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Ryan Brown

Dr. Hittenberger

EDUG 524

26 September 2022

Cultural Humility and Intelligence

One cannot write a paper on cultural humility without knowing what humility means. Not

what it means in the sense that you are familiar with the term and can decipher it through

context, but its actual definition. Much like the words literally or stressed, we can use words so

much they lose their actual meaning and begin to take on what is assigned through

colloquialisms and hyperbole. As such, I started this paper by googling “definition of humility”

and am wrestling with how “cultural humility” and “culturally responsive teaching” can be two

different––albeit tangentially related––practices. Whereas common understandings of humility,

or the act of being humble, would relate to lowered self-worth, a more Christian understanding

of humility is vital to approaching cultural humility and intelligence in teaching. That is, the kind

of humility wherein you do not undersell yourself, but rather recognize and respect all that exists

outside of yourself.

After visiting Westminster and the Acjchamen Blas Aguilar Adobe Museum, I realized

that in order to procure “cultural intelligence” we have to first practice cultural humility. I had to

admit that I had never heard of the Mendez v. Westminster case before attending the Family

Resource center in Westminster and seeing the Mendez Freedom Trail and park. Only after

putting my own understanding (or lack thereof) to the side, was I able to go and interact with the

people and places that are representative of culturally significant events such as this. Similarly, at

the Blas Aguilar Adobe Museum, I learned through the educators’ tour all that had been directly
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taken from the Acjachemen Juaneño Nation; much of this information was new to me despite

occurring so close to home. Cultural humility is the first step in accruing cultural intelligence.

Both of these tours stand to represent the deep cultural background informing just the area of

Orange County. Now imagine all that is still left to learn in Orange County and how this is

impacting students’ lives today. To truly learn about all that is the cultural sum of Orange County

we must, as educators, step into those physical spaces and interact directly with the places and

the experts who can tell the stories that give life and color to what can otherwise risk being

relegated to pages in a textbook.