Culturally Proficient Education

An Asset-Based Response to Conditions of Poverty

By: Randall B. Lindsey, Michelle S. Karns, Keith Myatt

Foreword by Dennis Parker

Using the framework of cultural proficiency, this timely resource offers educators the knowledge and skills to maximize educational opportunities for all students, independent of students’ socioeconomic status.

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Product Details

Grade Level: K-12
ISBN: 9781412970860
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2010
Page Count: 176
Publication date: April 14, 2010

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Description

"This new application for cultural proficiency is a testament to the educator-student relationship based on respect, understanding, and a common purpose, no matter what the background or culture of the student happens to be. We can't afford for more students to disengage from education. Thankfully, the authors provide a framework that builds on where we are and that moves us toward a positive, asset-building environment rather than a destructive deficit mind-set."
—Kathleen Gavin, Coordinator of Professional Development
Great Prairie Area Education Agency, Burlington, IA

Develop culturally proficient policies and practices that create opportunities for students of poverty!

Written to counter the perspective that students from low-income backgrounds come to school with certain deficits that prevent them from learning, this timely resource provides educators with the knowledge and skills to maximize educational opportunities for all students, independent of students' socioeconomic status.

The authors examine equity and social issues through the lens of cultural proficiency, an approach that emphasizes how educators can break down self-imposed barriers to student success through self-reflection, personal change, and organizational reform. Focusing on students' strengths, this guide provides:

An examination of how poverty intersects with other groupings, such as race, ethnicity, language acquisition, and gender
Effective teaching and leadership strategies grounded in the latest research
Vignettes and case studies showing the faces of poverty and the barriers they face
Reflective activities and self-check protocols that guide readers toward effective practices

Culturally Proficient Education helps teachers and school leaders clear the path to success for students of all social and economic backgrounds.

Key features

The book's strengths-based approach examines socioeconomic issues through the lens of cultural proficiency—a perspective that emphasizes how one works with people different from one's self in a non-judgmental, pro-social manner that helps to ensure effective practices
Examines the intersection of socioeconomic status with other cultural groupings: race, ethnicity, language acquisition, gender, and ableness
Grounded in the latest research on resiliency
Provides real-life vignettes from students, making the subject matter more immediate and meaningful to readers
Offers reflective activities and self-check protocols that guide readers to understand their own assumptions, know their values relative to equity issues, and create change within their own practice

Author(s)

Randall B. Lindsey

Randall B. Lindsey is Emeritus Professor at California State University, Los Angeles. He has served as a teacher, an administrator, executive director of a non-profit corporation, as Interim Dean at California Lutheran University, as Distinguished Educator in Residence at Pepperdine University, and as Chair of the Education Department at the University of Redlands. All of Randy’s experiences have been in working with diverse populations and his area of study is the behavior of white people in multicultural settings. His Ph.D. is in Educational Leadership from Georgia State University, his Master of Arts in Teaching is in History Education from the University of Illinois, and his B.S. in Social Science Education is from Western Illinois University. He has served as a junior high school and high school teacher and as an administrator in charge of school desegregation efforts. At Cal State, L.A. he served as Chair of the Division of Administration and Counseling and as Director of the Regional Assistance Centers for Educational Equity, a regional race desegregation assistance center. With co-authors he has written several books and articles on applying the Cultural Proficiency Framework in various contexts.

Email – randallblindsey@gmail.com
Website - CCPEP.org
Twitter - @RBLindsey41

Michelle S. Karns

Michelle S. Karns, MPA, is an educational consultant with over 30 years’ experience in school support and reform, including speaking before the United Nations at the World Conference on Children in 1995. Working with students, administrators, and teachers in districts through the United States and Canada, Michelle helps create the conditions for all students to learn and makes academic success complemented by social and emotional health a reality. She is especially successful working in under-resourced, minority districts that are experiencing internal and external challenges.

Michelle combines current academic research and resiliency research in support of hundreds of Title I schools achieving equity and excellence. She is an author of several books and multiple educational reform articles and works to help students and teachers build positive relationships and meet their academic and personal success goals. She is an avid advocate of parents as partners in school reform and is diligent in making that process possible for her districts.

Keith Myatt

Keith Myatt, Ed.D., was a full-time instructor in the School Leadership Programs at California State University, Dominguez Hills where developing school leaders dedicated to dismantling systems of oppression and focusing on Cultural Proficiency were at the heart of the program. Prior to that he was at the Los Angeles County office of Education in Educational Leadership Services as a director in the California School leadership Academy (CSLA). He is coauthor of Culturally Proficient Education: An Asset-Based Response to the Conditions of Poverty (Corwin, 2010) and Culturally Proficient Coaching, Supporting Educators to Create Equitable Schools, (Corwin, 2020). He has worked at the Museum of Tolerance providing seminars for educators wishing to establish Cultural Proficiency as an element of their work and provided seminars for educators supporting credential candidates with the tools of Cultural Proficiency and Coaching. He has recently been working to implement the California Administrator Performance Assessment and is currently helping to develop an Ed.D. program at Dominguez Hills dedicated to creating school systems focused on the success of each and every child.

Foreword by Dennis Parker

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Part I. Why Poverty and Cultural Proficiency?

Introduction

1. Asset-Based Approaches to Students From Low Income or Impoverished Communities

2. The Middle Class School in Communities of Poverty

3. The Cultural Proficiency Tools Build on Assets

Part II. Pro-social School Applications

4. Culturally Proficient Pedagogy

5. Culturally Proficient Leadership Support for Instruction

6. Policy Development to Ensure and Support Teaching and Learning

Part III. A Call to Action

7. A Call to Action: The Time Is Now

Appendix A: Cultural Proficiency Conceptual Framework

Appendix B: State Teachers’ Association Retreat Script

Appendix C: Taniko’s Poem

Appendix D: How to Use Cultural Proficiency Books

References

Index

Reviews

"Students in poverty circumstances need us more than ever. This book provides tools, resources, and thought-provoking vignettes to illustrate what can transform our educational practice to meet the needs of all kids. After reading this book, I am astounded by how we have compartmentalized educational programming to reduce achievement gaps and yet, after decades of research, found this to be ineffective. This new application for cultural proficiency is a testament to the educator-student relationship based on respect, understanding, and a common purpose, no matter what the background or culture of the student happens to be. We can't afford for more students to disengage from education. Thankfully, the authors frame that for us in a way that builds on where we are in our learning and moves us forward toward a positive, asset-building environment rather than a destructive deficit mind-set."

Kathleen Gavin, Coordinator of Professional Development
Great Prairie Area Education Agency, Burlington, IA

"Before we can look at our students in a way that emphasizes what strengths and skills they bring to the classroom, we need to look at ourselves, our biases, and preconceptions. This book is an interactive model that uses the tools of cultural proficiency as a lens to look not only at our students, but also ourselves. This self-reflection enables us to be more effective for all our students."

Rick Mooradian, Teacher
Tahoe Elementary School, Sacramento, CA