Title: Cultural Integrity and Social and Emotional Competence Promotion: Work Notes on Moral Competence.
Abstract: Cultural Integrity and Social and Emotional Competence Promotion: Work Notes on Moral Competence* This paper describes evolving conceptual and programmatic efforts to promote African American children's social and emotional competencies. It focuses on moral competence and uses a proposed cultural psychology framework to highlight the cultural theme of communalism and a morality of care. Various types of moral events are identified and knowledge of moral emotions and moral self-efficacy are offered as key constructs. The implications of these factors and racialized oppression for moral behaviors in school and community contexts are explored. These insights lead to a discussion of competence promotion strategies for school and extended-hour contexts. Over the past few years, Howard University researchers at the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At-Risk (CRESPAR) have been working on a variety of education research and development projects which primarily target African American children and youth. These projects are guided by the Talent Development philosophy, which asserts that all children can learn when provided with the appropriate supports (Boykin, 2000). Further, rather than adopting the prevailing cultural deficit approach, projects assume that there is coherence and purpose to the African American experience. This cultural integrity perspective seeks to illuminate and capitalize on an underutilized pool of authentic knowledge, preferences, skills, and abilities to enhance educational processes and outcomes for this population. Such an approach requires CRESPAR researchers and practitioners to develop collaborative relationships with local stakeholders. These relationships allow for access to, and appreciation of, existing perspectives and competencies of children, families, school personnel, and community residents. Moreover, genuine collaboration translates into a shared vision of realistic program goals and effective implementation processes. With some notable exceptions (e.g., Hill, Hutchins, & Carr, 1994), the work of CRESPAR has focused on school reform activities that improve academic motivation and achievement. However, it is clear that the educational process for African American children and youth must be altered to actively attend to the whole child. School-based social and emotional competence enhancement programs have been shown to reduce risk and promote desirable developmental outcomes (Catalano, Berglund, Ryan, Lonczak, & Hawkins, 1999; Weissberg & Greenberg, 1997). From a risk prevention perspective, African American children could benefit from such programs since they are placed at serious risk for an interrelated set of problem behaviors, including academic underachievement, school dropout, substance abuse, aggression, and delinquency. Moreover, a cultural integrity approach would necessarily link academic success with personal and collective wellbeing. Such an approach to social and emotional competence moves beyond limited notions of simply preparing children to find their prescribed place in the existing social order. Rather, it promises to help children realize their potential and responsibility to struggle for cultural, sociopolitical and economic self-determination, and empowerment within the American participatory democratic system. This paper describes evolving conceptual and programmatic efforts to promote African American children's social and emotional competencies. Determining the developmental imperatives for African American children is an essential step in crafting competence theory, research, and practice for this population. However, this is an admittedly complex undertaking. To make this task manageable, this paper focuses on moral competence, which entails the knowledge, sensibilities, and skills needed to assess and effectively respond to ethical, affective, and social justice dimensions of a situation (Catalano, et al. …
Publication Year: 2001
Publication Date: 2001-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 11
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot