Cultural Competence and MTSS for Behavior

• What is Cultural Competence?
• Culture and Perceptions of Problem Behavior
• How Can Districts and Schools Become More Culturally Competent
• Cultural Competence at Tiers 2 and 3

What is Cultural Competence?

Culture refers to an integrated pattern of human knowledge, beliefs and behavior that is passed down from one generation to the next. The family stories that each person shares with others contains information about that person’s cultural values and beliefs. Because the influence of culture is so much a part of how we live our lives, it is often invisible to us. Lynch and Hanson (1997) state that:

“The influence of culture, language, ethnicity, and race is always easier to see in other people than in ourselves.” (pp. 24).

An important first step is to become more self aware of one’s own culture and the values, beliefs, and behaviors that reflect cultural perspectives:

“It is not possible to be truly sensitive to someone else’s culture until one is sensitive to one’s own culture and the impact that cultural customs, values, beliefs, and behaviors have on practice.” (pp.55)

Cultural competence refers to one’s ability to think, feel and act in ways that are respectful to others, and that acknowledges and builds on the ethnic and sociocultural linguistic diversity within a given setting. Cultural competence is defined as:

1. Self awareness of one’s own culturally based behaviors, values, habits, and beliefs,
2. Knowledge and awareness of the characteristics of each culture within the school/district, and
3. Skills that enable and individuals to engage in successful interactions.

MTSS will only be effective when implementation efforts are culturally sensitive to the unique characteristics of school team members, students, families, and community members. School teams that are not sensitive to theses cultural differences may experience more challenges in implementing MTSS for behavior. In some schools, students and their teachers have very similar cultural backgrounds. However, many districts and schools are experiencing changing patterns of cultural diversity within the school and community.

It is also important to remember that culture is not static. Culture is dynamic and very individualized. There is just as much diversity within a culture as there is across cultures. In addition, there are many other factors that influence people’s values, beliefs, and behaviors. These include factors such as socioeconomic status, education, personal life experiences, age, personality, and occupations. To assume that an individual has a set of cultural characteristics just because he or she is from a certain ethnicity would be a mistake.

There are many interesting books and articles about cultural competence that highlight cultural characteristics of individuals from different ethnic groups. It is important for individuals to understand that this information is used to help sensitize individuals, not to stereotype. Each person is unique and has had past experiences that have helped shape his or her values, beliefs and behaviors. Creating ways to become more sensitive to each person’s unique cultural background at a district, school and individual level will contribute to the effective implementation of MTSS for behavior.

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Culture and Perceptions of Problem Behavior

Any professional in education can tell you that everyone has a very different perspective about problem behavior. Some teachers respond to a student’s cursing only when it is directed at a peer or adult but will ignore an offensive word when he or she trips over a rock on the playground; however, another teacher immediately sends the student to the office for any type of offensive language.

For this reason, understanding patterns of office discipline referrals (ODRs) can be a great deal more complicated than it first appears. In fact, one of the most difficult processes in MTSS for behavior involves coming to consensus with faculty about what problem behaviors should be office-managed versus classroom-managed. An ODR system does not simply document the individual occurrence of student behavior. Instead, it reflects a complicated mixture of:

• School and district policies and procedures,
• Overall school cultural norms,
• Administrator decisions and leadership,
• Individual school professionals’ cultural views of problem behaviors, and
• Student behavior, as perceived and reported by school professionals.

Schools with strong school-wide discipline systems have clear guidelines for teachers and school staff so that everyone knows when to send a student to the office. These schools have invested in in-service training, and schedule ongoing discussions in staff meetings to address:

• Definitions of major and minor problem behaviors,
• Clear systems and procedures for office- and classroom-managed behaviors,
• Effective classroom management strategies,
• Function-based problem-solving with students, and
• Prevention-focused interventions that reduce the occurrence of problem behavior.

The overall school culture should be predictable and fair for both students and adults. Schools with effective discipline systems review overall ODR patterns in conjunction with student ethnicity data on a regular basis, and share this information with school faculty in ways that are supportive and sensitive to cultural issues. For example, if an analysis of ODR patterns by student ethnicity suggests a significant over-representation of specific ethnic/cultural groups of students, then faculty and administrators may want to review closely how specific problem behaviors are being defined, as well as how some faculty may be choosing to make office referrals for these problems behaviors (while others are either ignoring or choosing to manage them in their classrooms).

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How Can Districts and Schools Become More Culturally Competent

Cultural competence has relevance at all three levels of prevention. At Tier 1, part of the school planning team self-assessment process should include an evaluation of the ethnic cultures reflected within the school and the perceptions of teachers, students, and other school staff of how sensitive individuals are to differences in cultural viewpoints. It is important to make sure that there are individuals representing as many cultures as possible on the school wide planning team. Building cultural competence should make implementation of MTSS for behavior easier. For instance, school staff members who have been working on becoming more sensitive to cultural differences may find it easier to come to consensus when decisions must be made about what problem behaviors are considered major and minor offenses.

School faculty will also be better able to address issues related to the overrepresentation of students from certain ethnicities who are referred to special education, or who are receiving ODRs if they have already become aware of issues related to cultural differences. Tools are needed, however, to be able to evaluate ODR patterns on a regular basis. Software programs that provide visual graphs of ODR patterns should also be providing data on ethnicity patterns related to ODRs. The graphs in the following link are examples of an ethnicity reporting system available in the SWIS program mentioned earlier (www.swis.org).

Click here for an example of how ODR patterns can be evaluated by student ethnicity.

There are many different ways in which to build cultural competence at Tier 1. Some schools spend time organizing events throughout the year that highlight different cultures and the special events and activities that are associated with these cultures. District professional development activities, professional learning communities, and school in-services can be dedicated to discussing and learning about cultural competence.

Materials describing MTSS for behavior within districts and schools should be available in different languages. Survey tools and newsletters can be translated into other languages that are spoken within the school and community. Efforts to share information with family and community members will naturally include these considerations. Some schools have worked with community organizations to be able to provide access to individuals who can translate information into other languages during key events or during individual meetings that family members have with school professionals. School and district teams that have created strong community action plans in MTSS for behavior often have included these types of activities in the plan.

Lesson plans that focus on building student cultural competence have also been designed by school teams. These lesson plans become part of the social skills activities at Tier 1 within MTSS for behavior. Art competitions that highlight cultural diversity, and activities and events led by students are all examples of MTSS for behavior cultural sensitivity implementation efforts. Peer mentoring and supports for children who are new to the country can be additional helpful ways to support students in making progress in both academics and social behaviors.

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Cultural Competence at Tier 2 and 3

Schools which are successfully implementing MTSS for behavior focus on creating a friendly cultural climate for families who are attending school improvement (SIT) or behavior support team meetings. Efforts to include family perspectives and opinions within the school’s overall self-assessment and planning process strengthens implementation efforts, and provides families with a voice as new strategies are put in place at Tiers 2 and 3 within the school. These efforts are meant to ensure that families feel that schools are a welcoming place for their children and themselves.

Part of the planning process for MTSS for behavior at Tiers 2 and 3 should include a focus on cultural competence as it applies to the SIT or behavior support team process. It is common for parents to report that when they attended a meeting about their child’s behavior, they felt intimidated by all of the professionals in the room. They may recall feeling uncomfortable asking questions or disagreeing with something said by one of the school staff. Cultural differences can be responsible for some of these issues.

For instance, team meetings often include groups of school professionals who all know each other. Sometimes a team will forget to do introductions because they assume everyone knows each other already. When school staff members do introduce themselves, the family member may not know what their position or title means. It is very easy to forget that the use of jargon, acronyms, or other terminology can be disorienting for those who are not familiar with the field of education. All of these issues can contribute to family or community members feeling like outsiders in the meeting.

Cultural differences among family members and school professionals can make these feelings of discomfort even more pronounced. For example, in some cultures, it is a sign of disrespect to question someone in authority. As a result, the parent attending a SIT meeting may not indicate that he or she does not agree with something that was said by the school professional. In other situations, a school professional may be asking a mother who is attending her child’s meeting to make decisions about her child when, in her culture, the father makes all decisions as the “head of the family”.

Sometimes, the interventions being discussed may not be strategies that fit the values and beliefs of the student and family’s culture. For instance, it is common for school professionals to encourage students to be self-determined and make decisions on their own. This can conflict with some family cultures that place a strong emphasis on family and group decision-making.

In another example, an educator may tell a middle school student who frequently gets into arguments that escalate into fighting to simply ignore the other student and just walk away. In some cultures, this would be an inadequate and inappropriate response to being shown disrespect by another person. For this student, teaching the student to walk away from an argument may contribute to a feeling of powerlessness.

Improving cultural competence at Tiers 2 and 3 will involve the same types of strategies discussed at Tier 1. Anonymous surveys of family members who have attended meetings can help schools understand how sensitive the teams in a school already are to cultural differences. The school may spend some time creating a protocol or set of guidelines that prompt team members to address cultural issues. Each student team that forms to support a student should spend time understanding the cultural background of the student and his/her family, and the extent to which language or terminologies used might be a barrier to an effective team process. Teams should spend time discussing the cultural views, values, and beliefs of each person participating in the meeting. Including a school professional on the student’s team who is from the same culture can also be a helpful way to support a student and his or her family.

Another strategy used by some teams is to assign one person on the team to look for and identify situations that may be related to cultural differences. This person would be assigned to each team and their assigned task would be to intervene at times that look like further cultural discussions might be needed. Any time a family member looks confused, or a person makes a statement that may reflect a value or belief that may not be held by other team members, the assigned cultural “prompter” would interrupt the team and suggest that further dialogue is needed.

In addition to following these guidelines and assigning individuals to be cultural prompters at team meetings, many schools use positive behavior support strategies (PBS) to enhance cultural competence. PBS refers to a set of strategies used at Tiers 2 and 3 that focus first on identifying the reasons why a student engages in problem behavior. Information is also gathered to better understand the environmental settings associated with both academic and social success, and settings in which the student engages in problem behavior. PBS emphasizes the importance of team-based problem solving, since the interventions should be selected by the people who are responsible for implementation. Interventions are selected based upon group identification and consensus, led by a person with behavioral expertise. Data are then collected on student behavior to evaluate the effectiveness of these plans.

One of the ways in which PBS plans are evaluated is referred to as “contextual fit.” Contextual fit refers to the extent to which family members, school staff members, and other individuals on the team feel that the PBS plan developed fits the values, beliefs, skills, and resources available to team members. Contextual fit is one way in which to evaluate the cultural fit of the PBS plan to the student and his or her team. Additional surveys are often used to evaluate student and parent satisfaction and the extent to which plans improve quality of life for the student and his or her family.

Click here for a power point presentation on cultural sensitivity

Click here for references related to cultural competence

Click here for the cultural competence section of the Resource Library

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