Cultural Competence Training & Products

Pre-Designed Tools for Schools and School Districts

Pre-Designed Tools to Help Make You, Your School and/or
Your School District Successful

Woven Traditions offers a variety of pre-designed tools to interweave into your core business. Making use of each will help you and your organization better sustain, embed, measure, chart, and display growth. Additionally, we can and will tailor a unique design with “your in mind.” There is no one size fits all!

Just a sampling of tools are listed below. Please click on the links below to read a brief description of the tools described here.

For a complete listing of tools & customized designs with you in mind, please contact us today.

Contact us by calling (513) 834-5349 or send us an e-mail…

School Diversity

Assessments, Rubrics & Action Plans

  1. Assessment of Cultural Competence (Post)
  2. Assessment of Cultural Competence (Pre)
  3. Building Character and Cross-Cultural Intelligence (Pre & Post)
  4. Employee Satisfaction & Workplace Climate Survey
  5. WT Cultural Awareness Profile CAP
  6. Bus Driver Climate Survey
  7. Faculty, Staff and Parent Survey of Character Education
  8. School Climate Survey: Family
  9. Self-Control Curriculum Survey (Family/Community
  10. Self-Control Curriculum Survey (Teacher Response)

A checklist of 27 specific, best practices of observable behaviors that reflect culturally responsive teaching through examples. Practices which support the belief that teachers can’t allow students to have to leave their cultures at the door. This tool can be used as a self-reflection or by an external observer to become more aware of incorporating equitable practices.

The Equity Action Plan contains goals and measurable outcomes designed to promote fairness and inclusive values for all members of the organization, and more specifically, to increase opportunities for underrepresented and underserved groups. Organizations need to incorporate their mission, vision and purpose and overarching equity goal into the plan in order to make it a reality.

The purpose of equity walks is to sharpen and focus the instructional leadership lens and allow the gathering of observational data to confirm or challenge assumptions regarding school improvement and equity in the building(s). Equity walks support ongoing monitoring of implementation. The observational data remains tacit unless there is intentional, collegial feedback to staff to engage them in reflecting on instruction and assessment. There is a “to promote learning conversations” section on the template for the observer to write comments during the observation to use later with the facilitator of learning; to have dialogue later about furthering his/her learning.

This tool allows for: a tour and evaluation summary conducted by a team of representatives selected by school personnel to help gather information on whether families and community members feel they are welcomed partners in the school. Results provide the school with information on how inviting the school appears, which will allow the school to implement new strategies to make the school more family friendly and improve parent engagement.

Research has established the importance of cultural competency in improving students’ academic and behavioral outcomes. As a result, educators are increasingly focused on identifying effective methods for growing culturally responsive practices in K-12 education. This report discusses specific areas of focus and key strategies for building cultural competency among district staff. The analysis provided in the Findings section addresses the issue at the levels of both institutional practice and individual professional development.

This learning instrument will provide you with an opportunity for assessing and reflecting on your capabilities and desire for developing leadership skills.

The self-assessment rubric contains six dimensions, each which includes a set of components that characterize the dimension. These represent the key areas to examine in order to institutionalize diversity, equity and inclusion.

The purpose of equity walks is to sharpen and focus the inclusion efforts and instructional lens through the gathering of observational data to confirm or challenge assumptions regarding school improvement and equity in buildings. This tool gives students the opportunity to evaluate how inviting our school appears, feels, and reflects a commitment to inclusion. It can also help to point out various areas that may have been previously overlooked and can be easily addressed.

Professional Learning Tools

Being culturally proficient, in a nutshell, means one who embraces the notion of being able to interact effectively across cultures and across races. In order to be culturally proficient, one must be able to effectively communicate across cultures. Practice of this skill must be purposeful and intentional. One of the most important things to consider when doing your core business within an organization is mastering the art of cross-cultural communication. It is crucial for you to be equipped with a thorough knowledge of the cultural, business, and social customs of the people (and country) with whom you are meeting.

Communication Themes include: Conflict, Decision Making, Negotiation, Gender, Gestures, Greetings, Ice Breakers, Second Language, Seeking to Understand, Self-Awareness, Style Differences, and Team Process. It is important to highlight that virtually all of these activities will help participants understand that their own preferences and their perception of those who communication style may be different. Participants are encouraged to take the perspective of the other in achieving greater understanding and effectiveness. Removing the barriers of misperceptions and building the bridge of perspective-taking are key elements in effective communication.

A plethora of resources related to cultural proficiency. Some of which are easy to facilitate, others not so easy, some complicated, some more straight-forward. We have put together what seems to us to be the most logical, succinct, introductory set of activities based on original observations and the work of others. The activities are presented in the booklet with the outcomes in mind first (i.e., behaviors), then the knowledge which provides a depth to understanding and justification for behaviors, and finally, attitudes.

The Toolkit is intended to be introduced to High School learners offering safe parameters to have critical conversations about race and culture, reinforce the learning, comfort level and commitment made at the learning exchange. Facilitators of learning should feel free to use the tools provided in any community setting where others are willing to engage in critical conversations about race and culture.

If I assume that because someone behaves differently from me that he or she has different goals or values, I could be wrong. If I assume that because the person behaves similarly we share the same goals and values, I could also be wrong. This is a critical distinction in developing cultural proficiency.

If my assumptions that others are “like me” or “not like me” are based on what I see, I may be led down the road to misperception, misunderstanding, negative judgment, and conflict. The only way I can know what goal-driven (terminal) values other people hold is to ask them, listen to them, observe them, and generate multiple interpretations for their behavior; other words, get to know them.

Recognition
The booklet begins with a section to help participants to understand core concepts related to culture and cultural understanding. New and adapted exercises build awareness of how cultures form, the importance of perspective-switching, and the nature of culture change. This section focuses on activities that help people understand these cultural differences.

Respect
How we define ourselves, culturally speaking, is the focus of the next section. This set of activities includes introductions, icebreakers, and exercises that take people on a learning journey to understand, articulate, and negotiate their cultural identities, which will help individuals respect cultural differences.

Reconciliation
The next set of frameworks and exercises in this booklet are designed to help individuals moving across cultures to plan for and manage their transitions effectively. It updates one of the most established areas of cultural competency work with fresh thinking and ideas on how to prepare people for cultural transitions.

Realization
The activities in the last section of this booklet have been developed expressly with the goal of building global teams as one of the ways to create realization. This section contains a single tool – one designed for professionals who do cultural competency work. One of the best ways we can help others is to continue to help ourselves in the journey of cultural competence building.

The activities found within this document allow an opportunity for participants to engage, interact, and reflect through an equity lens. The provided strategies help keep cultural differences in mind when serving a diverse group of people.

This toolkit is constructed to support you and your community in creating a plan and action steps for intervention and maintenance of a more accepting culture. The toolkit provides resources to support you in working through the impacts of a crisis within the school, as well as creating intervention and maintenance plans outside of a crisis. This model is community-based and relies on the participation and voices of the school community.

If I assume that because someone behaves differently from me that he or she has different goals or values, I could be wrong. If I assume that because the person behaves similarly we share the same goals and values, I could also be wrong. This is a critical distinction in developing cultural proficiency.

If my assumptions that others are “like me” or “not like me” are based on what I see, I may be led down the road to misperception, misunderstanding, negative judgment, and conflict. The only way I can know what goal-driven (terminal) values other people hold is to ask them, listen to them, observe them, and generate multiple interpretations for their behavior; other words, get to know them.

This guide focuses on de-escalation strategies and proactive solutions for working with kids and young adults with challenging behaviors. Teachers, support professionals, administrators, and other adults can use de-escalation techniques when working with kids and young adults. Kids and young adults who become agitated, upset, and aggressive more frequently need adults who understand and utilize de-escalation strategies in times of stress. These strategies help kids regain control of their own emotions so they can effectively problem-solve any challenges that arise.

Most people are not born with innate leadership abilities. Therefore, it is practical for participants to engage in some leadership development for their personal lives and careers. Activities focused on leadership help current and potential leaders to realize their potential. The various activities focus on different aspects of leadership and can be used to introduce leadership lessons, lift up the atmosphere and bond with the crowd. Many of the activities teach and reinforce more than one skill.

The activities:

  • Teach participants to find their type of behavior and how to overcome any negative aspects and how to enhance the positive;
  • Build confidence and teach how to handle different groups of people as well as learn to lead others to do things for themselves;
  • Teach how to work with others as a team. These skills will work in any environment and build up the group as a whole so that each participant can move forward.

The Woven Traditions Leadership curriculum integrates all of the skills you need to lead with impact and drive breakout performance for your organization. The 10 modules address the following critical areas: Build Trust, Credibility and Respect, Building Employee Engagement, Supportive Coaching and Directive Coaching (16 pgs.), Delegation (9 pgs.), Developing Personal Leadership (17 pgs.), Ethical Leadership (12 pgs.), Leadership Communication (20 pgs.), Leading Strong Teams (15 pgs.), Motivation (13 pgs.), and Share the Glory (12 pgs.).

A one-of-a-kind professional development that helps participants to strengthen their abilities to lead a professional development series that centers on qualities of an effective leader through five modules:

A portrayal of ten traits necessary to lead in a culturally competent organization. Leaders cannot effectively lead and manage people if they cannot understand their cultures. While everyone needs to be more culturally competent, a larger burden is placed on leaders to develop these skills because they are in positions of power that can impact outcomes for those that they lead. If leaders are not able to discern patterns of cultural difference in their own and other cultures, their interpretations of behaviors may lead to erroneous decisions.

  1. Learners and Courageous (24 pgs.)
  2. Data Driven and Transparent (26 pgs.)
  3. Inclusive and Sensitive (12 pgs.)
  4. Connected and Strategic (12 pgs.)
  5. Enthusiastic and Realistic (25 pgs.)

Practicing Cultural Proficiency in the Moment provides a structure to begin meaningful conversations about race, culture, bias, privilege, and power. Leaders will discover how to facilitate learning through the four steps – awaken and assess; apply and act; analyze and align; advocate and lead – as participants:

  • Increase their awareness of privilege and bias,
    Adapt your professional practices to meet the needs of all learners,
    Examine policies and practices that inhibit opportunities for marginalized populations, and
    Align resources to eradicate inequity in the school environment.

DYKP facilitator’s offer advice on establishing a safe environment for professional conversations, setting goals for cultural proficiency, overcoming resistance, reviewing school data and the school’s vision and mission through a lens of race and culture, and strategically managing what can be a transformative yet uncomfortable change process. Practicing Cultural Proficiency in the Moment responds to the urgent need to build the cultural proficiency of educators – for the sake of children and in the interest of supporting and retaining all educators.

The planning process is purposeful, intentional and customized for each organization served. It is the goal of the facilitators for Did You Know Publishing, Inc., to keep its customers broadly informed regarding leadership development. The plan serves as a blueprint to highlight the goals and objectives for the training and indicates how growth will affect learning.

Activities for not just appreciating diversity but going beyond appreciation to embracing it. In other words, appreciating the difference that difference makes.

A format for ‘Small Group Table Discussion’ focused on Racism, Discrimination, and ‘High Expectations’ for learners.

We offer 20 strategies/activities to facilitate the learning with our 21st Century learners, in order strengthen our relationships with them. Our perspective, as conveyed throughout the document, is to begin first by asking and then listening.

Connecting through stories to have bold, courageous conversations around diversity, equity and inclusion through a lens of Cultural Competency.

Although there is a great debate about what acquired knowledge facilitators of learning need to fully connect with their learners, (1) Focusing on culture; the backgrounds, heritages, and traditions of their learners and; (2) Focusing on specific instructional methods for identified cultures; we have always been hesitant to share more specific instructional methods because of the stereotyping risks. But because of the numerous requests we receive from educators in our trainings, we have decided to compile information about what research says, to help satisfy this inquiring need by facilitators of learning.

Organizational Success

The Curriculum Guide was created to “translate” Woven Traditions© into a training experience with opportunities for discussion and practice. The comprehensive Curriculum Guide is best suited for the educator who has familiarity with Culturally Responsive, Standards-Based teaching. More experienced educators can validate and share knowledge and practice with fellow educators with less experience.

The guide is all-inclusive; focusing on critical fundamentals, offers a variety of assessments for administrators, teachers, and learners, address cultural audits – examining the learning environment, cultural proficiency standards for teaching and learning as well as strategies to enhance the existing curriculum to reflect cultural diversity.

The Standards and Benchmarks represent a current national consensus about the most important, observable aspects of leaders’ work. The Standards and Benchmarks are an important component of a coherent system of leadership development and serve as a resource to recruit, train, guide, and support high-quality leaders.

Did You Know Publishing, Inc. embraces a conceptual framework and model for achieving cultural competence based on the seminal work of Cross et al. espoused in a monograph entitled Toward A Culturally Competent System of Care Volume 1, originally published in 1989. Did You Know Publishing modified the Cross definition as follows: Cultural competence requires that organizations:

  • Have a defined set of values and principles, and demonstrate behaviors, attitudes, policies, and structures that enable them to work effective cross-culturally.
  • Have the capacity to (1) value diversity, (2) conduct self-assessment, (3) manage the dynamics of difference, (4) acquire and institutionalize cultural knowledge, and (5) adapt to diversity and the cultural contexts of communities they serve.
  • Incorporate the above in all aspects of policymaking, administration, practice and service delivery, systematically involve consumers, families and communities.

Our decision-making framework is a six-step model with a L.I.F.E. test and was originally designed for use in groups and organizations. However, there is no reason why you cannot use the same method, or a simplified form for decision-making at home. The important aspect is to go through all the steps in turn, even if only to decide that they are not relevant for the current situation.

The Cultural Competency Framework provides a practical and operational set of indicators/guidelines to assist educators in defining what cultural competence means and the developmental process towards it.

If you appreciate and are a fan of quotes, the chances are you are open to things in life, open to learning, and open to changing things you are not satisfied with. Hence, you are focused on cultural competency. The quotes are listed under 14 different topic areas which are beneficial to culturally competent leaders. All areas are applicable to the field of education, while the majority of them are applicable to all other types of organizations. The 14 subject areas are: Inspiration, The Art of Teaching, Children, Character, Managing Change, Advice for Life, Pearls of Wisdom, Motivational Quotes to Put a Smile on Your Face, Inspirational Leadership, Work-Life Balance, Success, Encouragement for the Soul, Communications, and Creating a Culture of Excellence.

The questions are intended as sample questions, and do not constitute a required list. These are examples that hiring departments and search committees can use to help them assess candidates’ commitment to and experience with Cultural Competency; creating inclusive and equitable educational and workplace environments.

Use this tool to learn how to use competencies and assessments to identify and develop high potential employees.

The Woven Traditions “train the trainer” model focuses on practical, proven, leading-edge techniques and strategies that both new and experienced trainers can use immediately, with success.

When families, educational services, schools and communities work together in positive and collaborative ways, a child’s capacity to achieve their learning potential is significantly enhanced – and so is their general health, wellbeing, positive outlook and sense of purpose in life. These resources are beneficial for learners and their families, as well as school personnel.

Student Learners

“Leadership Skills for Youth Development,” is a curriculum developed by Did You Know Publishing, focused on teaching “soft” or workforce readiness skills to youth. The curriculum is targeted for youth ages 3 to 21 in both in-school and out-of-school environments. The basic structure of the program is comprised of modular, hands-on, engaging activities that focus on six key skill areas: communication, enthusiasm and attitude, teamwork, networking, problem-solving and critical thinking, and professionalism. It is a year-round resource for emerging youth leaders; an essential tool for youth and young adults to prepare for leadership in and out of the classroom. It is also a beneficial curriculum for schools/organizations focusing on Entrepreneurship.

It has been said that knowledge is power, and if that’s true, then too many Americans lack the power to control their financial futures. Success rarely comes accidentally; it is the culmination of a journey whose first steps are in education.

One of the obstacles to increasing financial knowledge is what has been called the “Lake Wobegon effect,” the idea that we all consider ourselves above average. It is a self-assessment that keeps many from learning as much as they need to. But whatever your knowledge level may be, it should be recognized that an ever-evolving financial landscape puts a premium on continual learning.

The Woven Traditions Personal Finance Curriculum was designed for individuals, with the understanding that the more informed they are, the better the decisions they can make.

The Curriculum features: An Instructor’s Manual, Learner’s Manual, Pacing Guide, Glossary [Personal Finance Vocabulary – The Language of Business] and Enrichment Activities to support the learning with the standards.

A learner who masters the knowledge embodied in the standards should be able to avoid making poor financial decisions, understand the economic reasons behind the trade-offs between financial choices, and know the basis for their own decisions.

This peer mediation handbook for grades 4-12 will provide you with materials and resources which will be beneficial in designing, building, implementing and sustaining the peer mediation process.

Peer mediation offers important strategies for 21st century skills critical thinking and problem solving and fosters an empowered sense of ‘self’ in learners as well as rich opportunities for contributing to the overall school climate.

The process within this manual is based upon seven essential skills that learners need to learn as they train to become mediators, as well as some resources to support your efforts.

The 21st Century Skills Cultural Competency & Character Development Career Portfolio, a pre k – 12th grade process; is an exit document that prepares learners for their next steps after high school or college. It provides employers with information about the learner. Preparation of the portfolio gives learners 21st Century skills they will use as they transition from one phase of their lives to another. These 21st Century skills include oral communication, information processing, critical thinking, media literacy, creativity/innovation, global awareness, cultural competency, problem-solving, teamwork/collaboration, self-directed learning and leadership.

Conversation starters to engage learners in reflecting upon specific issues, allowing freedom of expression, the opportunity to construct new meaning, recognize perspectives of others, build relationships and take action for the purpose of making a difference.

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