(c) Photo courtesy of Aukram Burton

Welcome

The Institute for Cultural Competence and Courageous   Practice: Working Together for Inclusion, Equity, and   Excellence is facilitated by Gary Howard, author of We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know: White Teachers, Multiracial Schools (Teachers College Press,  2nd ed., 2006)

Since 2007, the JCPS Department of Diversity, Equity and Poverty Programs has offered the Institutes for Cultural Competence. The Institute is designed for teachers and administrators to learn the theory and practice of cultural competence. The focus is on the deeper work of personal, professional, and systemic transformation for the purpose of achieving social justice and equity in our schools.

The Institute requires a four-day commitment by at least three people that is centered on "training the trainer" and building cultural competence leardership teams in each participating school. It is required that a principal or assistant principal serve as a member of the team.

Understanding and Practicing Cultural Competence

JCPS is one of the many large urban school districts nationwide faced with an increasingly diverse school community. The concept of cultural competence has been at the center of the campaign for educational equity since the struggles of desegregation. Cultural competence is not static, rather it is an on-going developmental process.

It is imperative that we increase our efforts to become a culturally competent school district and develop resources to facilitate meaningful dialogue discussion in schools and classrooms. JCPS will continue to build capacity for cultural competence through professional development initiatives that will help to engage administrators, teachers, students in discussions about the diversity represented in our district, as well as in our city, state, nation, and world.