Cultural Competency

Culturally competent educators are able to interact effectively with people of different cultures, primary languages, and socioeconomic backgrounds. In adult education, we work with a strikingly diverse groups of learners. Our classrooms are full of learners who differ by age, (dis)ability, physical and mental health, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, formal education, basic skill proficiency, and work and life goals, and who have varying levels of family/community support. Ours is no easy task!

In order to create effective conditions for learning, we need to be well aware of our own knowledge gaps and implicit biases, and work to deliver instruction in ways that are anti-racist, culturally responsive, trauma-informed, and pedagogically sound. ATLAS bases its efforts around cultural competency on the following sources:

Equity Statement – Minnesota Adult Education

The state office of Minnesota Adult Education offers the following equity statement, one that ATLAS works to support through our efforts related professional development:

The state Adult Education office is committed to creating educational equity.

• We commit to recognizing the historical conditions and barriers that have prevented opportunity and success in learning for students based on their race, class, and other identities.
• We commit to working to dismantle the belief in a hierarchy of human value, with a focus on racial equity.
• We commit to fostering positive and effective learning environments for all by eliminating institutional policies that uphold oppressive systems of power and privilege.
• We commit to collaboratively creating a learning community within the adult education system that promotes opportunities for self-reflection, growth, and change.

We see adult education as key to building educated, engaged, and just communities for all Minnesotans.

Cultural Competency – PELSB

In addition to the Minnesota Adult Basic Education office, PELSB (the Professional Educators Licensing and Standards Board) states:

Cultural competency training means a training program that promotes self-reflection and discussion including but not limited to all of the following topics: racial, cultural, and socioeconomic groups; American Indian and Alaskan native students; religion; systemic racism; gender identity, including transgender students; sexual orientation; language diversity; and individuals with disabilities and mental health concerns. Training programs must be designed to deepen teachers’ understanding of their own frames of reference, the potential bias in these frames, and their impact on expectations for and relationships with students, students’ families, and the school communities.