Cultivating the Competence in Culture - embracing the Cultural Competence journey.

What is Cultural Competence?
The Early Years Learning Framework describes Cultural Competence as “much more than an awareness of cultural differences. It is the ability to understand, communicate with and effectively interact with people across cultures”.
 
The team at Diversity Kids believe that Cultural Competence is also about recognising that all children are born belonging to a culture. These children often come to our education and care settings with strong cultural identities that may involve traditional practices, values that they are raised with, celebrations and knowledge.
Cultural Competence embodies Educators taking the time and making an effort to understand the unique sense of culture & belonging that each child experiences within their cultural community and as Educators, working towards creating a care environment that offers a similar sense of belonging (like an extension of the child’s home environment).
 
Cultural Competence has both a visible, tangible layer (including things like purchasing multicultural & Aboriginal resources and embedding these in every day practices, celebrating cultural festivals, inviting Aboriginal people to come and tell stories, translating information for families and so on).
There is also another layer to Cultural Competence that has more to do with our attitudes, knowledge, the relationships we make, the connections we build with our children & families, the way we extend on our knowledge base and our attitudes towards diversity. It includes the way we effectively communicate and interact with children, families & people across cultures.

One of the keys to cultivating Cultural Competence is our ability to view Cultural Competence as an ongoing, integral part of a continuous learning process, a life long journey, rather than a destination.
Cultural Competence and the experience of it varies from person to person and from situation to situation. It requires a growth mindset, a quest for knowledge around cultures & diversity, ongoing reflection that leads to identifying, learning from and implementing new opportunities and putting cross cultural practices into action. In essence, Cultural Competence is an opportunity for limitless learning, an exchange of information, connection and collaboration.

Developing and cultivating your Cultural Competence invites you to begin by looking into your own cultural background – the experiences, values and knowledge of your own culture, family and community history - and recognising that people from other cultures may not share them.
Cultural Competence is also looking at everything through a cultural lens and building that into your everyday practices, policies, programs and philosophies.
 
What are some tips, tools & skills to help Educators become culturally competent?
Diversity Kids has developed a Checklist that describes some of the characteristic attitudes, skills & knowedge required to be a Culturally Competent Educator. Below is an excerpt from that Checklist:
 
Culturally Competent Educators:

Self Reflection:

• Are aware of their own world view.
• Reflect on how their own cultural background influences their belief systems, biases and how they view the world (as a key part of critical reflection).
• Have an awareness of their own cultural values and views and how this may impact on their ability to work across cultural boundaries.
• Engage in ongoing reflection relating to their Cultural Competence and how they build children’s Cultural Competence in the process.

 
Attitudes:

• Respect & embrace diversity and develop positive attitudes towards cultural differences.
• Understand, honour and have a positive attitude to different cultures, languages, traditions, child rearing practices.
• Have an authentic respect for diversity, equity, fairness, inclusion, social justice and the richness it brings to our society.

 
Knowledge:

• Gain and extend on knowledge of different cultural practices and perspectives (through professional development, cultural resources, conversations with families and ethnic communities).

 
Practices:

• Ensure that everyone is on a cultural competence journey including children, Educators & families.
• Help children to become culturally confident, respectful of diversity, Ambassadors of inclusion, social justice and intolerant to racism and injustice.
• Develop strong cross cultural communication skills to communicate and interact across cultures.
• Build strong cross cultural relationships with fellow Educators, children & families.
• Encourage bilingualism & maintenance of children’s culture / home language, including Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander culture and languages.
• Challenge discriminatory viewpoints.
• Are able to participate in intercultural settings on both a personal and professional level. Use resources that are culturally meaningful & relevant.
• Adapt curriculums to children’s ideas, interests and culture.

What does Cultural Competence mean? How do we do it? How do we become it?
Cultural Competence means different things to different people. Everyone’s Cultural Competence journey is unique. We are all at different stages of our journey but the most important thing is that we start this journey and take the small steps, even if at times we feel that our approach wavers on the tokenistic.
Over time, with ongoing reflection, opportunities, practice, perseverance and a commitment to continue the journey, one is able to cultivate their competence around culture. This eventually leads to an enriched journey of cultural confidence with tools & knowledge to better communicate, include and interact cross culturally with children, families and Educators that we work with and in our everyday personal interactions.
 
References:
https://wehearyou.acecqa.gov.au/2014/07/10/what-does-it-mean-to-be-culturally-competent/