2005) ◊ Antonio’s Card/La Tarjeta de Antonio by Rgoberto

González. Illus. by Cecilia Concepción Álvarez.◊ Becoming Naomi León by Pam Muñoz Ryan (2005).◊ No Place to Be: Voices of Homeless Children by

Judith Berck (1997).◊ Cultural Competence for Librarianship by Patricia

Montiel-Overall submitted for publication (2008).

How does this translate into what we do as children’s librarians?Cultural Incapacity (incompetence)

◊ Know nothing about multicultural children’s literature and doesn’t want to know about multicultural children’s literature.

P. Montiel Overall 2008

◊ Lack of cultural competence- Doesn’t know about other cultures because there hasn’t been a need to know.

◊ WHAT ELSE?

◊ Limited cultural competence-Know a little bit about different cultures (superficial knowledge). Knows there are books out there but doesn’t know what they are.

◊ WHAT ELSE?

◊ Some cultural knowledge- Knows about some books and uses them on occasion.

◊ WHAT ELSE?

P. Montiel Overall 2008

◊ Cultural competence- Has a broad understanding about diverse cultures. Knows who the current authors of multicultural children’s literature are and knows about award winning books especially for one or two cultures.

◊ WHAT ELSE?

P. Montiel Overall 2008

◊ Culturally proficient- Is extremely knowledgeable about multiple cultural groups, knows authors and illustrators, knows award winning books, can use language in storytelling…

◊ WHAT ELSE?

P. Montiel-Overall 2008

Día websites:

http://www.patmora.com/

P. Montiel Overall 2008

Cien mil gracias

Patricia Montiel Overalloverall@u.arizona.edu

The University of Arizona School of Information

Resources and Library Science