The Culture Flex: Advancing Social Justice in Educational Speech-Language Practices

Purpose: Rooted in Black Language, the authors introduce the “culture flex” as a practice of engaging in social justice work. Social justice is necessary to carry out the vision of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: effective communication as an accessible, achievable human right for all. The purpose of this tutorial is to define and describe a multifaceted conceptual pathway toward social justice–oriented speech-language practices. 1 The authors acknowledge and interweave their positionalities, their own social justice journeys, and educational speech-language practices experiences to explain the “cultural flex” framework as a pathway for enacting social justice. Method: This tutorial will explore existing social justice efforts and conceptual frameworks in the educational institution and current speech-language practices, including cultural responsiveness and cultural humility, and then introduce the concept of cultural flexibility and the implications for educational speech-language practitioners (SLPs). Coined in the education literature, cultural flexibility is defined as a propensity to move across racial–ethnic boundaries. Conclusions: There is a need for authentic introspection from practicing SLP justice seekers, who are currently working to uproot inequity and replant justice within the discipline. A human rights–centered social justice orientation is personal, and practical guidance should encompass explicit discussions of positionality and the impact on one's implementation of best practices serving for historically marginalized clients. The authors present the “culture flex” as a mindset shift, a way of viewing practice that centers culture as an invaluable asset, involves ongoing self-reflection, and empowers professionals to move beyond the discomfort of racial/ethnic boundaries to a tendency to enact social justice.