tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12596769.post111636452120328296..comments2023-12-23T13:25:43.770-08:00Comments on Rob Kremer: Cultural Competency - the issue stays aliveRob Kremerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13842508120324878364noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12596769.post-1117147760125906392005-05-26T15:49:00.000-07:002005-05-26T15:49:00.000-07:00What is cultural competence? We don’t know. What w...What is cultural competence? We don’t know. What will it accomplish? We don’t know. How much will it cost? We don’t know. As other states work to close the achievement gap by raising expectations and increasing standards, Oregon races toward another flawed initiative.<BR/><BR/>The Orwellian concept of cultural competence is being promulgated by a small group of people from the education elite led by State Senator Avel Gordly and OSU professor Jean Moule, author of ‘Cultural Competence, A Primer for Educators’. <BR/><BR/>Cultural competence is an idea that came from the health-care field. The idea is to treat each patient as an individual and understand that a person’s background and current living situation can have an impact on the quality of care that person receives. An example would be a woman who comes in with a burka. To give her the quality of care that she needs it would be best if a female doctor examined her. Or it helps a doctor to know when a patient is homeless. Homelessness will affect whether the patient will come back for a follow-up appointment or if they need prescription samples rather than a prescription that they cannot afford to fill.<BR/><BR/>This makes sense. But what the education establishment has done in Oregon is try and pick this up from the health-care field, add the political notions of social justice, and put it down in education. They are trying to put a square peg into a round hole. It just doesn’t fit.<BR/><BR/>The results of the Cultural Competence Summit held in May ’04 were a definition of cultural competence and a five-year action plan to integrate cultural competence in all aspects of education. A key part of this definition, the fact that it is based on social justice and equity and the need to institutionalize and advocate for social justice was determined to be unconstitutional by Legislative Counsel.<BR/><BR/>After that, the participants of the summit claimed that it was just a group of people getting together to talk about cultural competence and that the definition was only a working definition.<BR/><BR/>In the mean time, University of Oregon developed a Five Year Diversity Plan. This plan will cost University of Oregon millions of dollars per year to implement. I met with a representative U of O and asked him what the definition of cultural competence is. He said he did not know. This was after the five-year plan was developed!<BR/><BR/>We are close to spending tens of millions of dollars on two five-year plans for cultural competence, and we have no idea what cultural competence means. Some believe that cultural competence is synonymous with social justice. But when I ask for a definition of social justice I get as many answers as people I ask.<BR/><BR/>How can we justify spending millions of dollars on an undefined, unproven, notion of cultural competence and social justice when we are challenged to fund K-12, community colleges, and higher education? Quite simply, we can’t!Jeff Phillipshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13131296435333852886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12596769.post-1116530057470800272005-05-19T12:14:00.000-07:002005-05-19T12:14:00.000-07:00What an excellent analysis of the cultural compete...What an excellent analysis of the cultural competency issue. My congratulations. Would you mind if I posted it to the ClearingHouse.<BR/><BR/>J. E. StoneAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12596769.post-1116458940852151722005-05-18T16:29:00.000-07:002005-05-18T16:29:00.000-07:00The type size on words in your blog are too small ...The type size on words in your blog are too small to be readabile. Can you remedy this?<BR/><BR/>Patrick Groff<BR/>Professor of Education Emeritus<BR/>San Diego State UniversityAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12596769.post-1116431926022035382005-05-18T08:58:00.000-07:002005-05-18T08:58:00.000-07:00Here's PSU's mission statement for their graduate ...Here's PSU's mission statement for their graduate teacher education:<BR/><BR/><I>Guiding Principles:<BR/>1. We create and sustain educational environments that serve all students and address diverse needs. <BR/>2. We encourage and model exemplary programs and practices across the life span. <BR/>3. We build our programs on the human and cultural richness of the University's urban setting. <BR/>4. We develop collaborative efforts that foster our mission.<BR/>5. We challenge assumptions about our practice and accept the risks inherent in following our convictions. <BR/>6. We develop our programs to promote social justice, especially for groups that have been historically disenfranchised. <BR/>7. We strive to understand the relationships among culture, curriculum, and practice and the long-term implications for ecological sustainability. <BR/>8. We model thoughtful inquiry as a basis for sound decision-making.</I>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com