NASP Communiqué,
Volume 28, No. 1, pp. 34 & 38-39.
Adding Culture to the Tools of School Psychologists
by Mittie T. Quinn, NCSP & Evelyn Jacob
© National Association of School Psychologists
Included here
with permission
Miguel, a Salvadoran youngster, experienced anxiety attacks
each March, resulting in aggressive outbursts toward his fellow
students. Repeated phone calls to his parents went unanswered. His
behaviors escalated and ultimately special education evaluators
determined that he was SED (Seriously Emotionally Disturbed).
Meeting the needs of students of diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds
presents a challenge for special education. When called upon to assess
students like Miguel, school psychologists must identify the factors
contributing to the students' performance. Traditionally, school psychologists
have relied on standardized measures. However, as schools in the U.S.
become increasingly diverse, creative and systematic appraisals of
the student's culture, the culture of the school context, and their
interactions must supplement traditional evaluation methods (Baca,
Clark, Figueroa, Kovaleski & Ortiz, 1994). The APA Guidelines
for Providers of Psychological Services to Ethnic, Linguistic, and
Culturally Diverse Populations (1993) suggest that "providers
need a sociocultural framework to consider diversity of values, interactional
styles, and cultural expectations in a systematic fashion."
Challenges in Identifying Cultural Influences
Identifying cultural influences on a student's performance
is not an easy task. School psychologists and child study committees
confront two fundamental challenges in developing culturally sensitive
interventions for special needs populations: the exclusion of certain
factors by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
and the limitations created by categories of disabilities.
IDEA includes the exclusionary clause that states: "children
with specific learning disabilities. . . do not include children who
have learning problems which are primarily the result of . . . cultural
. . . disadvantage." To deal with this definition, many school
systems set up policies or practices to "rule out" cultural
influences. For example, some will not evaluate an immigrant student
for learning problems until the student has been in the U.S. for two
years. This practice assumes that foreign born students need two years
in U.S. schools before they can perform satisfactorily and that after
two years culture no longer influences performance. The problems with
this practice are twofold. First, although a student's performance
may improve during the waiting period, it is also possible that the
student's progress will stall or deteriorate. Second, such a practice
ignores culture as a relevant concern after the waiting period. Moreover,
the practice does not consider cultural influences on the performance
of non-immigrant students.
The second challenge is that school psychologists may rely on "special
education categories" when trying to understand a student's performance
(Mehan, Hertweck & Meihls, 1986). These categories derive from
a medical model of disease and focus on disabilities within
the student as the source of their performance problem. Focusing only
on traditional categories may prevent school psychologists from seeing
cultural influences on the student's performance. As a result, students
who exhibit behaviors and learning problems that do not fit neatly
into a category may be assigned a category, or they may be left in
a regular education classroom (Mehan, et al., 1986).
The result of these two challenges is that the current special education
identification process often under-identifies culturally diverse students
in the pre-referral "waiting" period and over-identifies
those students for placement in special education services (Ogbu,
1993; Artiles & Trent, 1994).
A New Lens
The Cultural Inquiry Process (Jacob, 1995; Jacob, Johnson, Finley,
Gurski & Lavine, 1996) offers a lens to move beyond such challenges
and assists educational practitioners in understanding school difficulties
of culturally diverse students. Using this approach, professionals
frame behavior they do not understand as a "puzzlement"
rather than as a problem. They consider cultural influences that might
contribute to the puzzling situation, rather than focus on child-centered
pathology. To complete the process practitioners gather and analyze
relevant information, develop culturally-based interventions and monitor
outcomes.
Drawing on the Cultural Inquiry Process, we present culturally-based
questions and interventions that could be incorporated into the special
education process: pre-referral, referral, assessment, decision making
and consultation. Consistent with a cultural focus, we present questions
about the school context before those about students.
What cultural assumptions of educational practitioners might
be contributing to the puzzlement?
Becoming an ethnically competent professional involves an awareness
of one's own cultural framework (Flanagan & Miranda, 1996; Green,
1995). Self-awareness precedes an understanding of the subtle ways
that one's own cultural behaviors and values might conflict with the
populations served.
Abra, a Sikh student, had problems in his physical education class.
Abra's teacher insisted that he remove his turban for class. When
Abra refused, the teacher suspended him from class. Discussions with
the teacher revealed cultural assumptions about "dressing out"
for PE which conflicted with Sikh traditions. The PE teacher and the
Child Study Committee explored and discussed the beliefs and artifacts
of the Sikh culture and identified points of conflict with the teacher's
cultural assumptions. The teacher met with the student, discussed
their cultural differences and arranged a compromise for the PE class.
What aspects of the school culture(s) might be influencing the
puzzling situation?
School-level factors, such as competition, can influence students'
engagement in school (e.g., Davidson, 1996; Mehan, Villanueva, Hubbard
& Lintz, 1996). While competition is not inherently good or bad,
when the system is set up so that some must fail in order for others
to succeed, some students (especially those with a history of failure)
may decide to stop trying.
Native Hawaiian students traditionally have fared poorly in Hawaiian
schools. D'Amato (1993) argued that traditional whole-class instruction
is a form of competition because it produces conspicuous winners and
losers in the classroom. He found that when teachers reduced traditional
competition by using small group instruction, permitting students
to overlap their comments and build on others' statements, reducing
criticisms of task performance, and distributing praise more evenly
among students, Hawaiian students were more likely to comply with
classroom routines.
What aspects of the curricula and materials might be contributing
to the puzzlement?
The curricula and classroom materials in most U.S. schools are still
dominated by Euro-American culture. Some students may not be motivated
to do their best if they do not see evidence of respect for their
experience and culture. To address their concerns about poor student
performance, educators in Tucson, Arizona documented the extensive
"funds of knowledge" present in Latino and Native American
communities. Teachers used the information gathered to link the school
and community and to broaden the curriculum. Educators reported positive
outcomes when these local funds of knowledge were incorporated into
the curriculum (González, 1995; González, et al., 1995).
Changes in the curriculum or materials are not always needed. Sometimes
the perception that educators understand and care about a student's
culture is sufficient for change to occur (Paradise, 1994; Erickson,
1993). A multidisciplinary team of educators found this effect using
the Cultural Inquiry Process with Preeti, a recent immigrant from
India, who was socially isolated and had a poor academic performance
(Jacob et al., 1996). The team initially wondered whether different
gender norms and expectations in Indian and American schools might
be contributing to Preeti's difficulties. To gather information a
teacher on the team interviewed her twice, asking about aspects of
Indian culture and Preeti's view of her school experiences. To the
team's surprise, Preeti immediately "blossomed," becoming
more outgoing and performing better in her school work. The interviews
conveyed to Preeti that her teachers respected and were interested
in her and her culture.
What perceived imbalances in power might be contributing to the
puzzlement?
White females continue to predominate in school staff positions despite
recent employment and empowerment of professionals from non-Eurocentric
cultures. Parents and students may feel disenfranchised in this situation.
Recruiting professionals from diverse cultural backgrounds for faculty
and staff positions can help to reduce their sense of powerlessness.
In many schools, neither students nor parents from non-majority cultures
have much power to influence decisions about students' education.
Davidson (1996) found that high school students felt powerless when
they experienced depersonalized relationships with adult authorities
and bureaucratic practices based on adult control. When parents have
little power to influence educational practices, they may distrust
the system and convey that sentiment to students. Involving students
in decisions that affect them (Davidson, 1996) and fostering parental
empowerment in school-level decisions (Harrison, 1993) can promote
student success.
Another aspect of power relationships that may be disrupted by the
special education process is the power hierarchy within the family.
In some situations, students may be utilized as translators. Information
that should be communicated directly to parents is placed in the control
of the student. Parents become dependent on the child for obtaining
important information. This reversal of dependency roles may cause
parents to feel embarrassed and angry. Students' performance may suffer
if parent-school cooperation is diminished under these circumstances.
This highlights the importance of using adult translators for communication
with parents.
What peer (mis)interpretations of the student's culture might
be contributing to the situation?
Sometimes peers negatively judge students because of the clothing,
ceremonies or symbolic behaviors required in their cultures. This
can result in students being ostracized or tormented by their classmates.
Mayim, a Muslim female, received taunts and jeers at the point
that she began to wear a veil. She became depressed and her grades
dropped. An evaluation of the situation and context led to an intervention
that addressed the peer misunderstanding of the requirements of
her culture. The school guidance counselor presented workshops about
the Muslim faith and the meaning of the required dress. Mayim was
appointed as a school patrol, a position of responsibility and respect.
Her depression lifted and her grades returned to their previous
level.
How might the student's facility with English contribute to the
puzzlement?
Although students may have "graduated" from ESL programs
with adequate conversation skills, it may take them as long as 7-10
years to develop the academic language skills necessary to succeed
in mainstream classrooms (Collier, 1989, 1995). Child study teams
should consider that second language learners' academic performance
may be due to insufficient English language skills rather than learning
disabilities.
School psychologists may also find that a lack of proficiency with
academic English interferes with accurate assessment of students'
capabilities. Increasing numbers of assessment tools are available
for use with second language learners. Many non-verbal tests, for
example the C-TONI (Peterson, 1995) and the UNIT (McCallum & Bracken,
1996) have been created, and the use of interpreters is increasingly
commonplace. Dynamic assessment models pose an alternative method
for presenting standardized materials (Jitendra & Kameenui, 1993).
Parents' English proficiency may be relevant to understanding students'
and parents' behaviors. In the case of Miguel, school personnel left
phone messages in English for his parents, which they did not understand.
Their lack of response was not due to a lack of concern, but rather
to a lack of comprehension. When messages were left in Spanish, the
home-school cooperation efforts multiplied. Parents were able to support
school interventions and Miguel's behaviors improved.
What conflicts in styles of communication might be contributing
to the puzzlement?
While assessments have been developed to evaluate the impact of a
second language, there often is less attention to the influences of
communication style. Cultural groups vary considerably in their norms
for communication (Heath, 1982; Taylor, 1989; Irvine & York, 1995).
For example, cultural groups can indicate respect in a variety of
ways such as averted eyes, bowed heads, or female silence in public.
The definition of personal space and physical contact can carry different
meanings. Cultural variations in the meaning of silence or the format
of questions can also influence communication behavior.
In one situation, volunteers working in an inner city school
with African American students routinely asked students to "look"
at them when they were speaking. Frequently the students were reluctant
to comply and on one occasion a student cried. A better understanding
of the culture revealed that eye contact with adults was made primarily
in situations where the adult was shaming or blaming a student for
some misdeed.
Misinterpretations and conflicts between the interactional styles
of school staff and the student can contribute to academic problems.
Changing classroom or consultation styles to be more culturally compatible
can contribute to improved academic performance (e.g., Osborne, 1996;
Vogt, Jordan & Tharp, 1993). Showing respect in nonverbal fashion
for the culture of the parents will facilitate a long and profitable
relationship that will in turn benefit their child.
How might conflicts between home child rearing practices and
school routines be contributing to the puzzlement?
Child rearing practices may affect many aspects of student's behavior
in school. Miko's dependence on a teacher for completing class work was
traced to the family practice of caring for the child, including
carrying bookbags or the child himself to school. These customs
provided Miko with mixed messages about school requirements. By
addressing the apparent over-dependence as a culturally based phenomenon,
a very different intervention was developed than might have been
if Miko's school behaviors had been framed as emotional insecurity
or anxiety. In this case, the Assistant Principal met with the mother
and student and asked that Miko carry his materials and walk under
his own power on school property.
What conflicts between the student's beliefs and those of the
school might be contributing to the puzzling situation?
Home values and religious beliefs may contradict norms of the
school culture. Matthew's teacher found him to be disrespectful
and rude and reported that he had ongoing difficulty with the all-female
school staff. His problems escalated to the point that his teacher
thought that he had serious emotional difficulties. Taking a cultural
perspective, the school psychologist linked Matthew's behavior to
his cultural beliefs about the role of women. Following consultation
with school staff and family, his teachers gained a different perspective.
Like parents who try not to react when a child says, "I hate
you," the teachers learned to depersonalize Matthew's comments
to them. Matthew and his parents met with the teacher where he observed
them demonstrating respect for his teacher's authority. He also
participated in counseling where he learned to express his feelings
and beliefs in more socially acceptable ways.
How might cultural identities and the meaning of school and school
success be contributing to the puzzling situation?
An example of how cultural identity can negatively affect school performance
is clearly demonstrated in Fordham and Ogbu's (1986) research that
showed that some African American students in the District of Columbia
interpreted high academic achievement as "acting white."
Students often negotiate multiple cultural identities. Wu (1996) describes
the problems created for Korean immigrants who are a part of the "1.5"
generation. These are students who immigrate during their adolescent
years. They identify strongly with their country of origin, yet are
thrown into American schools and encouraged to affiliate with age
mates who are more acculturated. Students who come from bicultural
families also have complex cultural identity.
School programs can help students negotiate multiple identities and
develop cultural identities that are consistent with school success
(Abi-Nader, 1990; Mehan et al., 1996). The AVID "untracking"
program, for example, has helped low-achieving students from poor
and non-majority backgrounds develop an academic identity and also
affirm their cultural identities (Mehan et al.,1996). AVID accomplishes
this by bringing students together in a daily class that provides
a variety of academic supports, facilitating friendships among academically
oriented students, and providing markers of group identity. Similarly,
Gibson (1993) found that with Punjabi students, the best school outcomes
occurred when students maintained ties to their family identity and
felt support for selective rather than total acculturation issues
to negotiate.
What significant events in the current or recent history of the
student's country of origin might be contributing to the puzzling
situation?
The impact of a nation's misfortunes continues to impact on immigrants
long after their arrival in the U.S. In schools that incorporate numerous
cultures and countries of origin, school personnel should be sensitive
to students from countries that are in adversarial positions. For
example, Korean and Japanese students may experience difficulties
in cooperative learning groups as a result of historical conflicts
between these two countries.
In the case of Miguel, questions about his spring activities revealed
that the family continued to identify strongly with their home place
of El Salvador. Additional questions about their leisure pursuits
revealed that each spring the family traveled to El Salvador to deliver
food, medicines, money and even a car to family members left behind.
Miguel's behavioral deterioration corresponded to departures for this
war-torn country. Further consideration of the cultural identity of
this family and the political situation in their homeland might have
precluded the erroneous labeling of Miguel as SED.
How might variations in the meaning of disability or special
education be contributing to the puzzling situation?
Although cultural factors may be at the heart of some school puzzlements,
there are culturally diverse students who have learning problems that
are addressed through special education. Because special education
draws from a medical model, beliefs about medicine and healing impact
on this process. Many cultures link mind and body, that is, cognitive
difficulties may be attributed to physical illness. Families from
some cultures may request a prescription from a physician to cure
the learning difficulty. These students may turn to a "doctor"
to prescribe a solution. Such individuals are not accustomed to asking
the school for healing.
After placement, new confusions may arise that are the result of conflicting
beliefs about special education. Morris (1997) found that the meaning
of "learning disability" differed among boys from three
different cultures. Latino boys from El Salvador viewed LD as an internalized,
negative characteristic similar to retardation, which negatively influenced
their self esteem. European American boys viewed LD as an "intrinsic,
neurological impairment" that was biologically based and therefore
existed through no fault of their own. African American boys equated
LD with the academic support received in that program, which they
saw as something that could ultimately help them achieve high school
and college degrees.
Conclusions
In an increasingly diverse population, school psychologists are in
a position to take the lead in transforming the way culture is taken
into account in understanding and addressing students' needs. The
stance and questions derived from the Cultural Inquiry Process offer
a useful lens through which to understand students from diverse cultures.
Such a lens can help school psychologists distinguish between cultural
and intra-child influences on students' school problems.
The preceding discussion highlights several important points related
to cultural influences. First, culture is not just something that
students bring to school. The cultures of school personnel, the school
and interactions among these cultures and those of students can influence
students' behavior. Second, more than one cultural influence may be
operating in any situation. In Miguel's case, for example, the language
used by the school in communicating with his parents and significant
events in Miguel's home country both contributed to Miguel's situation.
Third, taking a cultural perspective can be extended to understanding
parents' as well as students' behavior. Because parental attitudes
and behavior can influence students' attitudes and behavior, a culturally
sensitive understanding of parents can have positive influences on
students.
In sum, adding culturally based questions and interventions to the
tools of school psychology will facilitate the creation of an environment
where all students--including those like Miguel, Abra, Preeti, Mayim,
Matthew and Miko--may achieve their fullest potential.
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Mittie Quinn, MA, NCSP, is a doctoral student and Evelyn Jacob,
Ph.D., is on the faculty of the George Mason University Graduate School
of Education.
Cultural Inquiry Questions:
Student Name Country of Origin:
Date of Birth:
Number of Years Child in US:
Cultural Identities:
Use the following questions to guide your identification and investigation
of cultural influences that might be contributing to your puzzlement
about a student.