52 INVITED CHAPTERS
CULTURAL PROFICIENCY AS A LEADERSHIP LENS
Cultural Proficiency is an Inside-Out Process about knowing who we are in the context of
the communities we serve. For those of us in this room, it means knowing who we are in
relationship to the incredible diversity of our service areas. As we move away from our
campuses our reference groups become ever more diverse. Now, more than ever, we are
morally expected to insure that our education administration candidates are
- Knowledgeable of local school districts/agencies,
- Knowledgeable of our local and state administrator groups, as well as
- Able to interact effectively with the wide diversity in our communities as we continue
to fulfill the promises of our democracy.
For these reasons, Terry Cross identified Cultural Proficiency to be an Inside-Out Process.
It is his belief, one I share, that we must become students of our own values and behaviors in
the various contexts within which we and our students work.
- It is about being aware of how we work with others, and
- It is about being aware of how we respond to those who are different from us.
In other words, the work begins with us, not with the Other Person, certainly not with our
students/candidates. Cultural Proficiency is a personally and professionally liberating
approach to doing our work in that we focus on our practice as opposed to any perceived
inadequacies of other groups. Cultural Proficiency is an approach to life and, in our context,
to our profession. For many, Cultural Proficiency represents a paradigmatic shift in thinking.
Cultural Proficiency is a lens through which we view and judge the world. It is a lens that
treats those different from us in such a way that we can help our students develop their
knowledge and skills.
If you are familiar with Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink, he posits that we make
assumptions, knowingly and unknowingly, every 3 seconds! Cultural Proficiency is about
being able to recognize our assumptions. When we recognize our assumptions, we can choose
to keep, change, or rid ourselves of them.
Please hold on to this concept of paradigm shift because when we get to the specific Tools
for Cultural Proficiency, I will provide examples of this shift in thinking.
The tools of Cultural Proficiency align well within the ELCC guidelines for developing
vision and moving to strategic planning. The tools of Cultural Proficiency provide us the
opportunity to examine and change, as appropriate, our:
- Personal and professional values and behaviors and
- Institutional policies and practices.
For those of us who are Professors of EducationAdministration, this approach is not about
what we teach to our students, it is how we view and deliver our work with our students and
the schools from which they come.
There are 4 tools of Cultural Proficiency. I introduce them here and will follow with
examples of each: