Culture, Diversity, Disability and Families:

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Culture, Diversity and Us
Considerations for Special Education
Paraeducators
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Paraeducator Development Plan Menu
Directions This menu is a tool for you to use as
you progress through the Paraeducator Course.
Whenever you come across topics about which you
would like more information, place a checkmark
next to the topic and indicate in the Notes
column any specifics (for example, in 1 indicate
which disability). For each topic checked make an
entry in the Paraeducator Personal Development
Plan.
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Para educator Development Plan
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Local Policy

• Your local school district, IU, preschool or
  employing agencys policies regarding
  paraeducator job descriptions, duties, and
  responsibilities provide the final word!

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Agenda

• Learner Outcomes and Purpose of Training
• A Look at Statistics
• Cross Cultural Competency and What It Entails
• Culture
• Diversity
• Stereotypes
• Values
• Communication Styles

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Learner Outcomes

• Participants will
• Define own culture and beliefs
• Examine how our values and beliefs influence
  interactions with others
• Explore communication styles and their influence
  on working with others

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Statistics National Census

• White not Hispanic 75.1
• Hispanic 12.5
• Black 12.3
• Asian and Pacific Islander 3.7
• American Indian, Native Alaskan 0.9
• Taken from census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t1/ta
  b01.pdf

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Statistics A Look at Growth

• 2000
• Total 281.4m
• 199.7m White
• 10.5m-12.8m Asians
• 34.6m-36.4m African Americans
• 31.8m36.4 m Latinos

• 1990
• Total 248.7m
• 211.5m White
• 7.3m Asians
• 30 m African-Americans
• 22.4 m Latinos

Taken from U.S. Census Bureau www.census.gov/stata
b/www/part1a.html
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Statistics 1 out of 10 are foreign born
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Statistics 2 of 3 of the worlds immigrants come
to the US
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Statistics1 out of 3 people are of non-European
heritage
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Statistics 3 out of 4 US immigrants are from
Asia, Latin America or the Caribbean
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Towards Cross-Cultural Competence
Use of knowledge and understanding to promote
positive relationships
Commitment to the lifelong process of developing
intercultural understanding
Recognition of ones own culture
Identification of shared cultural traits
Knowledge about other cultures
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Cross-Cultural Competence -

• Is the ability to feel and act in a respectful,
  comfortable way with others who come from
  different backgrounds be it different social
  backgrounds, linguistic backgrounds, or cultural
  backgrounds.
• Is on-going because culture is dynamic, we meet
  different people everyday.
• The process of cross-cultural competence is a
  life-long voyage.

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Cross-Cultural Competence Culture

• Way of life of a group of people
• What everybody knows that everybody knows
• A shared world view
• Values and beliefs
• Roles and responsibilities
• Standard of behavior
• Preferences

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Cross-Cultural Competence Culture

• A way of perceiving, believing, evaluating, and
  behaving
• A framework that guides..lifes practices
• Is learned, shared, and is always changing.

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Cross-Cultural Competence Dimensions Of Culture

• Objective Culture
• Visible
• Artifacts
• Subjective Culture
• Invisible
• Values and beliefs
• (Triandis, 1972)

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Cross-Cultural Competence Ethnicity

• Group classification
• Based on a common origin, history, heritage,
  customs, language, religion and other cultural
  factors
• Exists because groups use it to organize
  themselves and to categorize others.

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Cross-Cultural Competence Race

• Based on physical characteristics
• More intragroup then intergroup variation
• Historical labels
• Black or Negroid (Africans)
• Dark or Mongoloid/Malayan (Asian and Pacific
  Islanders)
• Red (American Indians)
• White or Causasoid (Europeans)

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Cross-Cultural Competence Macroculture

• The dominant or core culture of a country
• Values of our macroculture
• Individualism and privacy
• Equality
• Industriousness
• Ambition and competitiveness
• Self-reliance and independence

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Cross-Cultural Competence Mainstream

• Individuals or groups who share the values of the
  dominant culture
• Primarily members of the middle class
• Not limited to individuals from a single ethnic
  or racial group

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Cross-Cultural Competence Microcultures

• Subcultures or cultural groups with unique
  cultural patterns that are not in common with the
  macroculture

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Cross-Cultural Competence Interaction of
Multiple Cultures

• Culture of
• the Family
• the Service Provider
• the Program or System
• the Disability

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Cross-Cultural Competence Qualities Of Diversity

• Primary
• Age
• Race
• Gender
• Ethnic Heritage
• Ability and Disability

• Secondary
• Primary language
• Geographic location
• Religion
• Family/Marital status
• Education
• Work experience
• Occupation/profession
• Income
• Social status

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Cross-Cultural Competence Qualities Of Diversity
Activity

• Identify your own primary and secondary qualities
  
• Identify the qualities that have the most
  significant influence on your values and beliefs.

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Cross-Cultural Competence Stereotypes

• Oversimplified perceptions, opinions, or beliefs
  regarding a person or group.
• Belief that all people from a particular group
  are the same.

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Cross-Cultural Competence Stereotypes Activity

• What stereotypes do we have about children and
  adults who are blind or visually impaired?
• What stereotypes do we have about children and
  adults with disabilities?
• How do these stereotypes influence our
  expectations and instruction?

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Cross-Cultural Competence Stereotypes Activity

• Think of a situation where you held a stereotype
  or generalized view about another person. What
  happened?
• OR
• Think of a situation where someone had a
  stereotype about you. How did you respond?
• Share your experience with someone sitting beside
  you.

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Cross-Cultural Competence Values

• Values are those qualities that an individual or
  a society considers important as principles for
  conduct and that are intrinsically worthwhile.

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Cross-Cultural Competence Values

• Societal values Serve as expectations for
  everyone, are the values that are generally
  accepted by a society, and that form the basis of
  its cultural traditions, structures, practices,
  and laws.
• Personal values Values that are acquired and
  held, consciously or unconsciously, by each
  individual. An individual's personal values
  profoundly affect his or her thinking and
  behavior, although personal values are strongly
  influenced by the values held by society in
  general.

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Cross-Cultural Competence Contrast Values

• Individualism
• stands for a society in which the ties between
  individuals are loose everyone is expected to
  look after himself or herself and his or her
  immediate family only."

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Cross-Cultural Competence Contrast Values

• Collectivism
• "stands for a society in which people from birth
  onwards are integrated into strong cohesive
  in-groups, which throughout people's lifetime
  continue to protect them in exchange for
  unquestioning loyalty."

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Cross-Cultural Competence Contrast Values

• INDIVIDUALISTIC
• Mastery over nature
• Personal control
• Doing
• Focused on future
• Change
• Time
• Equality

• COLLECTIVIST
• Harmony with nature
• Accepting fate
• Being
• Guided by past
• Tradition
• Personal interaction
• Hierarchy/Status

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Cross-Cultural Competence CONTRAST VALUES

• INDIVIDUALISTIC
• Youth oriented
• Self help
• Independence
• Competition
• Informality
• Low context communication style

• COLLECTIVIST
• Influence of elders
• Birthright
• Interdependence
• Cooperation
• Formality
• High context communication style

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Communication Styles Communication Styles

• HIGH CONTEXT
• Nonverbal
• Implicit (context)
• Indirect
• Interpersonal
• Disagreement is personalized

• LOW CONTEXT
• Verbal
• Explicit (words)
• Direct
• Information exchange
• Disagreement is depersonalized

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Communication Styles Nonverbal Communication

• Silence
• Proximity
• Touching
• Eye contact
• Emotional expressiveness
• Gestures

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Communication Styles Communication Activity

• On the handout mark the nonverbal or verbal
  behavior that bother you.
• Why are they bothersome?
• How do you respond when you encounter them?

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Towards Cross-Cultural Competence
Use of knowledge and understanding to promote
positive relationships
Commitment to the lifelong process of developing
intercultural understanding
Recognition of ones own culture
Identification of shared cultural traits
Knowledge about other cultures
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Learner Outcomes

• Participants will
• Define own culture and beliefs
• Examine how our values and beliefs influence
  interactions with others
• Explore communication styles and their influence
  on working with others

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Special Thank you to Dr. Deborah ChenProfessor
Department of Special Education California State
University, Northridge
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Wrap Up

• Complete the Paraeducator Development Plan
• Complete Session Evaluation

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Questions

• para_at_pattan.net

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Upcoming Paraeducator Trainings

•   Afterschool Videoconferences (4-530)
• October 5, 2005- The Paraeducators Role in Math
  Instruction  
• December 8, 2005- The Paraeducators Role in
  Instruction in the Content Areas
• January 24, 2006- The Paraeducators Role in the
  IEP Process  

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Upcoming Paraeducator Trainings

•   Afterschool Videoconferences (4-530)
• March 2, 2006- The Paraeducators Role in
  Supporting Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of
  Hearing
• April 26, 2006- Legal Issues in Special
  Education What Paraeducators Need to Know
•  

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Upcoming Paraeducator Trainings

• Paraeducator Weekend Seminar
• Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel
• April 7 and 8, 2006
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