Pre-Designed Tools for Schools and School Districts

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.