1. Becoming Culturally Competent
An introduction to cultural differences and mindful techniques to reduce the impact of unconscious bias

2. Quick Check. . . .
How many of you visited the IAT website and took one of the cultural assessments?
Which test did you take?
Did the result you received match your expectation of the result you thought youd receive?
3. Goals for Todays Seminar
Discuss changing cultural demographicsand their impact
Examine how unconscious bias can affect educational institutions and interactions with:
Students
Faculty, staff, and administrators
Begin to explore ways to become more culturally competent
4. A Few Road Rules
Prepare to be:
Interactive
Respectful
Honest
5. How Do We Define Culture?
6. An Initial Cultural Competency Check. . . .
Whats the difference between the words Hispanic and Latino?
Touching a child on the top of his head is a non-threatening sign of affection from an adult.
Establishing direct eye contact when talking with someone shows trustworthiness.
7. Whats Cultural Competenceand Why We Need It
Cultural competence emphasizes learning effective ways to operate in different cultural contexts
Becoming culturally competent also:
Helps educators more effectively deliver learning to students
Helps recruit and retain a more diverse student and faculty population
Helps workplace colleagues foster better cooperation and productivity in the workplace
Helps prevent or minimize unintended consequences that result from the interactions we have every day
8. Whats the Cultural Landscape:
Nationally
Kentucky
Whites = 72% (2000 census data)
African Americans = 13% (2000 census data)
Latinos = 11% (2000 census data)
Whites = 89.27% (2000 census data)
African Americans = 7.27% (2000 census data)
Latinos = 1.48% (2000 census data)
9. Other Aspects of the Current Cultural Landscape. . . .
Generational differences
Gender and gender orientation differences
Sexual orientation differences
10. The Times They Are A-Changin
Why educational professionals and those in the workplace have to learn cultural competency skills when dealing with colleagues and students
11. Cultural Differences = Culture Clash??
12. Cultural Differences, Communication and Unconscious Bias as the Source of Culture Clash
Psychologists once believed that only bigoted people used stereotypes.Now the study of unconscious bias is revealing the unsettling truth:We all use stereotypes, all the time, without knowing it.We have met the enemy of equality, and the enemy is us. Article from Psychology Today
13. A Post-Racial Generation/America?
The extreme case
Heres what we typically think of when we think about bias
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/26/hate.groups.report/index.html#cnnSTCVideo
14. But Bias Today Usually Isnt That Extreme. . . .
What most of us normally see or experience doesnt rise to the most extreme levelsbut theres still pain and conflict
Quick dialogue
What have you seen, heard about or experienced within the last year that seemed to reflect a culture clash?
15. Stereotyping and Unconscious Bias
We all stereotype people
Are we hard wired to stereotype?
The need for blink decisions by prehistoric man
The problem with taking fight/flight responses into a modern-day setting
16. Focus with Unconscious Bias in Academia
Current work mainly looks at faculty and primarily addresses sex, race and gender issues
What those works indicate:
Unconscious bias and stereotyping are particularly problematic when it comes to three constituencies:
Students
Administration
Other faculty
17. Displays of Unconscious Bias that Affect Faculty, Administrators
Students
Complaints to administration, excessively negative evaluations, challenges to authority and classroom management
Stereotyping of women, people of color
Challenges by majority students about credentials, appearance, authority,evaluative methods used with students
Colleagues and administration
Overburdening faculty with academic housekeeping
Stereotyping
Undermining comments to students and other faculty
Belief people from outside groups are hypersensitive or have illegitimate concerns about stereotyping and bias
Unconscious desire for people to assimilate in order to be retained
18. But How Accurate Are Our Impressions?
How much can you tell from a face?
19. Unconscious Bias and Unintended Consequences
At work
In other settings
For co-workers
For the actor or actors involved
For the work environment
At home
With health care professionals and health care delivery to patients
20. Breaking the Cycle by Becoming More Mindful
Promising evidence in social cognitive psychology indicates that with sufficient motivation, cognitive resources, and effort, people are able to focus on the unique qualities of individuals, rather than on the groups they belong to, in forming impressions and behaving toward others.
From Reducing Racial Bias Among Health Care Providers: Lessons from Social-Cognitive Psychology
21. What Are Your Concerns as Teachers or as Co-Workers?
22. Specific Situations That May Require Special Care
Triggers
Solutions.
Insensitive remarks
Over-generalizations about specific groups
Classroom confrontations among students or with a student and faculty member
Others?
23. Quick Ideas to Implement
Educate yourself about what you value and what others value, differences in behaviors, etc.
Become curious about the world around you
Go beyond The Golden Rule
Use the Mark Twain rule
Special considerations for managers
Well delve into ways toincorporatecultural competency into the higher education classroom at a separate session.
24. Internal Monologue. . . .
There are too many different cultures to learn abouthow am I supposed to know what could offend a person from a particular ethnic or racial background?
This is a bunch of PC crap.Im not going to change who I am!
People get too sensitive about these things.They just need to grow up!
The Roots theory of cultural assimilation
25. Additional Resources
Web resources
Video
http://academic.udayton.edu/health/03access/racial.htm (race and its impact on healthcare; youll also find similar work related to other disciplines)
http://www.med.umich.edu/multicultural/ccp/index.htm (free resources on multiculturalism for health care professionals)
YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJGyAPqqVm8&feature=related (fun, slightly bawdy tongue in cheek that shows how cultural misunderstandings can create unanticipated consequences)
Movies
Crash
Gran Torino