Cultural Competence
and New Authority
Debbie Abilock
debbie@abilock.com
ECIS 2011
Culture is a group’s shared context • Beliefs and values
• Patterns of behavior, hidden rules
• Ideas and knowledge • History and geography
• Religious, racial, linguistic, ethnic, social traditions
Culture proficiency
The policies, practices and behaviors that enable a person or institution to create, sustain and participate in a culturally diverse environment.
“Chinese is a pictorial language not a phonetic one. Our words come from images. The meaning of many characters is subtle and profound. Other words are poetic and even philosophical." ‐‐ Ye Ye
© Robert Abilock
Perspective‐taking
The ability to engage and learn from
perspectives and experience different
views from one’s own.
Dey, Eric L., et al. Engaging Diverse Viewpoints: What Is the Campus Climate for Perspective‐
Taking? Washington: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2010. Association of American Colleges and Universities. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. An inclusive stance
"For example, in a pictorial language, 'car' might be represented by the symbols for 'power' and 'wheel,' while in a phonetic language the letters C, A, and R give no clue as to what the word means…phonetic letters do not have a definition (and) phonetic words are simply a group of meaningless letters stitched together.“
‐‐ student’s journal More than “tolerance”
Affirmation and critique
“Differences are to be prized, not disparaged; people from different groups treat each other with respect, not disdain; social justice is a lived reality, not just an ideal; and co‐existence means more than merely tolerating the presence of other groups.” (qtd. In Koppelman)
Koppelman, Kent. "What Are the Goals of Multicultural Education?" The Great Diversity Debate: Embracing Pluralism in School and Society. New York: Teachers Coll., 2011. N. pag. ASCD. Web. 28 Apr. 2011. <http://www.ascd.org/ascd‐express/vol6/615‐koppelman.aspx>. Stephan, W. G. (2004). Conclusion: Understanding intergroup relations programs. In W. G. Stephan & W. P. Vogt (Eds.), Education programs for improving intergroup relations: Theory, research, and practice (pp. 266–279). New York, NY: Teachers College Press. (p. 266)
© Debbie Abilock
Arneson, Robert. Flip Flop. 1978. Ceramic. Cantor Art Museum, Stanford. Natural Tension
Increased diversity
Desire for shared values
Not in college
(study sample: 23 campuses/ 24,000 students, 9,000 faculty, admin.)
Dey, Eric L., et al. Engaging Diverse Viewpoints: What Is the Campus Climate for Perspective‐
Taking? Washington: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2010. Association of American Colleges and Universities. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. Individual v. collective culture
Nisbett, Richard E. The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently
…and Why. New York: Free Press 2003
Culture shapes motivators
Nisbett, Richard E. The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently
…and Why. New York: Free Press 2003
Culture shapes argumentation
Nisbett, Richard E. The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently
…and Why. New York: Free Press 2003
Culture shapes historical view
Nisbett, Richard E. The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently
…and Why. New York: Free Press 2003
Culture shapes whom we credit
Nisbett, Richard E. The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think
Differently…and Why. New York: Free Press 2003
Culture shapes emotional responses
Molitor, Adriana, and Hui‐Chin Hsu. "Child Development across Cultures.” Cross‐Cultural Psychology: Contemporary Themes and Perspectives. Ed. kenneth D. Keith. West Sussex: Wiley‐
Blackwell, 2011. 74‐109. Print. Wait…are these distortions?
• “ …there does not appear to be even a kernel of truth in the stereotypes of national character.” (Beins 43)
• There’s not a bipolar continuum between collectivism and individualism: Latin Americans are high on both (Cole & Packer 148)
Beins, Bernard C. "Methodological and Conceptual Issues in Cross‐Cultural Research." Cross
Cultural Psychology: Contemporary Themes and Perspectives. Ed. Kenneth D. Keith. West Sussex:
Wiley‐Blackwell, 2011. 36‐55. Print.
Cole, Michael, and Martin Packer. "Culture and Cognition.“ (148)
Molitor, Adriana, and Hui‐Chin Hsu. "Child Development across Cultures.” Cross‐Cultural
Psychology: Contemporary Themes and Perspectives. Ed. Kenneth D. Keith. West Sussex: Wiley‐
Blackwell, 2011. 74‐109. Print.
“There is really no single cultural group that one
can designate as Chinese” (48)
Chang as qtd. in Beins, Bernard C. "Methodological and Conceptual Issues in Cross‐Cultural
Research." Cross Cultural Psychology: Contemporary Themes and Perspectives. Ed. Kenneth D.
Keith. West Sussex: Wiley‐Blackwell, 2011. 36‐55. Print.
Molitor, Adriana, and Hui‐Chin Hsu. "Child Development across Cultures.” Cross‐Cultural
Psychology: Contemporary Themes and Perspectives. Ed. Kenneth D. Keith. West Sussex: Wiley‐
Blackwell, 2011. 74‐109. Print.
“Botswana is not a reading nation”
Commeyras, Michelle, and Bontshetse Mosadimotho Mazile. "Exploring the Culture of Reading among Primary School Teachers in Botswana." Reading Teacher 64.6 (2011): 218‐28. Print. Damaging Labels
Reft, Ryan. "Not Your Model Minority?: The Complexity of Asian Americans in 21st Century American Film." Tropics of Meta. Blogger, 29 Mar. 2011. Web. 2 May 2011. <http://tropicsofmeta.blogspot.com/2011/03/not‐your‐model‐
minority‐complexity‐of.html>. Stereotype threat
Claude Steele
© Debbie Abilock
“On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” True?
Race is a powerful
social force online:
13% fewer responses
17% fewer offers
Doleac, Jennifer L., and Luke C.D. Stein. The Visible Hand: Race and Online Market Outcomes. Dept. of Economics. Stanford U., May 2010. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. <http://www.stanford.edu/~lstei
n/research/doleac‐stein‐
visiblehand.pdf>. “ The Internet and other computer based
technologies are complex topographies of
power and privilege, made up of walled gardens, new (plat)forms of economic and technological exclusion, and both new and old styles of race as code, interaction, and image.”
Nakamura, Lisa, and Peter Chow‐White, eds. Race after the Internet. Florence: Routledge, 2011. Print. Chinese gold farmers
Exploited workers
Prejudice against Chinese
“Enlightened” racism
Think about your own prejudices…
Digital natives vs. Chinese theft
© Debbie Abilock
© Debbie Abilock
Ten conversation‐stoppers
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
My classroom is fair – just a few individuals are racist.
Kids don’t see color – we’re all just human beings.
I think identifying by groups only further divides us.
We just need to teach kids to get along.
Social justice is politics – doesn’t belong in schools.
Eurocentric content is academically superior.
Anybody can be academically successful if they work hard.
Certain kids come to school unready to learn ‐ families are ultimately responsible.
9. My kids aren’t developmentally ready to learn about people far away.
10. I was just joking.
Our culture and our prejudices
shape evaluation judgments
My definition of credibility
Specific attributes of the information
Background
Culture
Context
Family
Rules of thumb
Hilligoss, Brian, and Soo Young Rieh. “Developing a Unifying Framework of Credibility Assessment:
Construct, Heuristics, and Interaction in Context.” Information Processing and Management 44 (2008):
1467–84. Web. 1 May 2010. <http://rieh.people.si.umich.edu/~rieh/papers/hilligoss_ipm.pdf>.
Economic status
affects evaluation dispositions
• Skeptics
• Intuitives
• Sociables
Flanagin, Andrew J., et al. Kids and Credibility: An Empirical Examination of outh, Digital Media Use, and Information Credibility. Cambridge: MIT, 2010. MIT Press. Web. 26 Feb. 2011. <http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/full_pdfs/Kids_and_Credibility.pdf>. Ask how culture might impact evaluation skills?
• European Americans have little trouble identifying object out of context while Asians more accurately detect changes in the background environment. (Cole & Packer 143)
• Eye tracking shows differences between fixing on the focal object vs. background. (Cole & Packer 148)
• Americans take photos in which faces are 35% larger than East Asians. (Phillips 176‐77)
Cole, Michael, and Martin Packer. "Culture and Cognition." Cross‐Cultural Psychology:
Contemporary Themes and Perspectives. Ed. Kenneth D. Keith. West Sussex: Wiley‐Blackwell,
2011. 133‐59. Print.
Phillips, William L. "Cross‐Cultural Differences in Visual Perception."
Point of view
Point of view has a cultural component
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Believable
Expert
Objective
Relevant
Reliable
Trustworthy
Truthful
Stereotypes
© Debbie Abilock
Hilligoss, Brian, and Soo Young Rieh. “Developing a Unifying Framework of Credibility Assessment: Construct, Heuristics, and
Interaction in Context.” Information Processing and Management 44 (2008): 1467–84. Web. 1 May 2010.
<http://rieh.people.si.umich.edu/~rieh/papers/hilligoss_ipm.pdf>.
Nass, Clifford & Corina Yen. The Man Who Lied to his Laptop: What Machines Teach us About Human Relationships.. CurrentPenguin, p. 170
© Debbie Abilock
Credibility
changes
with the
context
Credibility changes with country…
2011 Edelman Trust Barometer Findings. New York: Edelman, 2011. Edelman. Web. 15 Feb. 2011. <http://www.edelman.com/trust/2011/uploads/Edelman%20Trust%20Barometer%20Global%20Deck.pdf>. Trust of media changes by country…
2011 Edelman Trust Barometer Findings. New York: Edelman, 2011. Edelman. Web. 15 Feb. 2011. <http://www.edelman.com/trust/2011/uploads/Edelman%20Trust%20Barometer%20Global%20Deck.pdf>. How do we teach evaluation skills?
• Ask students to shift lens in order to empathize with different views
• Initiate interactions among diverse students
• Discuss how a student’s communication changes flexibly with different partners/ groups
• Ask complex research questions about culture
• Expect diverse perspectives in the answers students give – and discuss them
Deliberative dialogue
Ethnographic observation
From the obvious to the less obvious…
• Learn to correctly pronounce a person’s name
• Don’t predict behavior by group
• Treat family, peer group and classroom as
both intertwined and separate cultures
• Seek to understand: “Tell me more…”
• Talk about (don’t just tolerate) race
A Continuum of Cultural Proficiency
Destructiveness Incapacity Blindness Precompetence Competence Proficiency © Debbie Abilock
© Debbie Abilock
Begin now…
Cultural Competence and New Authority
Debbie Abilock
debbie@abilock.com
http://www.NoodleTools.com
21st Century Literacies
ECIS 2011