NASP Home > NASP Resources > Cultural Competence > Six Domains of Service Delivery
Six Domains of Culturally Competent Service Delivery
Summarized by Emilia C.
Lopez, Ph.D., NASP IDEA Cadre Member, and based on Rogers et al., 1999*
I. Legal
and Ethical Issues
- Knowledge
of local, state, and federal laws and regulations, awareness of litigation,
and understanding of ethics
- Advocate
for public policy and educational law
II. School
Culture, Educational Policy, and Institutional Advocacy
- Knowledge
of aspects of organizational culture that promote achievement and mental
health for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students
- Ability
to play a leadership role in the implementation of supportive interventions
for CLD students and their families
III. Psychoeducational
Assessment
- Knowledge
of and skills in assessing CLD students, including consideration of variables
such as environment, social issues, language development, second language
acquisition, acculturation, educational history, quality of educational
program, SES and racism
- Understanding
that normed tests may not be a valid measure for English Language Learners
(ELLs) due to inappropriateness of norms, scores reflecting English proficiency,
product as opposed to process orientation, fairness of content, and differences
in educational background, acculturation, and economic situation
IV. Academic,
Therapeutic, and Consultative Interventions
- Skills
in multicultural counseling and cross-cultural consultation
- Knowledge
of multicultural education, ELL programs, and school culture/culture of
staff and students
V. Working
with Interpreters
- Knowledge
of recommended systemic practices,
including guidelines from professional organizations
and national and state policies, and plans
for hiring, training, and managing interpreters
- Knowledge
of recommended practices for interpreters translating for parent conferences,
including using school personnel and community members as interpreters (never children or family members)
VI. Research
- Knowledge
of research related to culture and language issues and ability to conduct
research that is sensitive to cross-cultural issues
- Awareness
of Emic-Etic distinctions (Emic: behaviors or views that are common to
an ethnic or minority group; Etic: aspects of human functioning that are
more universal to peoples across cultures)
*Rogers, M. R., Ingraham, C. L., Bursztyn, A., Cajigas-Segredo, N.,
Esquivel, G., Hess, R. S., & Nahari, S. G., &
Lopez, E. C. (1999). Best practices in providing
psychological services to racially, ethnically,
culturally, and linguistically diverse individuals in the schools. School
Psychology International, 20, 243-264.