STRATEGIES FOR
DEVELOPING CULTURAL
COMPETENCE AMONG PRESERVICE TEACHERS
Calli Lewis, Ph.D. California State University, Bakersfield
Mandy Lusk, Ph.D. Clayton State University
Kelly Carrero, Ph.D., BCBA Shippensburg University
Staci Zolkoski, Ph.D. University of North Texas
Creating a Safe Environment for Exploring
Sensitive Issues
Cultural Competence Continuum
Cultural
proficiency
Cultural
competence
Cultural precompetence
Cultural blindness
Cultural
incapacity
Cultural
destructiveness
Cross, Bazron, Dennis, & Isaacs, 1989
ACTIVITIES FOR PRESERVICE TEACHERS
Photo Activity
• Time: approximately 30 minutes
• Quiz: Show pictures of diverse people and ask the class
to identify each by race.
• For example: This is A.J. What is his race?
Harvard Implicit Associations Test
• https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
• This online activity assesses individuals’ racial
preferences.
• The results may challenge individuals’ strongly held
beliefs about themselves. Time should be allotted for
debriefing and discussion afterward.
Picture Drawing
• Draw a picture of a family students believe will be in their
classroom.
• Discuss drawings, diversity, and the reality of public education.
• Students draw another picture of a family.
• Students write a description of their own families.
(Lyon, 2009)
ARTICLES FOR
PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS
Article and Reference
Summary
Helpful Hints
Borrero, N. (2011). Entering teaching for
and with love: Visions of pre-service urban
teachers. Journal of Urban Learning,
Teaching, and Research, 17, 18-26.
This article explains practitioners’
perceptions of teaching in urban settings.
This article emphasizes the multiple
diverse facets of teaching in urban
schools.
Landra, K., & Sutton, T. (2008) You think
you know ghetto? Contemporizing the Dove
‘Black IQ Test’. Teaching Sociology, 36(4),
366-377.
The article discusses cultural bias in
intellectual ability assessments. The article
also contains an assessment containing
questions relating to African American
culture.
Students may want to focus on the
assessment and answers they did or did
know the answers to. The instructor may
need to help guide the discussion back to
the issue of bias in assessment.
McIntosh, P. (1989). White privilege:
Unpacking the invisible knapsack. Peace
and Freedom, July/August, 10-12.
The article draws attention to a multitude
of ways in which white individuals
The article is a bit dated, instructors will
want to familiarize themselves with the
article before introducing it to the class in
order to relate some of the concepts to
more current concepts.
Milburn, W. & Palladino, J. (2012).
This article examines the unique aspect of
Preservice teachers’ knowledge, skills, and addressing LGBTQ bullying for pre-service
dispositions of LGBTQ bullying intervention. teachers.
The American Association of Behavioral and
Social Sciences Journal, 16, 86-100.
The article outlines specific strategies that
pre-service teachers can help in the
classroom for the LGBTQ population of
students.
BOOKS FOR PRESERVICE TEACHERS
Amazing Grace (1991)
Kozol, Jonathan
• This book describes the vast
differences in resources between
schools in affluent areas and schools
in low-income areas.
• The book is somewhat dated, yet it
should be noted that these
differences remain throughout the country.
The Sprit Catches You and You Fall Down
(1997) Fadiman, Anne
This book chronicles the true story of a
young Hmong girl who is considered to
have a spiritual gift that is, in western
culture, identified as epilepsy. The book
documents the clash between the family’s
desire to honor their daughter’s gift and
the Americans’ desires to treat the epilepsy.
Microagressions in Everyday Life: Race,
Gender, and Sexual Orientation
(2010) Sue, Derald W.
Sue’s book explores the topic of
unintentional bias. The book examines
the psychological effects of
unintentional bias on both the
perpetrator and the victim.
The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on
Language and Culture in the Classroom
(2008) Delpit, Lisa
• Delpit’s texts can be used to articulate how cultural power is
embedded in language. The texts detail those concepts
through the use of vignettes and personal dialogue of how
educators have used language as a way to segregate and
alienate students from lower socioeconomic classes.
• Some students may come to the classroom with a higher
level of understanding about culture than others. Subsequently,
students may react with intense, and possibly hostile, attitudes
to the exposure of new knowledge. This may be accompanied
by feelings of anger and resentment as they navigate their
complicity, often unwittingly, in the process of stereotyping,
bias, and deficit thinking.
VIDEOS FOR PRESERVICE TEACHERS
Title and URL
Summary
Helpful Hints
The Invisibles: The Children of Rural
Education
This video examines the realities of
This video provides research to
rural education, which include rising
enhance teachers in a rural
student enrollment, increase in poverty setting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p rates and racial and ethnic diversity.
h4kMj90D4
Becoming a Culturally Responsive
Teacher
This video helps teachers with new
approaches for teaching students with
cultural differences.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV
36efjBKRU
Substitute Teacher - Key & Peele
Humorous skit serves as a vivid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd display of reversed racial assumptions.
7FixvoKBw
A raw, provocative display portraying
the reality of daily school life for many
students from diverse cultures and how
easily a European-American teacher
can subtly embed dominant cultural
behaviors.
Teachers will learn activities that
explore historical and person
perspectives for teaching diverse
students.
A strong caution, do not show
this video until the students have
gone through much preliminary
activities and readings
concerning culture. Also, the skit
contains profanity, which some
students may find offensive.
WEBSITES FOR PRESERVICE TEACHERS
Websites for Pre-Service Teachers
• Multicultural Education & Culturally Responsive Teaching
• http://www.ithaca.edu/wise/multicultural/
• Resources for Addressing Multicultural and Diversity
Issues in Your Classroom
• http://www.nea.org/tools/resources-addressing-multicultural-
diversity-issues-in-your-classroom.htm
• Multicultural Education Internet Resource Guide
• http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/Multi.html
ACTIVITIES AND RESOURCES
FOR USE IN THE FIELD
Title of Activity
How to Implement
Helpful Hints
It’s a Small World After All
Throughout the school year, select
one country per week identifying
where one student’s descendants
or immediate family migrated from
in the world. Be sure to teach
major points of interest about that
country, especially identifying it on
a world map.
For this activity, students enjoy
learning about the food, music,
population, geographical region,
and various hobbies to do in
each country. Photos and
videos can also help students
learn more about the country.
Feel free to have the particular
student from that country help
lead the lesson.
Name that Tune
This game expands students’
awareness of music played in
other countries. Play an excerpt of
a song from another country.
Students can name the specific
country where the song originated.
The teacher may want to share
songs from countries you have
previously studied in class. You
may want to give students a list
of three choices of the countries
(pictures or words) and have
them choose from the list.
Title
How to Implement
Helpful Hints
Bon Appetit
The teacher will discuss, with the
class, the various foods cooked in
other countries. The teacher and
students can research recipes from
specific countries. After discovering
native recipes, the teacher and
students can cook these international
foods.
The teacher will want to have the
students cook various foods from
the recipes on the specific week
they are learning about that
particular country. The teacher can
share interesting facts about various
ethnicities (e.g., Asian countries eat
rice with most meals).
Let’s Celebrate
The teacher will discuss major holidays
and special dates specific to countries
around the world. Students can
research the origin of these dates and
place them on an international
calendar posted in the classroom.
The teacher can make sure he/she
briefly discusses the major holiday
or special dates specific to the
country on its specific day.
I Love Being Me
At the beginning of the year, the
teacher can have his/her students
each design a shoebox which describe
themselves. Each student will present
and explain the components of their
shoeboxes. If the student agrees, the
teacher can display these shoeboxes
around the classroom.
The teacher can construct a rubric
for this project, which encourages
individual creativity and honesty
from each student. This project
promotes individualization and
allows other students to understand
and respect individual differences.
Into the Beautiful North (2009) by Luis
Alberto Urrea
• This book is about a poor, young
Mexican woman who dreams of a
more blissful world.
• This book is intended for students
on the secondary level.
Jumpstart the World (2011) by Catherine
Ryan Hyde
• This book is about a young woman
who falls in love with a transgender man.
• This book is intended for students
on the secondary level.
Mulan, the Storyteller’s Candle (2008) by
Lucia Gonzalez
• This book is about cousins who
moved from their Puerto Rico to
New York City. This story explains
the astounding effect of moving
countries has on the cousins.
• This book is intended for students
on the elementary or primary level.
Scorpions (1988) Walter Dean Myers
• Scorpions is realistic novel about a
young African American male who
becomes involved with a gang.
• Scorpions was written for students
in grades 3-8.
Will Grayson, Will Grayson (2010) by
John Green and David Levithan
• This book is about two young men
meeting with the same names;
however, one man is gay and the
other straight. They find a mutual
respect and love for each other
through a series of comical events.
• This book is intended for students
on the secondary level.
Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China
(1996) by Ai-Ling Louie
• This book gives a reader a glimpse
of the Chinese culture with a plot
much like Cinderella.
• This book is intended for students
on the elementary or primary level.
Final Thoughts
Given the continued concerns regarding CLD students
being disproportionately represented in special education, it
is imperative that pre-service teachers become culturally
competent and are well prepared to work with CLD
students (Ford, 2012; Lee, 2012).
Any strategies/resources you would
like to share?
References
• American Psychological Association. (2003). Guidelines on multi-cultural education, training,
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research, practice, and organizational change for psychologists. American Psychologist, 58,
377-402.
Artiles, A. J., Bal, A., Trent, S. C., & Thorius, K. K. (2012). Placement of culturally and
linguistically diverse students in programs for students with emotional and behavioral
disorders: Contemporary trends and research needs. In J. P. Bakken, F. E. Obiakor, & A. F.
Rotatori (Eds.), Behavioral disorders: Identification, assessment, and instruction of students
with EBD (pp. 107-127). East Sussex, United Kingdom: Emerald Books.
Borrero, N. (2011). Entering teaching for and with love: Visions of pre-service urban
teachers. Journal of Urban Learning, Teaching, and Research, 17, 18-26.
Carrero, K.M. & Lusk, M.E. (2013). Preparing special educators to work with culturally and
linguistically diverse students with challenging behaviors. Multicultural Learning and
Teaching. 9(1),15-32. doi: 10.1515/mlt-2013-0003
Cross, T. L., Bazron, B. J., Dennis, K. W., & Isaacs, M. R. (1989). Towards a culturally
competent system of care: A monograph on effective services for minority children who are
severely emotionally disturbed. Washington, DC: National Institute of Mental Health, Child
and Adolescent Service System Program.
Delpit, L. (2008). The skin that we speak: Thoughts on language and culture in the
classroom. New York, NY: The New Press.
Fadiman, A. (1997). The spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong child, her American
doctors, and the collision of two cultures. New York, NY: Noonday.
Ford, D. Y. (2012). Culturally different students in special education: Looking backward to
move forward. Exceptional Children 78(4), 391-405.
References
• Gonzalez, L. (2008). Mulan, the Story Teller’s Candle. San Francisco, CA: Children’s
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Book Press.
Green, J & Levithan, D. (2010). Will Grayson, Will Grayson. New York, NY: Dutton
Books.
Hyde, C. (2011). Jumpstart the World. New York, NY: Random House Children’s
Books.
Ithaca College. (2014). Multicultural education & culturally responsive teaching.
Retrieved from http://www.ithaca.edu/wise/multicultural/
Key, K.M. & Peele, J. (2012). Substitute Teacher – Part 1. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7FixvoKBw.
Kozol, J. (1991). Savage inequalities: Children in America’s schools. New York, NY:
Crown.
Laundra, K., & Sutton, T. (2008). You think you know ghetto? Contemporizing the Dove
‘Black IQ Test, Teaching Sociology, 36, 366-377.
Lee, S. (2012). Knowing myself to know others: Preparing preservice teachers for
diversity through multicultural autobiography. Multicultural Education, 20(1), 38-41.
Louie, A. (1996). Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China. New York, NY: Pilomel
Books.
Lyon, A. F. (2009). Teaching others: Preservice teachers’ understandings regarding
diverse families. Multicultural Education, 16(4), 52-55.
References
• McIntosh, P. (1989). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack.
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Peace and Freedom, July/August, 10-12.
Myers, W. D. (1988). Scorpions. New York, NY: Amistad.
Milburn, W. & Palladino, J. (2012). Preservice teachers’ knowledge, skills,
and dispositions of LGBTQ bullying intervention. The American
Association of Behavioral and Social Sciences Journal, 16, 86-100.
National Education Association. (2014). Resources for addressing
multicultural and diversity issues in your classroom. Retrieved from
http://www.nea.org/tools/resources-addressing-multicultural-diversityissues-in-your-classroom.htm
Project Implicit (2014). Implicit association test – Racial attitudes.
Retrieved from:https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/education.html
Reyhner, J. (2014). Multicultural education internet resource guide.
Retrieved from http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/Multi.html
Sue, D. W. (2010). Microagressions in everyday life: Race, gender, and
sexual orientations. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.
Urrea, L. (2009). Into the Beautiful North. New York, NY: Back Bay
Books.