Launching Hofstede in Education

In the coming weeks and months, I will putting my thoughts to page and blog about the opportunity of applying Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to the educational sphere. I recently became a Certified Associate of Hofstede’s Culture in the Workplace Questionnaire (thank you to ODE Consulting!) and have developed a teacher training in Processing Cultural Differences, and have been thinking more and more about culturally responsive teaching. 

I’ve been through many trainings–I’ve led some–that cover bias, privilege, cultural responsiveness, race, culture, etc. When it comes to explaining what culture is and how to respond, I feel that educators are led with vague generalities or minute details. Facilitators of many cultural trainings are wide receivers, throwing to the 10 yard line and encouraging teachers to learn about their own culture while giving no direction for how to do that. These same facilitators can also be microscopic, talking specifically about THE Somalis, or THE Hmong or THE black community in my home state of Minnesota.

This is where Hofstede’s work comes in. Huib Wursten, international consultant and independent academic, graciously invited me to work with him on a piece he was working on in contextualizing cultural responsiveness IN CULTURE. This is a great foundation for understanding the cultural dimensions that bring tangible beliefs and behaviors across cultural communities to education and cultural responsiveness. Knowing how you show up in these cultural dimensions in relationship to others allows you to be responsive to them. This goes beyond behaviors and norms to the ways of being that creates safety and security in students and in the staff that many educators rely on to bridge the cultural and linguistic divides in schools. 

I would love to hear your responses to this article linked above and these initial thoughts as I get going.