Cultural Competency

AUDIENCE:
Administrators, Faculty & Staff

RATIONALE:
School Districts are under pressure to better prepare pre-service and veteran teachers, especially those who work in urban schools.  One strategy is to give prospective teachers the knowledge and tools to relate to learners who come from a different background.

Additionally, districts are charged with improving, graduation rates, inappropriate behavior, attendance, workplace skills, college and career readiness and more. 

faculty

Evolving demographics shifts means acquiring the skill of cultural competence not solely for the facilitators of learning but to be able to pass it on for learners as they are expected to navigate this global world, we live in. For many districts Cultural Competency means restoring confidence and gaining public trust in your living, learning and working environment. Thus, improving enrollment numbers.

The WT PD experience has the appropriate level of breadth and depth to make a positive difference.  Research on professional development for equity and multicultural education confirms that short-term workshops are impractical and even counterproductive (McDiarmid, 1992).  We recommend 15-30 hours of *Professional Development coupled with 8 to 10 hours of classroom/schoolhouse support sustained over several years.

GOALS:

  1. To allow participants the opportunity to pause and reflect upon one’s own cultural identity and views about difference, and the ability to learn and build on the varying cultural and community norms of others.
  2. For participants to have the ability to understand the within-group differences that makes each person unique, while celebrating the between-group variations that make our country a tapestry.
  3. Provide participants the opportunity to successfully negotiate cross-cultural differences in order to accomplish practical goals using four main components:  Awareness, Attitude, Knowledge, and Skills.

OBJECTIVES:

To be engaged in a genuine pursuit to work more effectively in a culturally diverse school environment.  To be a culturally competent individual with CharACTer who is able to:

  1. effectively interact cross-culturally
  2. recover from inevitable cultural collisions
  3. be inclusive in decision making
  4. consider knowledge about learners’, family members’ and co-workers’ cross-cultural differences
  5. be inclusive and appreciative of the beliefs and values of learners, family members and co-workers
  6. be aware of how one’s personal biases and stereotypes impact relationships with others
  7. be committed to modeling their learning about cultural competency for others

AUDIENCE:
Elementary Level Learners

21st Century Skills Cultural Competence & Character Development Portfolio:

For elementary learners, it prepares them with 21st century skills including oral communication, information processing, critical thinking, media literacy, creativity/innovation, global awareness, cultural competency, problem-solving, teamwork/collaboration, self-directed learning and leadership.

elementary student

For facilitators of learning, this curriculum supplies a natural infusion of suggestions for elementary children to help learners build upon basic knowledge of character traits which include but is not limited to self-control, diligence, kindness, love, faithfulness, respect, and thankfulness.

It is supremely important that educators help their learners become critical thinkers in the 21st century.  In regard to Character Education, facilitating the learning by having our learners become familiar with traits is just the beginning.  Our curriculum helps learners to build upon that basic knowledge so that they begin to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the character traits they want to have.  This is the key to helping them grow and prosper in school and beyond.

Impact of the Portfolio on Learners:

The learning opportunities provided through the Woven Traditions Cultural Competence Character Education curriculum (Pre-K -12) assist in preparing our learners with global competencies.

The activities require learners to:

  1. investigate the world,
  2. recognize perspectives,
  3. communicate ideas,
  4. and take action.

The curriculum was created with the following outcomes in mind to assist learners to be College and Career ready in Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, & Language.

The curriculum requires the learners to: use complex knowledge, engage actively in the learning, incorporate assessment of self as part of the learning process, connect prior knowledge with new information and incorporate multi-disciplinary learning including the arts.

Benefits of learning with a Culturally Competent Character Education Portfolio Approach: 

  1. The portfolio is not an ‘add-on’ as it is aligned to the State Standards. Learners will delve deeper into content areas.
  2. Students will discover they are in charge of their learning. The work is designed with those ‘soft skills’ in mind, which include: collaboration, higher-level thinking, multi-level abstract thinking, problem-solving, technology, and service-learning projects. So naturally student attendance will improve because they will want to be there!
  3. Requires deep learning on behalf of the student: reading critically, creating goals and devising strategies to achieve those goals, applying learning by completing service-learning projects, refining debate and research skills and effective communication – both orally and in writing.

Audience: Middle/High School Learners

21st Century Skills Cultural Competence & Character Development Portfolio:

For middle school and high school learners this living document continues to prepare learners for their next steps after high school and college.  It provides employers with information about the learner. Preparation of the portfolio gives learners the ‘soft’ 21st century skills they will use as they transition from one phase of their lives to another.

These ‘soft’ skills include oral communication, information processing, higher-level thinking, complex processing, divergent thinking,

high school students

creative thinking, critical thinking, multi-step habits, problem- solving, skills in media literacy, creativity/innovation, global awareness, cultural competency, teamwork/collaboration, self-directed learning and leadership.

Within the portfolio there is a natural infusion of character traits which include but is not limited to self-control, respect, responsibility, courage, fairness, honesty and integrity.  Character Education creates a learning environment that allows teachers to facilitate the learning and students to learn and reinforce the expectations of family and community and what parents do at home.

Impact of the Portfolio on Learners:

The learning opportunities provided through the Woven Traditions Cultural Competence Character Education curriculum (Pre-K -12) assist in preparing our learners with global competencies.

The activities require learners to:

  1. investigate the world,
  2. recognize perspectives,
  3. communicate ideas, and
  4. take action.

The curriculum was created with the following outcomes in mind to assist learners to be College and Career ready in Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, & Language.

The curriculum requires the learners to: use complex knowledge – refining reasoning and decision making skills, engage actively in the learning, incorporate assessment of self as part of the learning process, connect prior knowledge with new information and incorporate multi-disciplinary learning including the arts.

Benefits of learning with a Culturally Competent Character Education Portfolio Approach: 

  1. The portfolio is not an ‘add-on’ as it is aligned to the State Standards. Learners will delve deeper into content areas.
  2. Students will discover they are in charge of their learning. The work is designed with those ‘soft skills’ in mind, which include: collaboration, higher-level thinking, multi-level abstract thinking, problem-solving, technology, and service-learning projects. So naturally student attendance will improve because they will want to be there!
  3. Requires deep learning on behalf of the student: reading critically, creating goals and devising strategies to achieve those goals, applying learning by completing service-learning projects, refining debate and research skills and effective communication – both orally and in writing.