Overall Results
Of the 111 educators who participated in this study, one (>1%) appears to be culturally responsive. Three (3%) were classified as culturally aware. Forty- nine (44%) seem to have general awareness of culture. Forty-three (39%) participants fell into the little awareness of culture category, while 15 (14%) appear to be culturally unaware. Eighty (72%) out of the 111 educators exhibited one or more deficit beliefs about students and families of diverse backgrounds.
Culturally responsive. One educator (>1%), who is a school leader, was the only participant identified as culturally responsive. In responding to the sce- narios, this educator expressed pluralistic beliefs, demonstrated a high degree of knowledge about invisible culture, and provided a number of culturally responsive or additive solutions to the conflicts depicted in the scenarios. Specifically, this educator attributed the conflicts to culture clashes rather than to personality differences, ineffective instruction, or lack of student skills or experiences. Additionally this participant identified dimensions of culture (Hall, 1977; Hofstede, 1997) as an underlying factor in each of the scenarios, an indication she has a substantial understanding of invisible cul- ture. In some scenarios, the educator actually named a specific dimension of culture (i.e., individualism–collectivism, high–low context communication) when explaining the culture clash. For example, in response to the scenario in which teachers discuss concerns related to Latino parents walking their chil- dren to their classrooms in the morning, this educator explained it was a “Clash of cultures—Hispanics tend to be more collectivistic. Anglos tend to be individualistic, schools generally reflect and value individualistic think- ing.” In the scenario where culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse students diagrammed family relationships differently from their classmates, the participant stated, “Collectivism vs. Individualistic cultural differences. Low SES and kids of color see the group as more of a whole—individuals are part of the group, whereas other students believe in a more independent representation.”
Additionally, this educator was purposeful in using her cultural knowl- edge when proposing solutions to the culture clashes. Rather than offering generic best practices, she discussed solutions that directly linked to her understanding of culture. In the scenario related to Latino parents walking their children to their classrooms, she responded:
I had a similar situation at our school. ... Some teachers wanted a “zone” marked by a line of tape on the floor to discourage parents from entering classrooms. Mornings are a little like a Barnes and Noble atmosphere. What I found in reality is that by 8:00 parents are out of the rooms. [I] encouraged teachers to go about their normal routines—lunch count, announcements, etc.
This culturally responsive practice reflects an additive rather than a subtrac- tive view of culture. Unlike many of the other educators in the study, this educator appeared to recognize that the action of parents accompanying their children to the classroom is a form of parent involvement. Rather than alien- ating parents by imposing strict rules to extinguish their behavior, this partici- pant appeared to value the parents’ actions. In fact, in her response she added that a similar situation had occurred at her school and she had capitalized on this involvement “to establish a community of parents.”
Equally important, this educator promoted cultural competence among all students, not just the students of color, which reflected another additive prac- tice. In her response to the scenario in which most of the diverse students cre- ated family diagrams depicting collectivistic relationships while many White, middle-class students depicted individualistic family connections, this educa- tor stated, “I would ask the students to explain their thinking to the class ... it’s an opportunity for all the students to learn about differing perspectives of their fellow classmates.” In her response to the scenario in which teachers debate the use of the book Huckleberry Finn, the participant explained, “[It] would be an opportunity to compare/contrast this work with other viewpoints of the time ... not good to shelter kids from the reality of our past.” For this educator, culture clashes served as valuable teaching opportunities where diverse stu- dents’ funds of knowledge were shared and validated.
Finally, this educator appears to clearly understand the issue presented in one of the leadership scenarios. In this particular scenario, teachers are asked to identify barriers to student achievement. They indicate students and families are the greatest challenges. In responding to this scenario, the culturally responsive educator indicated teachers’ deficit thinking, not students and parents, was the issue. She recognized teachers were blaming students and families rather than considering the connection between school practices and student outcomes.
However, in spite of her insightful assessment of the situation, this educa- tor’s response to how she would act suggests she does not always apply cul- tural responsiveness in practice. Her response, “Focus teachers on those things over which we have control ... curriculum, assessment, intervention, engaging students. What’s within our circle of influence,” suggests the edu- cator sees teachers’ deficit beliefs as outside her scope of her influence or is reluctant to address them. While addressing deficit beliefs is often difficult because it involves frank conversations related to race, class, gender, and other forms of diversity (Nelson & Guerra, 2008), creating culturally respon- sive schools requires that deficit beliefs be addressed. The fact that the educa- tor in this case did not indicate she would address deficit beliefs although she recognized them suggests that even a culturally responsive educator may not enact culturally responsive practice at every opportunity and underscores the difficulty of consistently practicing cultural responsiveness.
Culturally aware. The three (3%) educators identified as culturally aware were educational leaders working in the Michigan district. In all but one of the scenarios they, too, identified the interactions in the scenarios as culture clashes and not a problem of ineffective instruction or a deficiency in stu- dents. Like the culturally responsive educator, this small group of individuals understood invisible aspects of culture were at odds in the classroom and in school. Although they did not use the dimensions of culture (Hall, 1977; Hof- stede, 1997) in explaining the behaviors of individuals in the scenarios, this group did attribute the clashes to “multiple perspectives” or “different value systems” and could identify more blatant forms of deficit thinking. For exam- ple, in the scenario in which culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse students diagrammed family relationships differently from their White, middleclass classmates, this group of educators gave responses that suggest they understand the validity of differing perspectives:
“Mr. Smith is looking at the situation through his own value filter. He expects the answer to reflect the mainstream, middle-class culture.” “Juan does not see his family as revolving around him but as an interconnected overlapping structure. The Anglo students seem to see their family members as separate people.”
“Cultural unawareness on the part of the teacher. There would have not been a ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’ response.”
Similarly, in the scenario with Hispanic parents walking their children to their classrooms, one of these culturally aware educators responded:
Staff is still seeing the situation through their own eyes. They still want to attach a sense of “not caring” to the parents. They feel good because they have identified the issues parents deal with, but they still interpret their (parents) behavior as not caring.
In the scenario in which a teacher asks students whether they know how to keep from getting sick and then dismisses responses that represent non- Western views of health care, another culturally aware educator stated, “The teacher is not accepting of answers from all students. In many cultures, the power of herbal remedies, teas, etc. are highly respected for medicinal use. The assumption of financial reasons and setting the answer aside may build barriers.” While these responses reflect this group’s understanding of deeper aspects of culture, such as different sets of values clashing, they were not categorized as culturally responsive for two reasons. First, two of the three educators expressed a deficit belief in responding to one of the scenarios. Secondly, their solutions to the culture clashes in the scenarios appeared to be based more in best practice than in cultural responsiveness. They tended to suggest technical fixes that are generally considered effective for all stu- dents and families without regard to cultural differences. For example, in response to the question, “How would you have responded if you were the teacher?” in the health lesson scenario, one culturally aware educator answered, “Exactly as she [the teacher] had in the earlier examples: accept the answer, thank the child, and write it among the others—not aside.” This best practice of recognizing the child’s contribution is important, but not enough, because it fails to validate the child’s funds of knowledge. In con- trast, solutions offered by the culturally responsive educator were purpo- sively linked to cultural knowledge used in explaining clashes in the scenarios. Similar to the culturally aware educators, the culturally respon- sive educator recognized the child’s contribution in the health lesson. However, instead of just thanking the child and recordin