Post-Conference Review
Cultural Competency in Judicial Education

At NASJE’s 2009 National Conference, Michael Roosevelt of the California Administrative Office of the Courts and John Martin of the Center for Public Policy Studies facilitated an in-depth discussion among session participants of Martin’s recent Court Manager article “Becoming a Culturally Competent Court (John Martin, Marcus Reinkensmeyer, Hon. Barbara Rodriguez Mundell, and Jose Guillen “Becoming a Culturally Competent Court,” Court Manager, Vol. 22 No. 4).”

Many salient points were discussed, including:

• The concept of culture is broad and deep. It encompasses behaviors and language, such as appropriate dress and attire, how people display contrition, and styles of written and verbal communication. Culture also encompasses values and norms, such as the meaning of respect, justice, fairness, compliance, and family. Moreover, the concept of culture includes fundamental assumptions about essential aspects of life, including assumptions about time, the causes and treatment of illness, gender roles, human nature, and human motivations.

• To operate effectively and serve increasingly diverse populations, courts must deal with multiple types of culture including professional, organizational, ethnic/national, and intergenerational cultures.

• Courts and American justice have a culture and the content of the culture is heavily Anglo/European. For example, built in to American justice are notions that illness is largely organically based and thus can be treated medically, people can be motivated to alter behavior by punishments and rewards, and judges and other persons of authority within the court and justice system should be listened to and obeyed because of the positions they hold and the important roles they play in society.

• Cultural competency means both understanding and working with your own culture and the cultures of those you serve. Cultural competency means first understanding where, how and why culture matters and understanding the content of court culture. Cultural competency also means developing individual, organizational, and system capacity for culturally appropriate service delivery that helps individuals successfully navigate the courts, process information, make wise decisions, and understand and comply with court orders.

• Working with culture effectively means working with key processes that shape how the courts work and why they do what they do.

• Becoming culturally competent courts is not a program but a way of organizational being and life.

• Effective learning about cultural competency requires integrating materials about culture with the practical realities of court operations.

• Effective learning about cultural competency requires making the topic accessible to judges and court personnel in a variety of training forums that use a variety of adult education techniques.

Copyright 1999-2012, National Association of State Judicial Educators
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