Nicole Turner

Supporting Cultural Resilience in Children Through Culturally Competent Practice

The understanding of cultural resilience was not easy for me to

understand. My only reference came through my own life experiences and
what I have been exposed too. Although, my own life has had many ups and
downs and reasons that I would consider myself resilient but nothing in
comparisons to someone who has had to migrate from another country as in
Just Like Us by Helen Thorp or privileges that white Americans feel entitled
too, causing them to struggle with the term cultural resilience found in What
If All The Kids Are White by L. Sparks and P. Ramsey. In the next pages I will
dig deep within myself and the literature provided, those listed above I
Wont learn from You by J. Kozol to define resilience and its role in culturally
developing a childs cultural resilience. I will also evaluate how I can support
and nurture resilience throughout a childs life and classroom.

I grew up in Long Beach CA in a middle class neighborhood. My family

consisted of both my parents and 6 siblings. I being the youngest of the 7,
grew up with a different set of parents than my older siblings. I dont mean
that we had different parents, we just had parents that had a different
amount of knowledge, energy and time. My older siblings had parents that
were just establishing their identity as parents and really didnt have a
foundation on some of the things that were established when I grew up. In
fact, three of my siblings had already moved out of the house and had
children of their own. By the time my parents were parenting me we had
customs and culture enforced in our family life. My parents upbringing had
a strong sense of religion and tradition tied into it and was impressed on me.
We went to church regularly and both my parents loved gospel music. We
would often discussed our lessons and its importance of practicing the
teaching we learned in the bible. This provided me with a set of rules that
was crucial for the strategies and skills I would use for my life. Although the
bible was enforce in my life my parents knew that I would have to come with
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Supporting Cultural Resilience in Children Through Culturally Competent Practice

my own core values. I had to learn to deal with the consequences of choices
that I made in my life.

The choices I made would often times ended up with acceptance and
appreciation but at times ended up with mistakes and disappointments. I
had to learn from them both, I remember a time when I was very young,
around 7 years old. I decided that I would do a 20K walk-a- thon with my
church. I wanted to help raise money for the church. I talked to my family
about this and hoped that they would support me. My mother didnt mind if I
took part but she suggested that I only did half of the 20k. I said, No I can
do it! she tried to explain to me that 20k was very far and that I would be
tired. I was determined, so she let me do it. I raised $200 I was so happy. The
day came for the walk-a-thon, my mother bought me new shoes and socks
and set me up with a group of older teens that were going to do the walk
with me. The signal was given for us to start. We had our maps and water
bottles and off we went. Some of the kids started off running. This was a
surprise to me I thought we were going to walk the entire way. I tried to run
to keep up with them but could not keep their pace. They left me in their
dust. I was very sad and disappoint that the teenagers left me. I ended up
walking with another group of kid and adults. We walked and walked at the
half way point I had huge blister on the back of my foot and I was tired. I
stopped at the resting point and ate an orange and banana given to us to
prevent cramping and loss of energy.

I wanted to take my shoes off but was the advice not to do that
because it would make it worst. I just got up tied my shoes a little tighter
hoping this would prevent the rubbing. As I started walking again I pushed
myself, I knew I had to finish because I had collected the money a dollar a
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Supporting Cultural Resilience in Children Through Culturally Competent Practice

kilometer. Failure results from a mismatch between what the learner wants
to do and is able to do (Kozol pg.6) In my mind I just kept hearing my
mother saying that it was far and that I was going to be tired. She was right I
was tired and I had lost my second group. I fell in line with another group of
people. Everyone in this group was full of complaints and I didnt want to
walk with them so I drifted back. I kept up because I didnt want to get lost
walking on the streets of Long Beach but it took all I had to complete the
walk-a-thon.

I was so proud of myself and so was my family. They said you were
determined, my families affirmation made feel the same as Marisela did
when Mr. Baker encouraged her in Just Like Us (Thorpe) pg.74. He told her
that she was going to succeed, and it is going to feel so much better for you
than it does for other people, because you are going to have to struggle
more. That was my first time understanding cultural resilience. I learned
about self-discipline, consequences, and I learned what it meant to give of
myself. Many of these things we had discussed while doing family bible
studies. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength Phillipians
4:13 NIV and Let your no be no and yes be yes Matthew 5:37NIV. These were
the two scriptures that my parents had pressed on my heart and that carried
me across the victory and on the road to being resilient. I said I would help
raise money for the church and I did. As a result of my walk-a-thon and
through a series of life experience I can proudly share with you my definition
of cultural resilience. It is the ability to be aware that life will give you
challenges, which may come in the form of grief and pain, resilience is when
you are able to overcome the challenges with your dignity and determination
intact. You press forward using all the tools that your parents/culture have
trained you to use.

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Supporting Cultural Resilience in Children Through Culturally Competent Practice

In my pursuit to analyze cultural resilience while reading Just like Us, I

realized that these girls had an entirely different cultural upbringing
than I had. My life never had immigration or illegal crossing the border
family issues. Their value system and family that does not allow
learning through their consequences. Theyre dealing with issues that
came from their parents decisions to provide them with a better life.
They had to deal with their difficult situation because thats what their
lives encompassed. They dealt with issue like not having a drivers
license and the complication that came with it. The two undocumented
girls could open checking accounts, but nobody would take their
checks since neither could show proof of identity nor could they
apply to get credit cards. (Thorpe pg.25) This is a topic that I hope I
never experience. The struggle of not even being able to discuss the
challenges in an open college setting because you cant

trust who is listening and the ramifications of not being legal in the
United States is disheartening. This teaches me about resilience in
conveying empathy and the effects it would have on a persons selfworth. I feel like as I go forward in my teaching I will be more
empathetic and understanding towards families as they parent their
children.

In What if All the Kids are White? pgs. 20 and 21 a list of questions are
given to help deepen my reflection of self-knowledge on the topic of anti-bias
curriculum and multicultural work. The question are in place to really help
teachers/ people to understand and accept difference in cultural rules. I took
the time to answer: What cultural rules and traditions did I practices in my
work place? (pg.20) in working with predominantly Mexican children, I tried
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Supporting Cultural Resilience in Children Through Culturally Competent Practice

to familiarize myself with the Mexican culture. This actually was beneficial to
me because at one point I was married to a Mexican man and my son is half
Mexican. I learned that I didnt understand their catholic upbringing and the
importance and dedication to family. Tradition was based on their catholic
upbringing and their dedication to family was built on these tradition. For
families with Mexican heritage, the importance of Our Lady of Guadalupe as
a patron saint and as the Virgin Mother of Mexico is a prominent feature in
their practice of Catholicism.(Lynch pg.201)My understanding of this helped
me to nurture resilience in the dominant culture at my child care setting. I
began my journey on becoming more compassionate and communicating
effectively. I asked open ended questions with the children and their parents
so that I could better handle and understand when a problem or conflict
arose.I asked questions like How can I nurture your culture and beliefs into
the program? Many of them shared about prayer and Its importance? Many
families also shared that some children may have a hard time because Im
not Mexican and it will be difficult for them even though I speak Spanish. I
realized that with time, most of the children will come around but some may
not. They may decide that they did not want to learn from me. After reading
the book I wont learn from you I even began to recognize this in my own
son.

My son has been diagnosed with ADHD and auditory processing

disorder. These two disorders are a difficult duo. ADHD causes my son to be
hyper in his thinking. His is easily distracted and this makes very difficult for
him to focus. His brain is at all times going. For example; if he is in class and
the teacher is lecturing and an airplane flies over head he get distracted on
the airplane and loses his concentration. Auditory processing causes him to
be delayed in his processing. The two disorders together make the both of us

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frustrated. I have to speak to him in a compassionate and understanding
way. He has to be resilient and focused. Whenever I try to teach him
something he has gotten to the point where he just wont try. Not learning
tends to take place when someone has had to deal with unavoidable
challenges (Kozol pg.6) I know he can do it. He just refuses. So I usually take
a step back and pray for understanding and the correct words that will
encourage him. Usually after a little time, prayer and maybe a reminder that
he can do all things with Christ. He forges forward. We get it done but the
process takes a long time.

I learned that my taking the time to try to understand my son. Being

compassionate of how difficult this must be for him is exactly what he needs.
It taught me the importance of considering peoples stance to wards
learning in the larger context of the choices they make as they create lives
and identities for themselves. (Kozol pg.10) this process with my son makes
us both stronger and closer to one another.

My summary of all my findings and research Ive learned that all

people need to be understood and heard. This can be supported by bringing
culture of all the children, families and teachers into the program. This can
be done by asking questions to become familiar with their culture. Giving
children the opportunity to learn from mistakes and to encourage them when
they make mistakes, help them to see that we all make mistakes it ok if we
learn from them. They can also learn that all some mistakes are made at the
hands of others. Just like in Just like us families may be trying to better
themselves. I think that not everyone learns the same way. We may have to
change it up in order help children involved. I think by putting everyone into
a box or saying this is the only way something can get done is demoralizing
and

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Close minded. The overall objective is that they learn. And its the teachers
responsibility that this happens. So in going forward in my dreams I will be a
little flexible. I will make sure that I am encouraging and clear in what I am
looking for in my teachings and I will be respectful of everyone involved.
Knowing that not everyone is the same.

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