A Handbook for Teachers - ERIC · DOCUMENT RESUME. ED 420 166 FL 024 502. AUTHOR Mangan, Michael TITLE Building Cross-Cultural Competence: A Handbook for Teachers. INSTITUTION Illinois

DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 420 166 FL 024 502

AUTHOR Mangan, MichaelTITLE Building Cross-Cultural Competence: A Handbook for Teachers.INSTITUTION Illinois State Board of Education, Springfield. Educational

Equity Services.PUB DATE 1995-00-00NOTE 30p.

PUB TYPE Guides Classroom Teacher (052)EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS *Classroom Communication; Classroom Techniques;

Communication Skills; Conflict Resolution; *Cross CulturalTraining; *Cultural Awareness; Diversity (Student);Elementary Secondary Education; Equal Education;*Intercultural Communication; Multicultural Education; SkillDevelopment; Student Adjustment; Teacher Attitudes; TeacherBehavior; *Teacher Student Relationship; Teaching Guides

ABSTRACTThe handbook presents guidelines for cross-cultural

understanding and communication to assist teachers in culturally andlinguistically diverse classes. The guidelines are presented in the form ofsuggestions in ten areas: (1) become familiar with basic concepts inanthropology, sociology, and related disciplines, and use the knowledge tobuild an intellectual framework for organizing and interpreting culturalinformation; (2) study the culture and history of ethnic groups representedin the school and community; (3) understand differences between the culturesof the school and home and bridge the distance by building on studentstrengths; (4) learn to recognize and remedy equity problems; (5) realize howone's own perceptions, thoughts, and behavior are conditioned by culturalcontext, and remain positively but critically identified within one's owncultural group; (6) approach other cultures with interest, respect, and asense of shared humanity; (7) hold the belief that students from everycultural group within the school can succeed academically; (8) do not askthat students alienate themselves from their own cultural groups to satisfyschool expectations; (9) improve intercultural communication and conflictresolution skills; and (10) develop a repertoire of instructional approachesto use in meeting varied student needs. (MSE)

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EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION

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Illinois State Board of EducationEducational Equity Services

V-VIVIVVV7f7r1r.W.NIVIrfeff4t++.'04

BuildingCross-Cultural

Competence:

A Handbook for Teachers

1995

Illinois State Board of Education

Educational Equity Services

Michael W. Skarr Joseph A. SpagnoloChairperson State Superintendent

ii

Foreword

Building Cross-Cultural Competence is offered as an essay, in the first sense of that word, as oneattempt to answer some important and timely questions related to teacher education and evalua-tion, not as a definitive statement on any of those issues. It is hoped that the ideas and suggestionscontained in this handbook will stimulate further thought, discussion and action at the local level.To further that aim, a set of discussion questions and other staff development activities designed foruse with this publication will be available from our office early in the 1995-96 school year.

This publication was researched and written by Michael Mangan of the Illinois State Board ofEducation's Educational Equity Services Section. It is one of a series of such equity resources beingproduced by the EES Section as part of a project funded under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

For information about this publication, the related trainingprogram and other materials and servicesavailable from the Educational Equity Services Section, please contact Patricia Poole, Manager,Educational Equity Services, Illinois State Board of Education, 100 West Randolph Street,Suite 14-300, Chicago, Illinois 60601. Telephone: 312/814-3226.

moo, edr44-20

Joseph A. SpagnoloState Superintendent of Education

4

iii

Table of Contents

Introduction

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Cultural

Cultural

Theory

Description

Multicultural Education

Educational Equity

Teacher Self-Awareness

Responding to Differences

Teacher Expectations

Pluralism and Conformity

Intercultural Communication

10. Instructional Strategies

Summary Outline: Ten Suggestions for BuildingCross-Cultural Competence

5V

Page

vi

1

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5

7

9

11

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15

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Introduction

"Fifty ... meeting together, all strangers, are not acquainted with each other's language, ideas, views,designs. They are therefore (suspicious) of each other fearful, timid, skittish. . . . Here is a diver-sity of religions, educations, manners, interests, such as it would seem impossible to unite in oneplan of conduct. " *

These lines might plausibly describe a group of students on the first day of school in a contemporaryUnited States city. In fact, they are John Adams' description of the delegates to the ContinentalCongress, who were eventually united in the plan of declaring their independence from England.Uniting diverse people under a shared set of beliefs, values and goals has been a central concernthroughout the history of the United States, even if one looks back to a time when most of thoseinvolved in the process were immigrants from a relatively limited area in the northern part of west-ern Europe. Since their establishment in the 19th century, our public schools have played a centralrole in the continuing accomplishment of this purpose on a gradually more inclusive basis.

What distinguishes the challenges confronting our schools today from those they have faced in thepast is not so much that they must serve a very diverse student population, but that they must servethese students in a different way than they have in the past. Illinois and other states have madecommitments, not only to substantially improve the general quality of student performance, but alsoto reduce differences in educational outcomes for the racial and ethnic groups represented in theirschools. There is also a growing consensus that students should not be required to alienate them-selves from their cultural groups in order to achieve these academic goals or to prepare for theresponsibilities of citizenship in the larger community.

This commitment to stronger forms of educational equity and cultural pluralism requires a corre-sponding redefinition of teacher competence. We have coined the term cross-cultural compe-tence to express this new set of expectations. It is understood as the ability to promote highlevels of academic performance, not only among members of the dominant group, butamong every cultural group within a school and to do so in a way that affirms the value ofeach culture, both to its own members and to the community as a whole.

The ten suggestions which follow are an attempt to define, in very broad terms, the kinds of knowl-edge, attitudes and skills required to become a cross-culturally competent teacher. Each is accompa-nied by a brief essay and recommended sources for further study.

* John Adams as cited in Gary Wills, Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence(New York: Vintage, 1979), p.34.

,asi COPY AVAILABLE

vi

Cultural Theory1. Become familiar with basic concepts in anthropology, sociology and related

disciplines. Use this knowledge to build an intellectual framework for orga-nizing and interpreting cultural information.

Acquiring cultural knowledge and understanding isa life-long process, built on a balance between formalstudy and direct experience. Professional competencefor someone working in a multicultural classroom doesnot require an advanced degree in anthropology orsociology. But a solid grasp of a few basic social sci-ence concepts is needed if the teacher is to make senseof a potentially overwhelming body of information.A logical starting point is the concept of "culture" it-self.

Culture is the way of living and looking at lifeshared by a group's members.It includes

language - a system for symbolic communica-tion;

technology - methods for controlling the envi-ronment to meet material needs and achieve otherpractical goals;

beliefs statements about reality accepted astrue;

values - general assumptions about what is goodor bad;

norms - specific standards of acceptable behav-ior. (Doob, 1985, pp. 52-77)

This definition suggests that culture is more than justa people's "tools and rules," more than the materialobjects they make and use or the ways in which theybehave. Because all cultural traits are learned, notinnate, the fundamental cultural activity is symbolicinteraction. Most simply stated, culture is communi-cation (Hall, 1977). To understand cultural life assymbolic activity is to realize that those who havebeen socialized within the same culture are linkedtogether by a shared set of meanings, a common wayof perceiving and interpreting the world (Geertz,1973). It is for this reason that more ambiguity or

1

uncertainty is experienced in interactions betweenmembers of different cultural groups. They are lesscertain what is expected of each other in a given situ-ation and less able to interpret and predict eachother's behavior.

Cultural systems are adaptive. They permit the sur-vival of a group under the limitations of the circum-stances in which it finds itself, by providing its mem-bers with ready-made answers to three universalhuman problems:

meeting biological needs,

adjusting to life with other people,

achieving personal integration and self-re-alization. (Kluckhohn, 1970)

A group's culture should not, therefore, be confusedwith the economic or social problems it may be expe-riencing (Valentine, 1968). Although some such prob-lems can be explained by the persistence of culturaltraits which are maladaptive under present circum-.stances, a cultural system as a whole is not a set ofproblems or pathologies, but rather a set of answersto problems.

Even this brief introduction to cultural theory sug-gests the basis for an informed approach to the pro-cessing of cultural information. In trying to under-stand the actions or ideas of a cultural group, twoquestions are unavoidable:

1. How would a member of the group describeand explain this action or idea? What wouldit mean to him or her?

2. In what way, if any, is this action or ideaan adaptive response to circumstancesfaced by the group? What need does it address?

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References and Recommended Readings

Doob, C.B. (1985). Sociology: An Introduction. NewYork: Holt, Rinehart, Winston.

Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures.New York: Basic Books.

Hall, E.T. (1977). Beyond Culture. Garden City, N.Y.:Anchor Books.

Harris, M. (1985). Culture, People, Nature: An In-troduction to General Anthropology. New York:Harper and Row.

Harris, M. (1980). Cultural Materialism.. The Strugglefor a Science of Culture. New York: Vintage.

2

Kluckhohn, C.( 1970). Mirror for Man: A Survey ofHuman Behavior and Social Attitudes. New York:Fawcett.

Valentine, C.A. (1968). Culture and Poverty: Cri-tique and Counterproposals. Chicago: University ofChicago Press.

Wardhaugh, R. (1986). An Introduction to Sociolin-guistics. New York: Basil Blackwell.

Cultural Description2. Study the culture and history of the ethnic groups represented in your school

and community, beginning with your own group.

Cultures are dynamic. They change over time andare modified by contact with other groups. This isone reason local enclaves of a cultural group may dif-fer in many important ways from the descriptionsfound in published studies of the group. Such read-ing is a good initial source of general information,but should be supplemented with locally conductedethnographies and local histories. Whether or notstudies of this kind have already been produced inyour community, there is real value in engaging insuch work within the school.

School staff benefit from these activities by acquiringinformation which can be used for local curriculumdevelopment and as a source of qualitative data forschool improvement planning. The participation ofstudents in recording oral histories; interviewingfamily, friends and other community members; andproducing personal narratives with a cultural focuscan not only advance their learning in the languagearts and social sciences, but also provide valuable in-sights not normally available to adult members of theschool community.

Wilma Longstreet (1978) has suggested some verypractical methods for teachers with no formal train-ing in anthropology to use in conducting ethnographic"action research" in their schools. She describes aprocess for observing and recording patterns of stu-dent behavior, organizing the information under fivecategories:

verbal communication style;

non-verbal communication style;

orientation modes (bodily posture, physical ori-entation in space, temporal orientation, attentionpatterns);

social value patterns (patterns of social inter-action, desire and avoidance);

3

intellectual modes (favored contexts andmethods of learning).

Ethnographic research outside the context of theschool can explore such areas as family structure andorganization; child naming and rearing practices;relations between age and gender groups; and atti-tudes toward education, work, wealth, rank, andpower. David Hackett Fisher (1989) has identified24 such categories of "folkways" which can be used increating an ethnic profile for any period in a group'shistory.

Even more important than learning to collect andorganize such information is learning to use it prop-erly. Inevitably, some generalizations will be madeabout cultural groups, but if these are to be of anyvalue in interpreting or predicting behavior, severaltests must be met:

1. The generalization should be based on re-liable empirical evidence from more thanone source, both inside and outside thegroup.

2. Global, context-free depictions of groupcharacter or personality are of no practi-cal use and doubtful validity. Reliable anduseful generalizations are as specific as possibleabout the kinds of situations' to which they ap-ply, including the physical and temporal settingand the age, gender. status, role and intentionsof the participants.

3. Cultural factors are not the sole determi-nants of group or individual behavior. Cul-tural generalizations should be offered as tenta-tive predictions of what some, but not all,members of a group are likely to do or think in agiven situation.


Banks, J.A. (1979). Teaching Strategies for EthnicStudies, 2nd ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Clifford, J., & Marcus, G.E. (Eds.). (1986). WritingCulture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography.Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of CaliforniaPress.

Fischer, D.H. (1989). Albion's Seed: Four BritishFolkways in America. New York: OxfordUniversity Press.

Heath, S.B. (1983). Ways with Words: Language,Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms. NewYork: Cambridge University Press.

4

Lamphere, L. (Ed.). (1992). Structuring Diversity:Ethnographic Perspectives on the New hnmigration.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Longstreet, W. (1978). Aspects of Ethnicity: Under-standing Differences in Pluralistic Classrooms. NewYork: Teachers College Press.

Rosaldo, R. (1989). Culture and Truth: The Remak-ing of Social Analysis. Boston: Beacon Press.

Multicultural Education3. Understand how differences between the culture of the school and the culture

of the home can place some students at a relative disadvantage in school. Learnto bridge this cultural distance by building on existing student strengths.

There are several risks in stating that differencesbetween the culture of the home and the culture ofthe school are one key to explaining group differencesin educational outcomes. The first is that referencesto "culturally different" families are often read as "cul-turally deficient" or "culturally defective." Deviationsfrom the culture of the dominant group are under-stood as absolute deficits or pathologies, rather thanas adaptations to a different set of problems than thosefaced by the dominant group. The ultimate conclu-sion of this line of reasoning is to blame students andtheir parents for their lower achievement levels andto see the loss of the home culture and assimilationto white, middle class norms as the only path to schoolsuccess (Baratz & Baratz, 1970).

A second risk is that a "cultural differences" approachmay lead one to underestimate the powerful economicand social factors affecting both families and schools,factors which result in profound differences in theincome, power, and opportunity enjoyed by the mem-bers of different racial and ethnic groups in the UnitedStates. It can be misunderstood as an argument thatdifferences in school success are only the effects of"cultural misunderstandings," problems in commu-nication between groups or differences in group val-ues, and not also the consequence of broad and long-standing patterns of subordination, discriminationand neglect.

But although they are not the sole cause of unequaleducational outcomes, cultural differences betweenthe home and the school are one important contrib-uting factor. Much of what occurs at school is basedon assumptions about what children should alreadyhave learned at home. Because the norms in schoolstend to reflect those of the dominant group in the com-munity, students whose home experiences have beendifferent from those of the dominant group are oftenat a disadvantage in school. The problem for thesechildren is that the quality of their relations withteachers and their general academic success dependon their conforming to an unfamiliar set of rules forsocial interaction, many of which are neither taughtwithin the school nor ever made fully explicit.

These cultural discontinuities extend well beyond theuse of a language other than English, or a non-stan-

5

dard dialect of English, in the home. They includedifferences in

patterns of non-verbal communication;

communicative etiquette, including rulesfor opening, turn-taking and closure;

methods of constructing and evaluating sto-ries and other narratives;

approaches to problem solving and taskcompletion;

ways of interpreting and responding toadult questions;

ways of responding to praise, criticism andthe exercise of adult authority;

attitudes toward testing, competition andpublic performance;

levels of self-disclosure and self-assertion.

What distinguishes a "cultural differences" approachfrom a "cultural deficit" approach is an awareness thatthe kinds of traits identified above are only dysfunc-tional within a specific cultural setting. Within thecontext in which they were learned, they function asadaptive responses for meeting basic human needs.Rather than indicating a diminished potential forlearning, they are evidence of what students havealready succeeded in learning.

Teachers need to participate in a continuing dialoguewith students and parents in order to make the ex-pectations of the school as explicit as possible andalso to learn, in the most specific terms, how studentssuccessfully communicate, solve problems and com-plete challenging tasks outside of school. This infor-mation should then be used to design learning situa-tions in which students can apply what they alreadyknow and are able to do, experience initial academicsuccess and build a foundation for further growth.Ultimately, students should be equipped to functioneffectively both inside and outside the school, that is,within the larger, or "macroculture," and their owncultural groups.

11


Banks, J.A., & Banks, C.A.M. (Eds.). (1989).Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives.Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Baratz, S.S., & Baratz, J.C. (1970). Early ChildhoodIntervention: The Social Science Base of InstitutionalRacism. Harvard Educational Review. Vol. 40. No. 1.Winter, 1970, pp. 29-50.

Delpit, L. (1988). The Silenced Dialogue: Power andPedagogy in Educating Other People's Children.Harvard Educational Review. Vol. 58, No. 3, August,1988, pp. 280-298.

6

Hale-Benson, J.E. (1986). Black Children: TheirRoots, Culture and Learning Styles. Baltimore: JohnsHopkins.

Heath, S.B. (1983). Ways with Words: Language,Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms. NewYork: Cambridge University Press.

Nieto, S. (1992). Affirming Diversity: The Socio-political Context of Multicultural Education. NewYork: Longman.

12

Educational Equity4. Learn to recognize and remedy equity problems in schools.

Educational Equity can be defined as a conditionin which all students enjoy equal access to educationalopportunities and equal treatment within schools andin which subgroups within the school population ex-perience equal educational outcomes.

"Equal access to educational opportunities"refers to the availability of equivalent tangible orreadily measurable resources, services or benefits.These include not only financial resources, facili-ties, personnel, programs and materials, but alsoinstructional time, contact with other students,access to information and opportunities for par-ent participation.

"Equal treatment" refers to the quality of socialinteraction in schools. Equal treatment is notnecessarily indicated by identical patterns of staffbehavior toward every student, but by the com-parable effects of that behavior, especially theextent to which every student is made to feel wel-come, valued and secure within the school.

"Equal educational outcomes" refers toequivalent short-term and long-term results ofschooling for subgroups identified on the basis ofrace, national origin, gender, socioeconomic sta-tus or physical disability. These results includeachievement test scores and other measures ofwhat students have learned and are able to do,school completion rates, and the effects of school-ing on access to higher education and employ-ment.

Over the last forty years, efforts to promote educa-tional equity have moved from an almost exclusiveconcern with equal access issues, as typified in thelong struggle to eliminate racially segregated schools,to a predominant focus on equalizing educationaloutcomes. This is a result of both the realization thatequal access policies alone are not sufficient to en-sure equal outcomes and the growing conviction thatwe cannot allow large numbers of our students to failacademically, whatever the reasons for that failure.Unfortunately, there is a marked tendency to explaincontinuing differences in educational results solelyby reference to deficiencies in students and their par-ents or social conditions in the community. Becauseit is widely assumed that civil rights laws and local

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equal opportunity policies have removed institutionalbarriers to equity from our schools, persistent differ-ences in outcomes tend to be seen as the result offactors largely outside of the school's control. Thelogical conclusion is that compensatory programs arethe only remaining educational remedies.

What is missing in this analysis is a recognition ofthe central importance of the second component ofeducational equity, equal treatment within schools.Because education is essentially a communicativeprocess, the most important determinant of what islearned in school is the quality of social interactionbetween teacher and student. It not only directly af-fects educational outcomes by determining what islearned in that teacher's classroom, but also has anindirect effect by controlling the extent to which stu-dents enjoy continuing access to available educationalopportunities throughout their school careers.

For example, many schools make it relatively easyfor regular classroom teachers to reduce their con-tact with those students whose language use, behav-ior, or even appearance, they find most troublesomeor confusing. Disciplinary referrals can lead to sus-pensions or expulsions which deny students the full180 or more days of instruction guaranteed by statelaws. Diagnostic referrals can lead to the isolation ofstudents in classes for the mentally or behaviorallyhandicapped or their exclusion from advanced place-ment courses and programs for the gifted and tal-ented.

Equal treatment problems most often occur as a pat-tern of explicit or implicit negative messages which,considered individually, may not seem to violate stu-dents' civil rights, but which have the cumulative ef-fect of denying them equal educational opportunity.Typically, students become so discouraged or embit-tered that they act to deny themselves equal oppor-tunity by refusing to enroll in needed courses, per-forming below their ability, cutting classes or, finally,dropping out of school.

This analysis suggests some of the steps which mustbe taken by schools that want to move beyond theminimum requirements of civil rights laws and fullyequalize educational outcomes as well as opportuni-ties:

1. Annually collect and review statistical datato assess the extent to which each subpopu-lation within the school is provided equalaccess to available programs and servicesand to compare educational results forthese groups.

2. Complement the statistical analysis withongoing qualitative research activities,such as observation and interviews, de-signed to assess the quality of social inter-action within the school and the extent towhich students from every subgroup are ex-periencing equal treatment.

3. In developing plans to promote greater eq-uity, include interventions designed toimprove social interaction in the classroomand to prevent students from taking ac-tions which will have the effect of denyingthemselves equal educational opportuni-ties.


Coleman, J.S. et al. (1966). Equality of EducationalOpportunity. Washington, DC: U.S. GovernmentPrinting Office.

Goodlad, J.I. and Keating, P. (Eds.). (1990). Accessto Knowledge: An Agenda for Our Nation's Schools.New York: College Entrance Examination Board.

Jencks, C. et al. (1972). Inequality: A Reassessmentof the Effect of Family and Schooling in America. NewYork: Basic Books.

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Mosteller, F. and Moynihan, D.P. (Eds). (1972). OnEquality of Educational Opportunity. New York:Random House.

Oakes, J. (1985). Keeping Track: How Schools Struc-ture Inequality. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Orfield G. (1978). Must We Bus?: Segregated Schoolsand National Policy. Washington, DC: The BrookingsInstitute.

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Teacher Self-Awareness5. Realize the extent to which your own perceptions, thoughts and behavior have

been conditioned by your socialization within a particular cultural context.Remain positively, but not uncritically, identified with your own cultural group.

Culture has often been described as a kind of filter orscreen between its members and the world, which lim-its the range of their possible experiences. The be-liefs, values, and especially, the language we havelearned determine which among the unlimited num-ber of available phenomena are selected for percep-tion, the kinds of meanings we assign to these phe-nomena and the ways in which we are most likely toact in response to them.

The constraints which language and culture set onperception, thought and action are no cause for exis-tential despair. They are the necessary limits, theorganizing framework, which make human experi-ence possible in the first place. The problem is notthe existence of these cultural constraints, but ournatural tendency to ignore their effects on our lives.It is easy to forget that much of what we think and dois the result of the particular way in which we hap-pen to have been socialized and that our own culturalperspective provides only a partial view of the world.When we fail to realize that "(e)very way of seeing isalso a way of not seeing" (Burke, 1989, p.8), we aremost likely to cling uncritically to habitual ways ofthinking and acting and discount the value of theperspectives offered by other cultures.

"Ethnocentrism" is the term most often used toidentify this set of attitudes. Marvin Harris definesit as:

the tendency to view the traits, ways, ideas,and values observed in other culturalgroups as invariably inferior and less natu-ral or logical than those of one's own group(1985, p. 535).

The more natural or logical the ways and ideas ofone's own group are seen to be, the less they tend tobe seen as cultural traits at all. In the most extremecase, we come to see ourselves as having direct, privi-leged access to truth or reality, while other groupsoperate naively and blindly on the basis of tradition,superstition, myth and other "cultural" factors.

Structured introspection is an excellent method forovercoming the tendency toward this kind ofethnocentrism. By responding alone or in a smallgroup setting to a series of questions about their life

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histories and current attitudes and behavior,participants are able to clarify to themselves andcommunicate to others the group or groups with whichthey identify, what they believe and value and howthey came to acquire these beliefs and values. NitzaM. Hidalgo (1993) has described a process of this kindfor Multicultural Teacher Introspection, beginningwith relatively simple, descriptive probes, such as:

Where were you born?What is your racial or ethnic heritage?What language(s) or dialect(s) were spokenin your home?Who made up your family?What traditions did your family follow ?Was religion important during your up-bringing? If yes, How?Describe your neighborhood.

and then moving on to questions which require amuch deeper level of introspection and analysis:

How does your background influence theway in which you perceive and understandothers?What is your definition of normal?How should children interact with adults?How are your values expressed in classroomdynamics with children?

Avoiding the extreme form of ethnocentrism describedabove does not require the rejection of your own cul-tural heritage; in fact, one's sense of cultural identifi-cation can grow stronger in the process. In the dif-ferent, benign sense in which Richard Rorty (1991)uses the term, ethnocentrism is an inescapable factof life. Through the process of socialization, each per-son is grounded within a particular cultural context,which must serve as the starting point for any en-counters with other cultures. "Our acculturation iswhat makes certain options live. momentous or forced,while leaving others dead, or trivial or optional."Change occurs through a process in which beliefs sug-gested by another culture are tested by trying to"weave them together with beliefs we already have."In this way, "our minds gradually (grow) larger andstronger and more interesting by the addition of newoptions new candidates for belief and desire, phrasedin new vocabularies" ( pp. 13-14, 26, 38).

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Alba, R.D. (Ed.). (1988). Ethnicity and Race in theU.S.A.: Toward the Twenty-First Century. New York:Rout ledge.

Berger, P.L., and Luckmann, T. (1966). The SocialConstruction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociologyof Knowledge. New York: Doubleday/Anchor.

Burke, K. (1989). On Symbols and Society. J.Gusfield, (Ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Harris, M. (1985). Culture, People, Nature: AnIntroduction to General Anthropology. New York:Harper and Row.

Hidalgo, N. (1993). Multicultural Teacher Introspec-tion. In J.W. Fraser & T. Perry, eds., Freedom's Plow:Teaching in the Multicultural Classroom. New York:Routledge.

Rorty, R. (1991). Objectivity, Relativism and Truth:Philosophical Papers, Volume 1. New York:Cambridge University Press.

Waters, M.C. (1990). Ethnic Options: ChoosingIdentities in America. Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press.

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Responding to Differences6. Approach other cultures with interest, respect and a sense of shared human-

ity. Learn to defer judgment until you have made an effort to describe andexplain others' ideas and behavior from their own cultural perspective.

"Value diversity" is a popular contemporary theme,and probably none hear it more often than those work-ing in the field of education. Understood in its nega-tive sense, as an appeal to avoid prejudice and dis-crimination, its message is clear and, it is hoped,persuasive. But the full, positive requirements of acommitment to "valuing diversity" are much less clear.

Are we to value others because of our differences,which are profound, or despite our differences, whichare trivial? In other words, are we really to valuediversity itself, the rich variety of people in the world,or sameness, the essential unity of the human race?And if the object is difference itself, what does "value"mean here: to actively support and promote, to pas-sively admire, or merely to tolerate?

Most importantly, how far are we to go? Must wevalue every difference that is part of some culturalsystem, no matter how much it seems to conflict withour own beliefs, values or norms? To what extent arewe permitted to be selective and judgmental in ourapproach to other cultural groups? What is the mini-mum set of shared beliefs and values to which everyperson should be expected to conform in a pluralisticdemocracy? Should schools with multicultural popu-lations establish multiple or uniform standards ofacceptable behavior, language use and academic per-formance?

These are questions to which a lifetime of thoughtfuldiscussion could profitably be devoted, but the fol-lowing, tentative responses may be helpful as a pointof departure:

1. In identifying a basis for interest and re-spect between peoples, there is no need tochoose between recognition of a sharedhuman nature and fascination with the richdiversity of cultural life. Our differences are,in fact, a profound expression of what unites us.Human nature is fundamentally the ability toadapt to circumstances by creating culture. Eachculture expresses this universal human qualityin a different form because each is an adaptiveresponse to a unique set of problems.

2. To recognize the value of each culture as aunique example of human adaptive geniusis to argue for a strong form of cultural plu-ralism, that is, one which permits, and at timeseven promotes, the maintenance of the language

and traditions of subpopulations within a com-munity. If each cultural system is a set of suc-cessful answers to a different configuration ofeconomic and social problems, then a culturallymore diverse community is potentially a moreresourceful and resilient community. It has alarger number of answers available for use inmeeting any future problems that threaten allits members.

3. . A commitment to pluralism does not re-quire that one admire, or even tolerate, ev-ery belief or behavior that is part of somecultural system. One of the most frequentlyraised concerns about multicultural educationprograms is that students will be taught to adoptan extreme form of cultural relativism, includ-ing the belief that it is improper, or even impos-sible, to judge the ideas or actions of the mem-bers of one cultural group by the criteria of anyother group. But there is no necessary link be-tween this kind of relativism and the principlesunderlying multicultural education or democraticpluralism. Neither absolutely excludes the pos-sibility of judgment across cultures. What theydo seem to require is that judgment be deferreduntil a serious effort has been made to describeand explain another group's ideas or behaviorfrom their own cultural perspective, and thatone's own criteria remain open to periodic re-evaluation and revision.

Writing early in this century, John Dewey (1916) rec-ognized that a healthy society requires both a widelyshared set of communal beliefs and values to insureits solidarity and an openness to new ideas to pre-vent its stagnation:

The two points selected by which to measure theworth of any form of social life are the extent inwhich the interests of the group are shared by allits members and the fullness and freedom withwhich it interacts with other groups. An unde-sirable society, in other words, is one which in-ternally and externally sets up barriers to freeintercourse and communication of experience. Asociety which makes provision for participationin its good of all its members on equal terms andwhich secures flexible readjustment of its insti-tutions through interaction of the different formsof associated life is in so far democratic (p. 115).

11 1 7


Allport, G.W. (1979). The Nature of Prejudice. Read-ing, MA: Addisson-Wesley.

Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and Education: AnIntroduction to the Philosophy of Education. NewYork: Macmillan.

Fuchs, L.H. (1990). The American Kaleidoscope: RaceEthnicity and the Civic Culture. Hanover, NH:Wesleyan University Press.

Gabelko, N.H., and Michaelis, J.U. (1981). Reduc-ing Adolescent Prejudice: A Handbook. New York:Teachers College Press.

Nieto, S. (1992). Affirming Diversity: The Socio-political Context of Multicultural Education. NewYork: Longman.

Tumin, M.M. & Plotch, W. (Eds.). (1977). Plural-ism in a Democratic Society. New York: Praeger.

12

18

Teacher Expectations7. Hold firmly to the belief that students from every cultural group within your

school have the capacity to succeed academically.

After "value diversity," the theme teachers hear mostoften is probably "hold high expectations for all stu-dents." Again, the message has an immediate appealto many teachers, but needs to be well grounded if itis to have any lasting effect on instructional prac-tices. It is much easier to sustain high expectationsand act on them if they are based on knowledge ofwhat students already know and are able to do, ratherthan blind faith in what they may become. In thecase of students from cultural groups other than thedominant one within the school, who typically areoverrepresented among those considered at risk ofacademic failure, the best sources for positive evidenceof this kind are to be found outside the school.

The quality that we identify, measure and reward inschool as intelligence is conventionally understood asa kind of universal cognitive ability, which equips aperson to solve problems in virtually any life situa-tion. Conversely, it is assumed that those whom theschool has defined as limited in intelligence operateat a similar disadvantage outside of school. But agrowing number of cognitive psychologists are argu-ing persuasively that intelligence is a highly context-specific quality, that academic ability is therefore onlyone of many useful but independent types of intelli-gence, and that the kinds of cognitive skills a personmost fully develops depend on what were the mostimportant situations to which he or she has had toadapt. According to Stephen J. Ceci and Jeffrey Liker(1986):

.. persons develop in context, and it is importantto know something about their developmentalcontexts before we pass judgment on their intel-ligence. Each context carries with it a set of en-vironmental challenges and opportunities thatone strives to meet. Intelligence is best seen asthe extent to which individuals have successfullymet the most important environmental challengesin their lives. The degree to which the skills re-quired to meet one's important environmentalchallenges overlap those required to meet aca-demic challenges, including IQ test performance,is the degree to which an IQ score begins to re-flect one's intelligence (p. 138).

As one example of non-academic or "practical" intel-ligence, Ceci and Liker studied the methods of a num-ber of expert race track handicappers, most of whomhad little formal education and no record of academicsuccess. They found that these handicappers madeuse of impressive, higher-order thinking skills, involv-ing complex, multivariate analysis. Yet when the

subjects were administered IQ tests, the researchersfound no correlation between their IQ test scores andtheir success in handicapping. Similar studies havebeen conducted of other forms of practical problemsolving, including those used by effective businessexecutives, warehouse inventory clerks, sales engi-neers, wholesale delivery drivers, and waitresses(Lave, 1988). This contextual approach to the con-cept of intelligence suggests a solid basis on which toestablish high expectations for students from everycultural group:

1. The most critically important situation towhich each of us must adapt is the chal-lenge of being socialized within a particu-lar family and local community. No conclu-sions should be reached about the limits of anychild's capacity to learn without considering thatchild's behavior outside of school. This can bedone informally for most students, or by meansof formal assessment instruments, such as theAdaptive Behavior Inventory for Children or theVineland Social Maturity Scale (Mercer, Gomez-Palacio & Padilla, 1986). Many children whoseem to be limited in their ability to work. com-municate, or interact socially in school will befound to function at normal or better levels intheir home and neighborhood.

2. To say that there are multiple, context-de-pendent types of intelligence is not to saythat a person is limited by heredity or so-cialization to a single kind of intelligence.Although skills developed to cope with a differ-ent set of circumstances may not transfer easilyto the classroom, they are evidence of a child'scapacity to learn in school if sufficient opportu-nity is provided and the child is motivated tomake use of that opportunity.

3. It is not enough to believe that all studentscan learn. This belief must also be ex-pressed in teachers' interactions with stu-dents, including the ways in which students aregrouped for instruction, the physical orientationof teachers toward students and the ways inwhich teachers ask questions and react to stu-dent responses. An excellent way to promoteequitable instructional practices is the GESAProgram (Gender/Ethnic Expectations and Stu-dent Achievement) which consists of a series ofteacher training workshops, coordinated with aschedule of peer observations in the classroom(Grayson & Martin, 1990).

13 19


Ceci, S.J., & Liker, J. (1986). Academic and nonaca-demic intelligence: An experimental separation. InR.J. Sternberg and R.K. Wagner (Eds.), Practical In-telligence: Nature and Origins of Competence in theEveryday World. New York: Cambridge UniversityPress.

Gardner, H. (1985). Frames of Mind: The Theory ofMultiple Intelligences. New York: Basic Books.

Gould, S.J. (1981). The Mismeasure of Man. NewYork: Norton.

Grayson, D.A. & Martin, M.D. (1990). GESA: Gen-der / Ethnic Expectations and Student. AchievementTeacher Handbook. Earlham, Iowa: Graymill.

Lave, J. (1988). Cognition in Practice: Mind, Math-ematics and Culture in Everyday Life. New York:Cambridge University Press.

Mercer, J.R., Gomez-Palacio, M.; & Padilla, E. (1986).The development of practical intelligence in cross-cultural perspective. In R.J. Sternberg and R.K.Wagner (Eds.), Practical Intelligence: Nature andOrigins of Competence in the Everyday World. NewYork: Cambridge University Press.

14

Pluralism and Conformity8. Do not ask that students alienate themselves from their own cultural groups

in order to satisfy the expectations of the school. Require conformity with thevalues and norms of the dominant group only in so far as it serves a legitimateeducational or social purpose.

A central problem for pluralistic democracies is to findthe proper balance between their tolerance of groupdifferences and their need to maintain some mini-mum set of shared beliefs, values and behavioralnorms for the community as a whole. In the UnitedStates, our public schools are among the most impor-tant sites where this issue is addressed because theyhave the responsibility for preparing a diverse stu-dent population to live and work together as adults.

In establishing uniform codes of student conduct andcommon educational goals, standards and curricula,schools define the areas of thought and behaviorwithin which conformity will be required of all stu-dents and, for each of those areas, what will be ac-cepted as normal and what will be rejected as inad-equate or deviant. Until recently, most of our schoolshave understood their "normalizing" function as oneof simply enforcing as much conformity as possiblewith Anglo-American cultural ways. Today, there isa growing awareness that this is neither necessarynor desirable. Requiring complete assimilation im-poses on students a cruel choice between failure inschool and alienation from their friends and family.It is also a waste of cultural resources within the com-munity. However, the decision to value cultural di-versity in schools has made the tasks of rule making,standard setting and curriculum development morecomplex and challenging than they were in the past.

One way to approach decisions about what kinds ofrules, standards and objectives will be established ina school and how much latitude will be provided un-der them to accommodate group and individual dif-ferences is to begin with the recognition that schoolsserve at least three major functions within societyand that ensuring student conformity with a single,fixed set of rules or standards is less important tosome of these function than it is to others.

1. Preparing Students for Citizenship: Edu-cation for Social CompetenceSchools are expected to prepare students not onlyfor the formal responsibilities of citizenship suchas participation in the electoral process, but alsofor the everyday responsibilities of social life: re-specting others' persons and property, usingpersuasion and negotiation to resolve conflicts,communicating with honesty and civility. Most

of this social learning occurs outside of the regu-lar curriculum through teachers' behavioral mod-eling, counseling and intervention and especiallythrough the operation of the school's disciplinesystem. It is in the public sphere of social lifethat an individual's behavior impinges most onothers' interests and feelings. And it is in thisarea that the school is most justified in requir-ing conformity with a single set of behavioralrules; provided that these are reasonable, devel-oped as democratically as possible and open toperiodic revision (Gathercoal, 1993).

2. Preparing Students for Employment: Edu-cation for Technical CompetenceSchooling is also intended to provide each stu-dent with the knowledge and skills needed to playa productive role within the economy and pro-vide for his or her own needs. This function isprobably most valued by students, parents andthe community. This is also a sphere withinwhich there is only limited room for non-confor-mity because what one needs to know and be ableto do to be employable is largely dictated by themethods and machines used in a particular fieldof work and by the behavioral conventions fol-lowed by the workers within that field. The bestway in which schools can accommodate studentdifferences in meeting this economic function isto value and support a broad range of careergoals, reflecting the range of interests and ambi-tions within the student population.

3. Preparing Students for Life-LongIntellectual Growth and Self-Realization:Education for Personal CompetenceFinally, schools provide students with the meansarid the motivation to pursue intellectual growth,personal integration and self-expression. It iswithin this most personal area that schoolsshould allow the most latitude for individual andgroup differences in what students choose tothink and do. This includes such things as theirchoice of language, style and subject matter increative writing and other expressive activities;their responses to artistic works, genres andmovements; and their perspective on historicalevents, ideas and persons.

15

' There are three possible responses to ways of think-ing, speaking or acting that differ from what is viewedas "normal" by those who have power within a school.The divergent ideas or behavior can be prohibited,tolerated or supported. The preceding discussion isintended to suggest that different responses are ap-propriate in different contexts within the school. Forexample, rather than simply prohibit any use of a non-

standard dialect in the classroom, a teacher can in-sist on standard English in formal essays, businessletters or science lab reports, but permit or encour-age students to use their own dialects in writing shortstories or lyric poems. For such students, schoolingshould provide an opportunity to become fully bicul-tural, rather than to simply be assimilated by thedominant cultural group within the school.


Baron, D. (1990). The English Only Question: AnOfficial Language for Americans? New Haven: YaleUniversity Press.

Delpit, L. (1988). The Silenced Dialogue: Power andPedagogy in Educating Other People's Children.Harvard Educational Review. 58, 3, (August 1988):280-298.

Gathercoal, F. (1993). Judicious Discipline. SanFrancisco: Caddo Gap.

Walzer, M. (1983). Spheres of Justice: A Defense ofPluralism and Equality. New York: Basic Books.

Wardhaugh, R. (1987). Languages in Competition:Dominance, Diversity, and Decline. New York: BasilBlackwell.

16

Intercultural Communication9. Improve your skills in intercultural communication and conflict resolution.

In face to face communication, information is trans-mitted in four ways:

1. the verbal component of the messageincluding the language or dialect used, verbalstyle, logical organization of ideas and choice ofwords;

2. accompanying non-verbal expressionsincluding the use of pauses, silence and vocalinflections; facial expressions, eye contact oravoidance; body motions, gestures, touching andthe management of interpersonal space;

3. broader patterns of interactional behaviorincluding the level of engagement, extent of self-disclosure, interactive style (how talkative/quiet,direct/indirect, supportive/antagonistic) and themethods used in initiating conversation, turn-taking and signaling closure;

4. the complete context in which the commu-nication occursincluding the time, place and audience; eachparticipant's age, gender, cultural background,and status; their role in the interaction; and theexperience, intentions and expectations eachbrings to the situation.

When verbal communication takes place, the otherthree factors are also at work, not only supportingand clarifying the verbal message, but also servingas channels for the expression of the participants' feel-ings about each other and the quality of their inter-action. In intercultural communication, misunder-standings of the non-verbal signals, broad patternsof interactional behavior and contextual factors areeven more likely than misunderstandings of the ver-bal message because the rules for interpreting themvary from culture to culture and these rules are rarelyconsidered or discussed, even by those who havelearned to follow them.

When such misunderstandings do occur, they ofteninjure the relationship between the parties and gen-erate strong feelings of shame, anger and resentment.This kind of misunderstanding is also an importantsource of the negative stereotypes which differentgroups hold for each other. Even when no clearlynegative message is read in another's behavior,

enough ambiguity is often created in an interculturalencounter to damage the relationship between theparties. When teachers or students are unsure of theirability to interpret or predict each other's behavior,they may experience a kind of culture shock. This isan anxious, reflexive response to social uncertainty,which impels them to attack or avoid each other.Aggressive reactions of this kind can be seen in teach-ers' verbal abuse and corporal punishment of studentsand in students' insubordination, intimidation andphysical assault on school personnel. Avoidance re-sponses are apparent in the large numbers of stu-dents teachers refer out of their classrooms for dis-ciplinary and diagnostic reasons and in problems ofstudent truancy, tardiness and failure to completeschooling.

The following are some very general guidelines forpreventing or correcting intercultural communicationproblems in schools. The texts recommended beloware excellent sources for further study.

1. Learn as much as possible about differencesin the norms for social interaction amongthe cultural groups represented in yourschool.

2. Maintain a heightened awareness of yourown and the student's behavior when en-gaged in intercultural communication.

3. Learn to be an active, empathic listener andto give appropriate feedback to students.Avoid misunderstandings by making some ofyour thoughts, feelings and questions about thestudent explicit during the conversation.

4. Make a conscious effort to increase yourtolerance for ambiguity or uncertainty insocial interactions. Be able to function effec-tively even when you are not clear about themeaning of a student's response to you and un-able to predict what may happen next.

5. Try to remain unconditionally constructivein your relations with students, parents andother staff, even when conflicts have oc-curred (Fischer and Brown, 1988).

17 2 3


Fisher, R., and Brown, S. (1988). Getting Together:Building Relationships as We Negotiate. New York:Penguin.

Gudykunst, W.B. (1991). Bridging Differences: Ef-fective Integroup Communication. Commtexts 3.Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Gudykunst, W.B., and Ting-Toomey, S. (1988). Cul-ture and Interpersonal Communication. NewburyPark, CA: Sage.

Kochman, T. (1981). Black and White Styles in Con-flict. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Samovar, L.A., & Porter, R.E. (Eds.). (1991). Inter-cultural Communication: A Reader. Belmont, CA:Wadsworth.

Scheff, T.J. (1990). Microsociology: Discourse, Emo-tion and Social Structure. Chicago: Universitiy ofChicago Press.

Scollon, R., and Scollon S.B.K. (1981). Narrative,Literacy and Face in Interethnic Communication.Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex.

Tannen, D. (1986). That's Not What I Meant!: HowConversational Style Makes or Breaks Your Relationswith Others. New York: William Morrow.

182 "

Instructional Strategies10. Develop a versatile and flexible repertoire of instructional approaches, to use

in meeting a wide range of student needs.

Many contemporary trends will require teachers tobroaden their repertoires of professional skills. Theseinclude the movement to replace tracking and abilitygrouping with heterogeneous grouping of students;the Regular Education Initiative, which is bringingmore students with special educational needs intoregular classrooms; school restructuring initiatives,which are redefining teachers' relationships with stu-dents, other teachers and the curriculum; the enor-mous increase in the use of instructional technologyin the classroom; and, not least, the growing commit-ment to equalizing educational outcomes for a cul-turally diverse student population.

A teacher must be versatile and flexible to effectivelyserve a group of students who have been socialized indifferent kinds of families, speak different first lan-guages and have entered school at different levels ofacademic preparedness. When they recognize thisneed to expand their range of skills, teachers oftenask for culturally specific prescriptions, such as thebest way to teach to the learning style or manage thebehavior of a particular ethnic group. Although thereis a high probability that a multicultural classroomwill contain a wide range of interests, abilities, learn-ing styles and other student characteristics, it is dif-ficult to predict on the basis of ethnicity alone justwhat those traits will be or how they will be distrib-uted among individual students. To paraphrase awell-known warning to anthropologists, the teachershould always operate on the assumption that eachstudent is

LIKE ALL OTHER STUDENTS,

LIKE SOME OTHER STUDENTS,

LIKE NO OTHER STUDENT.

One way to accommodate group and individual dif-ferences without acting on stereotypes is to use a va-riety of approaches with the entire class, then learnfrom the students themselves what works best. In-stead of assuming, for example, that members of agiven ethnic group will perform better in cooperativerather than independent learning situations, or re-tain more information when they are able to manipu-late objects or move their bodies during the lesson,

the teacher should expose everyone in the class to anumber of different instructional strategies and as-sess which are most effective, both for individual stu-dents and the class as a whole. Educational planscan then be developed for the rest of the school year,initially emphasizing the kinds of learning situationsin which students seem to function best, but alsogradually incorporating more of other approaches. Inthis way, students will be able both to master the con-tent of the curriculum and increase their flexibilityand adaptability as learners.

In some cases, it may be both possible and advisableto use even more culturally specific strategies, espe-cially when many or all of the children within a class-room share the same cultural background. Cultur-ally Responsive Instruction is one name for anapproach in which teachers attempt to create learn-ing situations as congruent as possible with those inwhich students have been socialized in their homes(Bartholome, 1994). A well-known example is theKamehameha Education Project, a program designedto improve the reading performance of native Hawai-ian children. But in designing programs of this kindit is all the more important that individual differencesbe taken into account and that educational decisionsbe based primarily on observation, discussion andnegotiation with the actual students and parents inthe school community, rather than on published de-scriptions of their ethnic group.

The following are two other educational strategieswhich have been found to be effective in working withculturally and linguistically diverse groups of stu-dents. Like Culturally Responsive Instruction, eachemphasizes building needed knowledge and skills onthe foundation of what students already know andare able to do.

1. Strategic Teaching refers to an instructionalmodel in which students are taught to identifythe structures of various types of texts and tomonitor the cognitive strategies they use in com-prehending them. Students' own cultural expe-riences are validated by providing opportunitiesfor them to discuss what they already know orhave done before they begin new learning(Bartholome, 1994).

19 25

2. Scaffolding is a method in which the studentparticipates with the teacher in performing thecomplete task that is to be learned, doing as muchas he or she can at the time while the teacherdoes the rest. As learning progresses, theteacher's support is gradually reduced and thestudent assumes increasing responsibility for theentire performance (Casden, 1988).

In the recent essay cited above, Lilia I. Bartolome(1994) warns that unless teachers clearly perceive theforces inside and outside the school that cause some

groups to be subordinated and act to change the powerrelationships in their own classrooms, no improve-ment in educational methods is likely to improve out-comes for students from those subordinated groups.The remedy she calls for is a "humanizing pedagogy,"in which students' cultural perspectives are valuedand they are empowered to actively participate aslearners. This is pedagogy as it has been understoodthroughout this handbook, not so much as a set ofprofessional techniques but as a kind of personal re-lationship, the quality of communication betweenteacher and student.


Banks, J.A. (1979). Teaching Strategies for EthnicStudies, 2nd ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Bartholome, L.I. (1994). Beyond the Methods Fetish:Toward a Humanizing Pedagogy. Harvard Educa-tional Review. 64, 2, (Summer): 173-194.

Cazden, C.B. (1988). Classroom Discourse: The Lan-guage of Teaching and Learning. Portsmouth, N.H.:Heinemann.

20

Cummins, J. (1986). Empowering Minority Students:A Framework for Intervention. Harvard EducationalReview. 56, 1, (February): 18-36.

Sylvester, P.S. (1994). Teaching and Practice: El-ementary School Curricula and Urban Transforma-tion. Harvard Educational Review. 64, 3, (Fall): 309-331.

Ten Suggestions for Building Cross-Cultural Competence

KNOWLEDGE

General Social Science: Cultural Theory, Ethnography and History

1. Become familiar with basic concepts in anthropology, sociology and related disciplines. Use this knowl-edge to build an intellectual framework for organizing and interpreting cultural information.

2. Study the culture and history of the ethnic groups represented in your school and community, beginningwith your own group.

Applied Social Science: Multicultural Education

3. Understand how differences between the culture of the school and the culture of the home can place somestudents at a relative disadvantage in school. Learn to bridge this cultural distance by building on existingstudent strengths.

4. Learn to recognize and remedy equity problems in schools.

ATTITUDES

Toward Cultural Differences

5. Realize the extent to which your own perceptions, thoughts and behavior have been conditioned by yoursocialization within a particular cultural context. Remain positively, but not uncritically, identified withyour own cultural group.

6. Approach other cultures with interest, respect and a sense of shared humanity. Learn to defer judgmentuntil you have made an effort to describe and explain others' ideas and behavior from their own culturalperspective.

Toward Teaching in a Multicultural Setting

7. Hold firmly to the belief that students from every cultural group within your school have the capacity tosucceed academically.

8. Do not ask that students alienate themselves from their own cultural groups in order to satisfy the expec-tations of the school. Require conformity with the values and norms of the dominant group only in so faras it serves a legitimate educational or social purpose.

SKILLS

General Interpersonal Skills

9. Improve your skills in intercultural communication and conflict resolution.

Specific Professional Skills

10. Develop a versatile and flexible repertoire of instructional approaches to use in meeting a wide range ofstudent needs.

21 2"

WORLD-CLASS EDUCATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY:THE CHALLENGE AND THE VISION

VISION STATEMENT

As we approach the 21st century, there is broad-based agreementthat the education we provide for our children will determine America's future role in the community of nations, the character ofour society, and the quality of our individual lives. Thus, education has become the most Important responsibility of our nationand our state, with an imperative for bold new directions and renewed commitments.

To meet the global challenges this responsibility presents, the State of Illinois will provide the leadership necessary to guaranteeaccess to a system of high-quality public education. This system will develop in all students the knowledge, understanding, skillsand attitudes that will enable all residents to lead productive and fulfilling lives in a complex and changing society. All studentswill be provided appropriate and adequate opportunities to learn to:

communicate with words, numbers, visual images, symbolsand sounds;

think analytically and creatively, and be able to solveproblems to meet personal, social and academic needs;

develop physical and emotional well-being;

contribute as citizens in local, state, national and globalcommunities;

work independently and cooperatively in groups;

understand and appreciate the diversity of our world andthe interdependence of its peoples;

contribute to the economic well-being of society; and

continue to learn throughout their lives.

MISSION STATEMENT

The State Board of Education believes that the current educational

system is not meeting the needs of the people of Illinois. Substantial change is needed to fulfill this responsibility. The State Boardof Education will provide the leadership necessary to begin this process of change by committing to the following goals.

ILLINOIS GOALS

1 . Each Illinois public schoolstudent will exhibit mastery of the learner outcomes defined inthe State Goals for Learning, demonstrate the ability to solveproblems and perform tasks requiring higher-order thinkingskills, and be prepared to succeed in our diverse society and theglobal work force.

2. All people of Illinois willhe literate, lifelong learners who are knowledgeable about therights and responsibilities of citizenship and able to contributeto the social and economic well-being of our diverse, globalsociety.

3. All Illinois public school

students will be served by an education delivery system whichfocuses on student outcomes; promotes maximum flexibilityfor shared decision making at the local level; and has anaccountability process which includes rewards, interventionsand assistance for schools.

4. All Illinois public school

students will have access to schools and classrooms withhighly qualified and effective professionals who ensure thatstudents achieve high levels of learning.

5. All Illinois public schoolstudents will attend schools which effectively use technologyas a resource to support student learning and improveoperational efficiency.

6. All Illinois public schoolstudents will attend schools which actively develop thesupport, involvement and commitment of their communityby the establishment of partnerships and/or linkages toensure the success of all students.

7. Every Illinois publicschool student will attend a school that is supported by anadequate, equitable, stable and predictable system of finance.

8. Each child in Illinois willreceive the support services necessary to enter the publicschool system ready to learn and progress successfullythrough school. The public school system will serve as aleader in collaborative efforts among private and publicagencies so that comprehensive and coordinated health,human and social services reach children and their families.

Developed by citizens of Illinois through a process supported by the Governor. the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Business Roundtable.

Adopted as a centerpiece for school improvement efforts.

Printed by the authority of the State of Illinois.

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A Handbook for Teachers - ERIC · DOCUMENT RESUME. ED 420 166 FL 024 502. AUTHOR Mangan, Michael TITLE Building Cross-Cultural Competence: A Handbook for Teachers. INSTITUTION Illinois