The fellow staff debriefed the Head of Academic Dean about the progress of the interview done to applicants who vied for the job vacancy in the University. The Dean became astonished at certain remarks made about Feather Sharon Eagle. The staff reported that Sharon never used eye contact, seemed evasive, not personable and did not shake people’s hands. The education staff intended to disqualify Eagle Feather Sharon, a young Native American lady majoring in journalism.
Nevertheless, Sharon possessed the skills needed in order to do the work. The staff claims that Sharon lacks personal integrity thus her professionalism is inadequate. This paper examines how academic staff needs to handle this situation. The education professionals should be culturally aware of the multicultural diversity, especially of the American Indian culture which is the origin of Sharon. The staff should know that Sharon’s behavior may be culturally related.
Korn & Bursztyn view that multicultural competence becomes an essential factor which enhances multicultural environment and skills for educational professionals and students of the higher learning institution (2002). Nevertheless, many educators and student affair representatives get inadequate training to handle the complication of multicultural matters. School counselors need to ensure that multiculturalism thrives in the higher learning institutions.
Education professionals need to create awareness and sensitization to promote multicultural issues and to generate skills required to provide significant services to all students. Students should acquire core competence, which entails multicultural matters. Cultural diversity may affect the manner in which students behaves in terms of communication style, eye contact and personal space.
Several students struggle to unite in order to work together. However, such people normally encounter many challenges in their endeavor to interact with one another. The increasing multicultural diversity in the university campus becomes a challenge to be handled by the staff educators. “Issues such as, discrimination and biases, normally happen in the, cultural diverse, community” (Pope, Reynolds & Mueller, 2004).
New knowledge, therefore, becomes an effective answer to tackle such problems. Innovative ways should be adopted to handle individual’s needs in a multicultural society. School counselors and student affair representatives should generate, a more welcoming environment, to handle the discontent perception of all students in the university campus. Multicultural issues need to be integrated into the learning curriculum programs. Student affair representatives should be trained in order to support students from culturally diverse communities. Student affair representatives should be more receptive and sensitive to handle multiculturalism.
Pope, Reynolds & Mueller, claim that any anticipation of what requires quality practice involves awareness of cultural diversity, skills and insight (2004). For example, management and administrative competency forms the significant abilities to finish duties common to student affairs. Such duties entail administrative positions like resource allocation, budgeting and management, task supervision, and strategic panning. Translation and theory entails the competence of detailed insight of different theories essential for students’ progress and development of theories. Moreover, this competency concerns insight that enhances theoretical translations into practices.
Advising and helping competency concerns counseling elements such as crisis intervention, communication skills, society relations, and violence management. Professional and moral competencies involve insight of legal standards and moral implication.
These competencies resolve challenges and make the decision concerning complex moral issues which trouble students. Skills, knowledge and awareness of cultural diversity form an essential core competency that involves awareness of individual’s own values, biases and assumptions; knowledge of worldview of other people; information concerning other cultural communities; and creation of correct intervention strategies. “Teaching and learning is a competency that provides consultation and training of groups and individuals in the learning institutions” (Korn & Bursztyn, 2002). Lastly, assessment and research competency expects professionals to acquire the capability to undertake assessments, self-studies, and evaluation and knowing the implications of the data analyzed.
The implication derived from this experience is to ensure that staff educators get effective training in order to know how to handle multicultural issues in the future. Sharon should not be disqualified by the academic staff. Staff educators should understand and trace Sharon’s behavior from her cultural experience. Multicultural competence is an inventive model for educators that promote multicultural awareness in the learning program of the students’ behaviors. Multicultural competence enhances skills, awareness and insight required, to interact with people who originate from a, cultural diverse, community in a productive and significant way.
Multicultural competence aims to instill multicultural environment in learning institutions. Multicultural competence continues to embrace progressing cultural diversity. Educators and students should acquire skills concerning multicultural competence in order to handle multicultural matters.
References
Korn, C & Bursztyn, A. (2002). Rethinking Multicultural Education: Case Studies in Cultural Transition. Westport: Bergin & Garvey.
Pope R., Reynolds, A, & Mueller, J. (2004). Multicultural Competence in Student Affairs. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.