Season 7 Episode#21 Debunking Common Myths About Cultural Competence Training

Welcome back to The Cultural Curriculum Chat with your host, Jebeh Edmunds! In this episode, we're pulling back the curtain on the most common myths about cultural competency—and why they’re holding back real progress in our schools, organizations, and communities.

💭 Have you ever heard someone say:

• “Isn’t cultural competency just common sense?”
• “We treat everyone the same—why do we need training?”
• “Isn’t this just Diversity 101?”

If so, this episode is for YOU. Jebeh breaks down:

• Why cultural competency goes far beyond food, flags, and festivals
• The difference between diversity (the who) and competency (the how)
• Why a one-time workshop won't cut it—and what sustainable, meaningful practice really looks like
• Real client stories from Jebeh Cultural Consulting’s 5-year journey, working with 80+ organizations
• How to build inclusive systems through reflection, action, and culturally responsive leadership

💡 If you're ready to ditch performative practices and start implementing actionable, long-lasting change, don't miss this empowering conversation.

👉 BONUS: Learn more about Jebeh’s mini course: Cultural Competency & Being an Active Ally—a self-paced, ready-to-use resource for schools, workplaces, and teams. Link in the show notes!

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Transcript

0:36

Welcome back to the Cultural Curriculum Chat, where we explore strategies to help educators, leaders, and organizations build more inclusive spaces. I'm your host, Jebeh Edmunds, and today we are pulling back the curtain on some of the most common myths about cultural competency training. And if you've ever thought. Isn't cultural competence, just common sense, or we don't need training, we treat everyone else the same. Well, this episode is for you. We are going to be debunking common myths about cultural competence training. So starting with myth number one, cultural competency is just diversity 1 0 1. Cultural competency isn't just the flavor of the month, or just knowing holidays and food traditions. It's about skills communicating across cultures, recognizing your own bias and the bias around you, and creating those systems that support equity. Diversity is the who, but competence. Is the how. And a really good example, I worked with a client and it was a nonprofit group, and they really wanted to get to the crux of the how, how do we put this into practice? And I came up with. Wonderful equitable practices that they could do. For example, cultural humility practices where they could look in and reflect what was their culture and their way of life, and how that translates in the workforce, as well as how it also translates into understanding their colleagues into a more deeper level. Now, this wasn't just a. Diversity one-on-one type of a feeling. This was a practice that helped the. Employees and the leadership get together to find out what those blind spots were and how we could create our cultural norms of understanding at work in meetings. Also, we created cultural norms in their policy and their handbook by going in and deciphering what worked and what could be changed and tweaked. To continue to go forward. Now we work together as a collective, and that's another thing with cultural competency. It can't be a trickle down thing where leadership tells you one new initiative and no one. Understands the why we are doing this and what is the priority. Now, don't get discouraged, especially in this day and age in 2025, where people are running the opposite direction of cultural competency and inclusion work. It is still work and it is still happening, and what we say in our field at Jebeh Cultural Consulting is we are creating. Resources that fits your organization. We take the customized approach to work alongside you and your organization to give you those bite-size actionable steps that are sustainable. So yes, that is one thing of those myths that we talk about of cultural competency, that it's just diversity 1 0 1. It's much deeper than that. Another example that I've worked with with my clients, and I'm so proud to say we are five years in with Jebeh Cultural Consulting and we have trained over 80 for-profit and non-for-profit organizations and still counting. And your girl did it? Just her one, just herself. And it is so affirming to work with my current clients and past clients to. Continued this work of Jeb. Is this something that we continue to work on with our staff, or is there something new, a new resource that you found that we continue to put into our practice and I'm so excited to help organizations and schools as well, doing this valuable work. Now if your school or workplace wants to go beyond surface level diversity and start developing skills to thrive across differences, check out my mini course. Cultural Competency and Being an Active Ally. It's a powerful self-paced resource for teens and individuals, and you can find it on my website in the show notes. Now we are going to myth number two. It's a one time workshop. Honey cultural competency isn't a checkbox, it's an ongoing practice. We go over policies, hiring practices, leadership pipelines, and classroom strategies needed. For constant reflection and action. And you might be thinking, Jeb, I have been reflecting to death and you haven't been, but I feel you. It can feel overwhelming. You might be thinking, oh great. Now another journal. But what I have for you, my dear, is we have on my website, you can get. If you're a classroom teacher, if you are working in non-profit or for-profit sectors or you just wanna do the work yourself. It is so great with these mini courses that I have. You get a tutorial video where you've got me walking you through. You've got a guidebook that has these, set it and work on prompts that you could use as discussion prompts. In your workforce, I've got you covered, and it's so easy to digest. You've got things that are easy to recognize and understand, and easy to practice. I've got scenario cards that you can literally use right then and there that opens up those discussions for you and your team. I know we have all been there when we've gotten to go to that one time workshop just to fulfill an HR requirement or to fulfill your cultural competency trainings, uh, for your. Education, uh, portfolio and your license. And there are those that are pretty stagnant and lagging, but for me, they're very engaging. You work with your staff, you work with your team. There are scenarios. There's um, I even have, um, case studies that we actually look at and see and compare and contrast what works with some groups and what doesn't and how we can create. Critique our own selves. And that's something when we talk about reflection and the leadership pipeline of what has worked and what hasn't, and how are we going to be courageous enough to make that happen. And with my practice, we do more than a one-time workshop. I walk you through within six to nine months if you want to hire me as a. Retainer ship client. And that is something that we really go in depth. And if you'd like more information, check out my website on jebba edmonds.com. There is a tab that talks to you about working with me specifically, and I have to say a lot of my. Clients in the past have really come away with the cultural competency training. I have one, uh, client here that said they had the opportunity to hire me to present their de and I, um, at a larger event via WebEx. So I do a lot of work online, especially virtually. They said that she worked with us to tailor her presentation to specify our group. She's extremely intelligent, but also extraordinary and down to earth. Her story and insights are profound, but very easy to absorb and relate to. Received a lot of really positive feedback. One of the attendees emailed me right after the presentation saying Her story is incredible. This is literally the best training ever. And this was. A US county that I worked with specifically doing some de and I work, um, they said that they appreciate the most about my work is that I present myself and the material in such a disarming and charming way, and you come out of the experience not only having learned a great deal, but with a profound respect and admiration for her as a person. So thank you. To this county, St. Louis County, shout out for you for this work. Um, I worked really hard with them closely in getting their training to fit specifically their needs, That's just one of the many testimonials that I have, and I could be here all day, but I'm not gonna do that with y'all. But just wanting to give you that. It does not have to be a one and done workshop. It can be and should be a series of things that can continue to work and build up of your knowledge and the skills. And you might be asking me, well, Jeb, what about. How do we know that we can continue to be sustainable with our efforts if we've got a high turnover rate with our staff, and this is something that you can create and I create with you a system of trainings that you can continue to rinse and repeat with your new hires. You can also. Continue to utilize and go back to with your staff to sharpen those things that you want to continue. For example, your implicit bias work or the power perceptions and how that looks like with your staff and with the. Community that you serve. I even have a community engagement course that you can work with, that you can continue to see how do I outreach the, the community and the clientele that I serve on a day-to-day basis. I have the materials right there for you on my website, the the next segment that I wanna share with you. Myth number three. When it comes to cultural competency work, it doesn't impact our bottom line or our student success. That is the biggest excuse in the book. Oh, it doesn't have our priority for our student success, and what do we need? And the data does prove it. And I do show you the data. Inclusive environments reduce turnover rate. It boosts employee satisfaction and retention. And in schools, it raises engagement and achievement. Cultural competency isn't just the right thing, it's the smartest strategy that you have in there. You can do this work. I understand. I was a classroom teacher for over 10 years. I understand all of the priorities, the standards and benchmarks. You can infuse this into your standards and benchmarks, so you keep it in the forefront of your priority. There are so many, um, things that you can do in the classroom, and I've got lots of that in my, cultural Competency Education lab. We talk about our morning meetings and our catch-up meetings at the end of the day, and how you can have open-ended questions to understand your students, see them and meet them where they are. I've got all of those examples. Just waiting for you right at your fingertips already done for you because I understand a 30 minute prep time is not enough time to prep you for your students every single day. And I got you covered. I want you to think about those three myths. Cultural competency is. Just diversity 1 0 1. Not true at all. You really gotta figure out your own self and you gotta figure out the folks around you. What makes you work. Your diversity in yourself makes you work, but also honoring. How different each and every one of you are in your workplace goes a long way. When you see your person that you're working alongside, you're seeing your clients, you're seeing your students as more than just that number, that barcode, that data point. You really get to understand the stories behind their families and the people in the community around you. Myth number two, it's a one-time thing. A one-time workshop. It is not just a one-time workshop. This is a lifelong practice, so you need to go slow to go far. When you see a one-time workshop and you ask your leadership in your workplace. Can we do this again in three months or can we do this again quarterly? And they kind of give that, uh, I don't know if we have it in the budget. That's a red flag for you right there. It shows you that that topic of cultural competency is not a priority. It's just something to do to fulfill your HR requirement or to fulfill your educational license. There's more to that. If you do this more in practice in your professional learning communities, your PLCs if you had it once a week, you can infuse a quick questionnaire or quick milestone that you can continue to monitor and it should not just be a one-time workshop. Myth number three, it doesn't impact our bottom line or our student success. It sure does impact your bottom line and your student success. So many of us practitioners in this field are shaking our head going, you are thinking this isn't going to impact and it is going to impact you negatively if you are not on the right side of history. You have to do the right thing by doing this strategy. It is so smart. The more people see your courage of trying to go across diversity in thought, going across diversity in your own identities. Working together and seeing and valuing each other as individuals will really make your bottom line go even higher in your dividends, and it will yield to more student success. If your student notices that you see them as a student and not your own implicit bias hindering their success. I want you to take your knowledge in this bite-size episode, share this with a comrade, share it with a colleague that really wants to understand more of cultural competency and trainings that are available. Thank you so much again for listening to. Cultural curriculum chat. Let's debunk myths together and build understanding and create those spaces where everyone can thrive. Don't forget to check out today's links and I will see you next time. Bye-bye.