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| Figure 1 |
I am going to begin by saying that I did not realize how
much I struggled with cultural competence until this course. The first discussion in class made my skin
crawl because I was so scared to say the wrong thing or offend someone. To me, “everyone is equal,” “I don’t see
color,” boy have I learned that is so wrong.
I am far from considering myself culturally competent but I have come a
long way in the past two months. As presented
in Figure 1, becoming culturally competent begins with learning about yourself,
which is directly connected to 8.2 Growing and Developing Professionally. Figure 1 also speaks to the importance of
learning and interacting with other cultures.
As I reflect on my own experiences, this seems to be where I
struggle. I have spent so much time
assuming everyone is equal that I have been ignoring the fact we are all
different. I seem to have fallen into
the trap of trying to be politically correct by saying “I don’t see color” when
I was told, “its weird that you don’t notice our skin is different colors,” or
“that means you don’t see me.” These are
powerful statements that I am so grateful I learned before I go into the
classroom. I believe one of the reasons
I was unaware of how to handle culture competence and the greatest implication
I may face in the classroom is that I went to high school that was 92%
white. With that being said, I think the
specific changes I need to make to improve in this area is first to become
educated with the cultures within the community I will be teaching in. I also want to become comfortable with the
fact that there are differences and it’s ok ask questions about student’s
cultures in order to learn. To give the
student’ the best education and classroom experiences, it has to begin with
what makes them who they are; and that is their cultural.
Clay,
R. A. (2010, September). How do I become culturally
competent? Retrieved August 19, 2016, from
http://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2010/09/culturally-competent.aspx
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