Cultural Curriculum Chat with Jebeh Edmunds

Season 6 Episode #17: Diverse Classrooms, Unified Goals: Building Cultural Competency in Education

• Jebeh Edmunds

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Cultural competency is a vital commitment for educators, as it fosters inclusivity and equity in diverse classrooms. By embracing cultural understanding, educators can create spaces where every student feels valued and respected.

• Importance of cultural competency in modern education 
• Self-awareness and reflection on biases as foundational elements 
• Understanding cultural backgrounds and traditions of students 
• The need for adaptability in teaching methods 
• Strategies for diversifying classroom curriculum 
• Engagement with families and community to enhance learning 
• Challenges faced in building cultural competency and how to overcome them 
• Inspirational success story of a community cultural event 
• Invitation to enroll in a course on becoming a culturally competent leader

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Speaker 1:

Hello, welcome back to the Cultural Curriculum Chat. I am your host, jeva Edmonds, and today we are diving into an essential topic diverse classrooms, unified goals, building cultural competency in education. Whether you're an educator, an administrator, parent or community advocate, this episode will empower you with insights and strategies where every student feels seen, valued and respected. First, let's talk about why cultural competency is critical in our schools. Today, in 2025, classrooms are more diverse than ever. Students are bringing unique perspectives, traditions and histories into their learning space.

Speaker 1:

However, research has shown that students from marginalized backgrounds often feel disconnected from their curriculum or even misunderstood by their teachers. Cultural competency bridges that gap. It's the ability to understand and communicate effectively. For educators, this means recognizing cultural assets each student brings and incorporating those into our teaching practices. Gone are the days of deficit approaches and learning from the assets that each student brings with them. A key statistic, and I found some research out there that shows that culturally responsive teaching can improve academic outcomes by up to 50 percent from students of underrepresented groups. And so why not leverage cultural competency to help every student thrive? And let's explore more about this by building, by developing our cultural competency.

Speaker 1:

It's not a one-time ask, it's a lifelong journey, and here are some building blocks to help you get started. First and foremost, self-awareness. We need to step back and reflect our own cultural identity and biases. You know you need to ask yourself how does my cultural experience shape my teaching style or interactions with my students? You know you can use the Harvard Implicit Association test. I've used this test in my practice of facilitating diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging trainings for school districts and it has yielded wonderful results. It's free and they don't take your personal information.

Speaker 1:

Knowing and the knowledge of other cultures, familiarizing yourself with cultures represented in your classroom and even your whole student body. This can include language and even your whole student body. This can include language, traditions, holidays and historical contributions. To be exact, for example, if you have a student from an indigenous background. Incorporate those stories and also understand. Some of these sacred stories cannot even be said out loud until a certain season has come to pass, so that you even need to research Is this an appropriate story to share in this heritage? Depending on the time of year that you're sharing that story, all of that comes into play. So being open to learning that and also doing your research about learning those nuances will really go a long way, being adaptable and flexible to learning from your students.

Speaker 1:

As a culturally competent educator, there are rules and rituals and cultural norms that are different than our students that we are used to. In our majority culture there could be funerals that last a week, depending on that student's cultural background. So, understanding and helping that child and that family understand, maybe getting some assignments ready or extending some assignments because of family emergencies or traditions because of the death of a family member in that cultural group. As a culturally competent educator, you're going to have to be willing to adapt to your own teacher methods to meet the needs of your diverse classroom. That's where equity comes into play. How can you be there for student success and access to what they need at the time of where they're at? I really want you to think about how can you build your inclusive classroom.

Speaker 1:

Now we've covered talking about strategies of being adaptable, being knowledgeable and being open and honest by diversifying your classroom curriculum. Having those characters in your literacy library that's primarily not just the sidekick we can get main character energy. Okay, thinking about those types of things. Resources to highlight Checking out the book Culturally Responsive Teaching in the Brain by Zaretta Hammond for practical tips. Love that book. Fostering open dialogue, again, creating those safe spaces that have that we listen and we don't judge energy, and that will go with it. You see what I'm putting up and putting down. I know I can feel my kids eye roll as they're going to listen to this in the future.

Speaker 1:

Engaging your families and communities, you know, partnering with families to understand the cultural backgrounds a simple ask or question and let them show you and share with you what they are willing to share. And there's some things out there where you can host a cultural night and invite guest speakers from the community to share their knowledge. That's something very simple and actionable that you can do. Professional development seeking out outside workshops and webinars and courses that really dive into cultural competency because, as lifelong learners, as we are educators, this is a part of being that lifelong learner, by continuously learning and growing yourself. Challenges when it comes to building that cultural competency in your classroom and how you can overcome them.

Speaker 1:

Starting small I really want you to think about understanding that there will be pushback, like I said in my previous episodes, but to start small and to continue to be consistent in that model will really be helpful, incorporating one new culturally responsive practice at a time. I want you to write down your list of cultural responsiveness tools and then, taking it bit by bit, do a tool that is culturally responsive, one step at a time. Work with your support network. You know, in the years past when we worked in our professional learning communities or our employment engagement resource group, building that support network is really important to collaborate with your colleagues, share your vision for inclusivity, have them have their own insights and strategies to the table as well. Advocating for systemic change, going to your school board meetings, going to your you know parent-teacher associations and really showing the data and the success stories with your administrators. You know, to push for more school-wide initiatives will really be so important in this journey To inspire you with you know a quick story. There are lots of tools in people stepping outside of their comfort zone to do a culturally responsive act and I want to give you an example in my own experience.

Speaker 1:

When I was the director of our African American Cultural Center, we had a curriculum cultural night called Celebrate Africa. It was one of my very excited success stories in my career where we invited and collaborated with our local university multicultural student groups, college students that came in and volunteered their time and brought in their dancing and their drumming, and at the school where our center was housed we had a very diverse drumming group that was doing African and Caribbean drumming and kids of all walks of life participated. So we had these, you know, third through fifth graders drumming. We had our community leaders that brought in their cultural foods from home and cooked it in our kitchen at our school and, you know, really got students involved. The whole school that the center was housed in had students from kindergarten through fifth grade participating in activities and making takes that. I was, you know, instrumental in getting all of our teachers in and involved, and how I did that was the communication to talk about the importance of it, and our teachers were very receptive and excited about it.

Speaker 1:

When you talk about your goals and how you want to see this come about, it was a beautiful experience that we had for multiple years and teachers stayed back after school hours, after their contract time, to enjoy and participate. We had people from all over our city participate, and so it is attainable and it is so beautiful when things come about and that's something I want to inspire you to see how you can create something similar in your school community and just sit back and revel in the joy of when it comes out and comes to be. I want you to understand that cultural competency is not just a skill. It's a commitment to equity and empathy in education, and by embracing the diversity of our classrooms, we can create unified goals that benefit every single student. And before we wrap up today, I want to invite you to take this next step into your journey toward cultural competency by enrolling into my signature course how to Be a Culturally Competent Leader course how to Be a Culturally Competent Leader. This comprehensive program is designed to equip you with practical toolscom to learn more and sign up today.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so very much for joining me on today's episode of the Cultural Curriculum Chat Podcast and if you're watching on YouTube, mrs Edmonds Cultural Corner, don't forget to subscribe. Leave me a review and share this episode with another fellow educator. Together, we can make a difference. Until next time, keep on championing diversity in your classrooms. Bye-bye.