“So let’s get our curriculum right for our girls through cultural competence”

This week we have been discussing two terms with our staff. Those terms are Cultural Capital and Cultural Competence. In groups, the staff have been talking about these terms and considering what they think they mean.

 

What is Cultural Capital?

Cultural Capital in education can be realised through all aspects of the curriculum – exposing students to a large variety of subject areas and arts; promoting character-building qualities that lead to creating well-rounded, global citizens, and of course the more typical expectations of education, which is to provide young people with recognised and meaningful qualifications that will open up doors to paths in later life.

 

What is Cultural Competence?

Cultural competence is the ability to successfully teach students who come from a culture or cultures other than our own. It entails developing certain personal and interpersonal awareness and sensitivities, understanding certain bodies of cultural knowledge, and mastering a set of skills that, taken together, underlie effective cross-cultural teaching and culturally responsive teaching.

As a learning environment, we can develop our curriculum – using the girls own cultural knowledge and experiences as hooks to further learning; however, we can’t assume we know the backgrounds of our pupils so we should show them the courtesy and find out.

 

How do we ensure that we offer culturally effective teaching?

In order to achieve culturally effective teaching, we need to observe the following:

  • Staff need to value diversity
  • Have knowledge of students’ culture
  • Staff need to know how different cultures interact
  • Institutionalise cultural knowledge
  • Become agents for change
  • and help colleagues adapt to diversity

 

The next step:

Studies have found that one’s cultural heritage and attitudes/ beliefs about one’s race serve as coping resources that help give the person a positive sense of self and self– affirmation, and sustainability in employment.

To help us better understand and have better knowledge of students’ culture, we will be creating the following together:

  • Cultural Heritage Week
  • Each child is to produce a project that has parental input in order to tell their family story
  • World Map to be displayed proudly celebrating class roots (Adam’s legacy)

So let’s get creative and produce some exceptional work we can all be proud of – celebrating our girls and their culture to give focus to our work.