Increasing Teacher Cultural Proficiency Through Improved Measurement

Background:  Racial and ethnic minority students are disproportionately disciplined at school, as they are more likely than White peers to receive office disciplinary referrals (Bradshaw et al., 2010; Skiba et al., 2008), suspensions (Krezmien et al., 2006), and expulsions (Wallace et al., 2008).  It is theorized that enhancing teacher cultural proficiency may reduce discipline disparities (Lindsey et al., 2003; Hershfeldt et al., 2009). There is increasing interest in stage approaches to cultural proficiency, such as Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS; Bennett, 1986; 2004), which identifies individuals within stages of denial, defense, minimization, acceptance, and adaptation. Similarly, Cross’s (1989) model, the Cultural Competence Continuum, identifies individuals within stages of destructiveness, incapacity, blindness, pre-competence, and advanced competence. These models are potentially useful for guiding professional development (CampbellJones, CampbellJones, & Lindsey, 2010), but there has been limited empirical research applying them to teachers. In fact, research documenting intervention effectiveness in improving teachers’ cultural proficiency is limited, due to considerable variation in measurement.  A measure that reliably identifies teachers on a cultural proficiency continuum could help to enhance school interventions, providing a foundation for progress in the elimination of school disparities. 

Methods: Data for the study came from 201 school staff in five Maryland public middle and elementary schools participating in the Double Check Cultural Proficiency and Student Engagement Project.  School staff were 83% Caucasian, 69% over 30 years old, and 60% had ≥ 7 years experience in education.  Principal components (PCA) and exploratory factor analyses (EFA) were conducted on a 16-item Likert-type measure designed to assess teacher cultural proficiency on a developmental continuum representing an integration of the DMIS (Bennett, 2004) and the Cultural Competence Continuum (Cross, 1989).

Results: PCA of the items assessing attitudes on a cultural proficiency continuum supported a five factor model.  Rotated factor loadings corresponded well to the theorized stages of (1) denial/destructiveness, (2) defense/incapacity, (3) minimization/blindness, (4) acceptance/pre-competence, and (5) adaptation/advanced competence.  Item correlations with an adapted social desirability scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960) were non-significant.  However, internal consistency reliability of each of the stage subscales was quite low (alphas ranging from .365-.613).  Additional results regarding the psychometric properties of the measure as well as categorical analyses of teachers based on the measure will be presented.  

Conclusions:  Study findings suggest that a teacher cultural proficiency scale which captures a range of attitudes and beliefs across a developmental continuum may assess the construct.  However, the items used in the reported measure may need to be enhanced to improve reliability.  Schools could use such an improved measure to identify and tailor interventions and professional development to appropriately respond to teachers’ stage of cultural proficiency.