MC-3 Cultural Responsiveness
Summative Assessment Example: Cultural Autobiography Assignment
Assignment Instructions
Students should choose 5 items from the cultural autobiography category list (Vontress et al., 1999) and describe how the particular topic or construct impacts their own identity as a person embedded in one or more aspects of culture.
For each of the 5 items selected, students should address the following prompts:
- Write a thorough description of their own socio-cultural identity based on the selected construct.
- Reflect on how their identity and experience may impact their future clinical practice
- Generate questions on their own, in dyads, or with a group to encourage broad exploration of the construct with a client or patient.
Finally, students should write a 1-2 paragraph summary about their ideas for culturally responsive clinical practice Professional literature must be referenced where appropriate. See grading rubric for guidance on composition.
Guidance for Instructor
The cultural autobiography is designed to encourage exploration of personal identity through intentional reflection on different categories related to culture. An instructor may add to or modify the categories to fit the needs of the class. Additionally, this activity may be completed in small group discussions in which students reflect, then share their story as it related to the category or construct.
Grading Rubric
| Skill being assessed | Criteria | Score | |||
| 1 Needs Work | 2 Beginning | 3 Developing Proficiency | 4 Proficient (for a BHSS student) | ||
| Composition | – Writing is deficient in all areas including organization, punctuation, and grammar. | – Writing is adequate with several errors in organization, punctuation, and grammar. | – Writing is acceptable with a few errors in organization, punctuation, and grammar. | – Writing, including punctuation and grammar, is accurate, organized, and focused on selected topic | |
| Exploration of personal identity | – Avoided self-exploration and/or provided minimal information | – Engaged in some self-exploration related to topic with minimal depth. | – Evidence of self-exploration into one’s personal identity – Lacked discussion of interaction with people or environment | – Demonstrated depth of reflection on one’s own identity and interaction with one’s environment | |
| Impact of personal identity on clinical care of diverse patient population. | – Did not address intersection between personal identity and clinical care of diverse populations | – Attempted to link personal identity awareness to clinical care with minimal attention to impact | – Evidence of link between personal identity and clinical care with satisfactory attention to impact | – Demonstrated understanding of intersection between personal experience and clinical practice | |
| Questions for clinical practice | – Did not formulate meaningful and/or respectful questions for clinical practice | – Attempted to formulate questions with missed opportunities based on self-reflection | – Satisfactory effort to formulate questions for clinical practice with one or two missing opportunities | – Formulated questions for patient or client that are open-ended and encourage exploration and discussion | |
| Summary | – Demonstrated lack of awareness for assignment and ability to reflect on personal constructs | – Summary touched on key themes and missed several identified in body of paper | – Summary addressed key themes with opportunities to elaborate on how guidance may be applicable to future practice | – Summary identified key themes in previous writing and provided useful guidance to future clinical practice | |
Cultural Autobiography Category List
(Vontress et al., 1999)
- Your name
- Place of birth
- Racial-ethnic-national heritage
- Education (Racial-ethnic mix of schools you have attended)
- Religious institutions (Racial-ethnic-cultural mix of the institutions where you have been a member)
- Neighborhood (Racial-ethnic-cultural mix of the neighborhoods where you have lived).
- Travel at home and abroad (If your travels have brought you in direct contact with racially and/or culturally different people)
- Languages spoken and/or studied
- Your workplace (Racial-ethnic-cultural mix of the place where you work)
- Social activities (Do you engage in social and/or recreational activities with people who are racially and/ or culturally different from yourself?)
- Work history (Have you ever worked around racially and/or culturally different people in the military or civilian sector?)
- Your teachers and professors (Have you ever had racially or culturally different teachers or professors?)
- Employers (Have you ever had racially or culturally different employers?)
- Your profession (Do you now or have you ever worked alongside, taught, supervised, or otherwise been in charge of racially or culturally different people?)
- Cultural experience (How do you feel around people who are racially or culturally different from yourself?)
- Course work (What academic courses have you had that are related to racial or cultural differences)?
- Other (List and or discuss anything else that would help a person understand your level of exposure to racial or cultural differences. For example, a spouse or an intimate friend who is racially or culturally different)
Cultural Autobiography Category Item Description Example
1. My name
My name is Conan Kane O’Reilly. I am named after my paternal grandfather Conan Disher who was a second generation American of Irish and English ancestry. My middle name is based on a family legend. My maternal great, great grandfather known only as Kane, was reportedly a great warrior and served the royal family of Hawaii. The story of Kane has been passed on through oral tradition. While I have not been able to verify the story, I recall being swept up in the magic of my grandmother’s tales as a child. O’Reilly is a paternal surname that includes my great, great grandfather Brian O’Reilly who immigrated to the United States in 1886. An interesting aspect to my name is that while certainly related to Irish ancestry, it does not tell the whole story of my racial and ethnic identity. While my father’s side of the family is of European ancestry, my mother identifies with Hawaiian, Japanese ancestry. I identify racially as mixed race and my name frequently ignites questions from acquaintances such as “why do you look Asian?”, “where are you from?”, and “are you adopted?”.
My name is significant in that in some places, I am afforded the privilege of mixed-race identity and in other places I am questioned, suspect and sometimes invalidated due to the perceived mismatch between my name and my racial/ethnic appearance. My name tells something about me and sometimes leads to assumptions that I am a person immersed in Irish culture. In fact, I know little about Irish culture other than the date of St. Patrick’s Day. My mother practiced many of her Hawaiian and Japanese ancestral customs with us growing up including respect for ancestors and elders, education, and community. She was very close to her mother Akiko Kusaki with whom I was very close as a child. The interior design of our house was infused with both Western and Eastern art. I will allude to language in another section; however, my name may imply I am monolingual when in fact I speak conversational Japanese.
Relevance to clinical practice and questions:
In my opinion, appearances and superficial information never reveal all of who a person is, including their values, beliefs, customs, language, and culture. One of the BHSS competencies is to use inclusive language to engage patients in care. I think this is accomplished by reducing barriers to self-identification. I can facilitate this process by asking open ended questions such as “what name would you like me to use to identify you?” or “my pronouns are he/him, what pronouns do you prefer I use with you?” or “tell me about your racial and ethnic identity as you understand it.” I don’t expect every patient to understand the intent of these questions. If a patient reacts confused or uncertain, I can further explain that my intent is to learn about them on their own terms versus my assumptions and invite the patient to talk about their personal identity when they are ready.
Reference:
Vontress, C. E., Johnson, J. A., & Epp, L. R. (1999). Cross-Cultural Counseling: A Casebook. ACA Distribution Center.