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CULTURAL REFLECTION
By Collette Sanchez
National University
HEDX-110X: Introduction to K-12 Health Education
Prof. Allen Hazard

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Abstract
This is a reflective essay on what I have learned on cultural
competency for health education and the expectations of all teachers on how to
implement cultural competency in the classroom. It also includes the results of a
self-assessment I took in order to help determine where I fall on the continuum of
cultural competency and how to improve my own teaching. I gathered definitive
information on cultural competency from various resources offered through this
course, including online journals, readings, and videos.

Importance of Cultural Competency

Cultural competency for health education is defined as the ability of an
individual to understand and respect values, beliefs, and mores that differ across
cultures, and to consider and respond appropriately to these differences in
planning, implementing, and evaluating health education and promotion
programs and interventions. (Luquis et al., 2006, p. 234)

Unlike cultural

sensitivity which requires health educators to be aware of the diverse needs of

students, cultural competency requires health educators to be professionally
responsible for providing learning opportunities (directly) related to culture
competence to the students they prepare. (Luquis et al., 2006)

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What I have learned from the readings is that schools and schools district,
not just educators, are required to provide programs and interventions that are
culturally competent. I do not work as an early childhood educator, but when I
visit the school district offices I notice a lot of posters and literature for The
Central California Migrant/Seasonal Head Start Program (CCMHS, 2014).

This

program, like many across the nation, is designed to provide teacher-training

preparation programs for teachers who work with young children who are
linguistically and culturally diverse. (Daniel & Friedman, 2005, p. 2) This makes
sense since a large portion of the community where I teach consists of farmworking families who work long hours and are seeking child-care programs that
are open for up to twelve hours a day.
From reading the online journal Taking the Next Step: Preparing Teachers
to Work with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Children I learned that Head
Start Programs are implemented in order to help close the achievement gap
(Daniel & Friedman, 2005, p. 2) for minority groups and to better prepare
English-language learners to excel in school, as well as future college and career
paths as part of a diverse nation. It is imperative for all educators, schools, and
school districts to be culturally competent, or ideally culturally proficient, so they
may open doorways for diverse learning types and not hinder a students
learning because of their own personal biases, possible egocentric teaching
practices and/or single-perspective lesson plans.

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Personal Continuum
I completed the series of self-assessments to determine that I fall on the
Cultural Pre-competence stage within the Continuum of Cultural Competency.
(Goode, 2009) The results of the first assessment revealed that my answers
leaned more to the right column showing greater awareness regarding diversityrelated issues especially in regards to working in multi-cultural groups and
showing patience and understanding to limited English speakers. Interestingly, I
scored all the way over to the left column in agreement with not holding
stereotypes about other group instead of the right column, which read, I admit
my stereotypes about other groups. Considering the value I chose was similar
to answers in the right column I thought perhaps this could have been a
formatting error. Regardless, I believe I am still in the Cultural Pre-competence
stage because I am still developing my level of cultural awareness in hopes to
someday obtain Cultural Competence. I have worked in a Spanish-speaking
bilingual school for the past few years, but still have not become fluent in my
students native language. I enjoy when they teach me Spanish phrases for
academia, conversation or tradition, but wish to learn more about their culture,
especially with regards to art history and visual symbolism. Two of my values in
life are to honor human rights and celebrate diversity and I continue to improve
my teaching in order to honor those needs for my students, community and
nation.

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How Cultural Factors Affect Learning

One way to use cultural understanding to help students excel in their
learning is to design lesson plans that support students making real-life
connections to the content. Last year I taught juniors in an Intro to Visual Arts
class about an art form in Mexico called Alebrijes de Oaxaca. This style of
sculptural art that portrays a combination of real and mythical creatures adorned
in bright colored patterns is particular to the Oaxacan region of Mexico. Fortyeight out of my fifty students identified as Mexican and I felt that the two students
who were Indian and Caucasian, respectively, would also benefit from learning
about a cultural and historical art practice that was culturally connected to their
peers and community.

Teaching from a Cultural Understanding

I was especially interested by the example given in the online journal
Communicating Cross-Culturally: What Teachers Should Know - Ways of Solving
Problems (Pratt-Johnson, 2006) where predominantly Asian cultures favored
saving their mother over their spouse or children in a scenario where a boat
begins to sink. I continue to be fascinated by the differences between western
individualism cultures versus eastern collectivist cultures probably because I am
Asian/Caucasian-American and have lived my whole life within those overlapping
cultures.

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I would like to remind myself to teach the visual arts through multiple
perspectives; especially for lesson plans that teach from historical perspectives
and Westernized aesthetic values.

Multicultural perspectives can be a

fascinating topic to discuss with students especially if works of art are used as a
catalyst for discussion and debate.

Personal Growth
I learned a lot about what my value preferences are and how that
influences the way I work with others in the Cross-Cultural Team Building Scale.
(Goode, 2009) I especially value individual performance more than group
performance, which is in contrast to the way my own students prefer to learn,
which is in partner and small-groups. I also emphasize relationships and process
more than task and product despite the fact that the discipline I teach is weighted
by performance-based assessments. When my students are creating art and are
worried or self-critical about the outcome I often tell them its all about the
journey, not the destination!

How to Integrate Cultural Competency

I have begun to design art lesson plans that involve investigations into
diverse cultural art and incorporate the cultures of students who represent the
minority at my school.

Additionally, I have advocated to my schools

administration to develop multi-lingual communication through newsletters,

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syllabi, and our schools website in order to represent the diversity of our school,
which represents Latino, Indian, and Filipino students whose guardians are also
English language learners.
My grand plan is to paint a large and accurate world atlas mural with my
students in the hallway of our school in order to promote geography awareness,
community service and mural arts. So far, I have the support of the school
leader, community artists, and a team of students eager to practice cartography
and painting.

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References

Goode, T. R. (2009) Continuum of Cultural Competency.

USA: Georgetown University Center

Luquis, R., Prez, M. & Young, K. (2006) Cultural Competence Development in

Health Education Professional Preparation Programs. USA: American
Journal of Health Education

Pratt-Johnson, Y. (2006) Communicating Cross-Culturally: What Teachers

Should Know. Queens, New York, USA: St. Johns University

Santa Cruz County of Education (2014) California Migrant/Seasonal Head Start

Program (CCMHS, 2014). Online publication. Retrieved Dec 8, 2014.
http://www.santacruz.k12.ca.us/ed_services/migrant_headstart.html