ABSTRACT
Cultural competency has become so popular that the National Educators Association has identified three areas in which cultural competency can be implemented as policy: 1) preservice education, 2) ongoing professional development and 3) licensure. Culturally competent teachers are educators that recognize student academic success can be achieved without students losing their identities. However, social and racial identities can blur the line between self-identity, group identity and academic identity. Because cultural competency is difficult to quantify, research has not answered the question if culturally competent teaching is a correlation or causation of academic success. This chapter implores educators to think of cultural competency as a component of academic achievement and consider it part of good teaching practices that include supporting a student’s self-identity and academic identity.
