Developing Multicultural Awareness,Knowledge, and Skills: Diversity Training Makes a Difference?

As the population becomes more diverse, social work educators will bear a larger responsibility for educating culturally competent practitioners. To enhance student learning, research should consider those factors that influence students' multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. This information potentially can help students better prepare for cultural competency courses and improve student outcomes. The focus of this study was to evaluate BSW and MSW students' (N = 191) multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills at the beginning and end of a required cultural diversity course. The results indicate that more previous diversity trainings at different sites consistently predict higher pre-test scores while previous diversity training sites and pre-test scores predict post-test scores. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of research, practice, and teaching implications.     

Cross-and same-race friendships of Vietnamese immigrant adolescents: A focus on acculturation and school diversity

The purpose of this study was to examine friendship developments of 153 Vietnamese immigrant adolescents who resided in an East Coast metropolitan area of the United States. We examined the influences of school diversity and acculturation on the quantity and quality of cross-and same-race friendships. Surprisingly, students who came from schools that are more diverse reported fewer cross-race friendships and lower levels of social support from their cross-race friends. American acculturation predicted greater levels of social support from cross-race friends. For same-race friendships, students who went to schools with higher percentage of Asian students reported more same-race friendships; however, percentage of Asian students was not a significant predictor of social support from same-race friends. Students who reported greater levels of Vietnamese acculturation reported greater levels of social support from their same-race friends. This study has implications for understanding the impact of school diversity and acculturation on friendship development of Vietnamese immigrants. Also, suggestions on how to better conceptualize and measure diversity are discussed.     

Reflections on Diversity—a Personal Journey

This is a reflection on my life experience as a woman of color. I teach Spanish courses as well as teacher preparation courses. I know what it was like to grow up in a nearly all Black community, then move to one which was almost exclusively White. As an adult looking back on my childhood, I believe that it is especially important that culturally and linguistically diverse teachers are present in schools. As a professor, I see few teachers of color in foreign language courses at the university level as well as the P–12 levels. P–16 institutions boast of being more receptive to culturally and linguistically diverse students. Role models are important for all children. However, there are few positive role models for culturally and linguistically diverse children. If the goal is to get culturally and linguistically diverse children to succeed academically, then positive and diverse role models are needed in U.S. classrooms.     

Intercultural Friendships,Social Identities and Psychological Well-Being of Ethnic Minorities in Different Contexts

ABSTRACT

The study focuses on the relationship between intercultural friendships, social identities, and well-being of ethnic Russians in three different contexts of the North and South Caucasus. We revealed the positive relations of intercultural friendships with the host society identity in all contexts and with the well-being of Russict ans in the culturally diverse contexts. Ethnic identity is positively related to the self-esteem of Russians in two more inclusive contexts, and, negatively associated with their life satisfaction in the least inclusive context. The ethnic and host society identities mediated the relationship between intercultural friendships and psychological well-being only in the most inclusive context.     

Developing Culturally Competent Preservice Teachers

An unfortunate, yet persistent, truth in U.S. public schools is the large achievement gap existing between children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and their White, middle-class counterparts. The potential for cultural dissonance between contemporary teachers and their students necessitates that educators must persistently seek culturally responsive practices. Much has been written regarding strategies for culturally responsive pedagogy; therefore, this article moves beyond a review of culturally responsive pedagogy. Rather than providing teacher candidates with more suggestions for culturally responsive teaching activities, the authors provide teacher educators with specific resources for facilitating the development of cultural competence among preservice teachers.     

Broadening the mind: Beneficial effects of sojourn experiences and contact with visiting international students on prospective teachers’ motivation to avoid prejudiced behavior

Opportunities for intergroup contact are particularly important for prospective teachers because they bear responsibility for an ethnically diverse student population. Using data from a sample of 330 students inscribed in Austrian university colleges of teacher education, we investigated the long-term effects of international student exchange on prospective teachers’ motivation to avoid prejudiced behavior (MAPB). Both sojourning and domestic students’ friendships with visiting international students (VIS) were evaluated as potential instances of naturally occurring intergroup contact that can affect students’ MAPB. Sojourning students had an increased MAPB even nine months after returning to their home country. No effect was found for domestic students’ friendships with VIS. Possibly, the quality of these friendships was insufficient to result in long-term prejudice reduction. Implications of these results are discussed, and the need to advance interventions that are appropriate to improve domestic students’ contact with VIS is ascertained.     

“Can't Nobody Sleep” and Other Characteristics of Culturally Responsive English Instruction

In this article the author presents a collective case study of two English teachers identified as particularly successful with Black students. Through the use of ethnographic techniques, the study provides a snapshot of how these teachers facilitated academic gains in urban high schools through their use of culturally responsive English instruction.     

Why can’t we be friends?: Multicultural attitudes and friendships with international students

International students in the U.S. undertake a life changing endeavor that offers benefits and presents challenges, including a loss of social support. While studies suggest friendships with host country nationals are important for a successful experience, forming friendships with U.S. American students is challenging and rare. Difficulties establishing friendships are exacerbated when the context of adjustment is marked by prejudicial attitudes or a history of problematic intercultural relations. In this study, we sought to understand the lack of cross-cultural social reciprocity from U.S. students at a mid-size Southern university known for its racial divisiveness. We explored how students with and without international friendships differed on multicultural personality characteristics, intercultural attitudes, and multicultural experiences, such as participation in study abroad. Differences related to gender and membership in a sorority or fraternity were explored, as were amount of contact and closeness of the friendships. Students with international friendships had higher scores on open-mindedness and lower scores on intercultural communication apprehension. We discuss the findings and their implications for promoting international and U.S. student friendships.     

Multicultural Vignettes for Teacher Preparation

Future teachers need to attain skills, knowledge, and positive dispositions in multicultural education to provide a culturally sensitive learning environment. It is the responsibility of teacher educators to use tools of assessment to train and gauge student progress toward this end. The purpose of this article is to describe the process of creating and using vignettes as a classroom assessment tool to better prepare teacher candidates for diverse classrooms. Results from our experiences using vignettes indicate that most students are only beginning to develop proficient performance standards, and need additional learning experiences. Implications for using vignettes to partially address National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education standards and prepare students for the Principles of Learning and Teaching (PLT) test are also presented and discussed.     

Teachers’ self-efficacy and intercultural classroom practices in diverse classroom contexts: A cross-national comparison

This cross-national study provides new insights in teacher efficacy in today’s culturally diverse classrooms using survey data of 269 early childhood and primary school teachers in England, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland. Teacher efficacy can be viewed as a two dimensional concept in which both general beliefs are measured alongside (diversity-related) domain-specific beliefs. These beliefs are related to the cultural classroom context and the use of intercultural classroom practices. Our results indicate that policies and professional development targeted at the reciprocal relation between diversity-related efficacy and practices are important when preparing teachers for working in diverse classroom contexts.     

Integration of Multicultural Video Strategies that Transform Entertainment into Historical Film Literacy

According to many educators, textbooks will eventually be replaced by digital versions. Today's teachers, school administrators, and education policy makers are often digitally disconnected or at best digital immigrants, individuals who were born before the existence of digital technology and adopted it later in life. Unfortunately, when students enter most classrooms they are expected to turn off their digital devices and learn through textbooks and teacher-led discussions. This digital disconnect is counterproductive to cultivating film/video literacy, an innovative method that has been supported by the National Council of Social Studies (NCSS) as a means to make learning relevant and meaningful for all students in social studies classrooms. The purpose of this study is to showcase the NCSS position through two lenses: Look closely at film and video viewing strategies currently in place in social studies classrooms and point toward viewing strategies that bring engagement and deeper thinking and responses to interact with ideas and information for all students.     

Theater

In this study, I examine the perspectives of preservice teachers enrolled in a multicultural education course at a large predominately White Midwestern university. Past research on the development of multicultural attitudes and knowledge of White preservice teachers is inconclusive. In an effort to examine the multicultural perspectives of preservice teachers, 13 prospective teachers enrolled in required semester-long multicultural education courses were regularly interviewed and observed. Results of the study indicate that preservice teacher perspectives toward diversity were influenced by their social and educational histories; popular culture, such as the news media and movies; and the traditional structure of the teacher education program. The single course had minimal impact on their perspectives. Recommendations include infusing a multicultural perspective throughout the teacher education program and the development of collaborations between the program and culturally diverse schools.     

“What Are You Reading?”: How School Libraries Can Promote Racial Diversity in Multicultural Literature

While many educators state beliefs about the importance of selecting fiction that will engage a diverse student population, use of multicultural titles in secondary classrooms has lagged, in part due to increasing focus on the Common Core State Standards in the United States. The purpose of this study was to determine if high school students in a Southern California district were using school libraries to access multicultural literature characterized by racial diversity. Four years of circulation data from the district's five comprehensive high schools were examined. Analysis revealed that the titles with the highest circulation were overwhelmingly written by White authors and about White protagonists. Suggested are ways that educators can use resources within school libraries to promote more racially diverse multicultural literature, even as classroom titles remain static. Included are recommendations for how teachers and teacher-librarians can encourage students to select from a wider range of texts, as well as guidance on conducting a circulation analysis.     

An analysis of friendship networks, social connectedness, homesickness, and satisfaction levels of international students

International students continue to grow in number worldwide, prompting researchers to look for ways to make the study abroad experience more fruitful. One avenue of research has focused on friendship formation, the significant role it plays in the study abroad experience, and the unique friendship combinations made possible by the study abroad experience. International students form friendships with individuals from their own country, from other countries, and from the host country. Research has found that international students often have more friends from their home country; however, research has also demonstrated a relationship between having more host country friends and satisfaction, contentment, decreased homesickness, and social connectedness. The current study looks to further explore these relationships through a social network lens by examining friendship network ratios, strength, and variability of the three friendship groups. A friendship network grid was developed to assess where international students’ friends are from and how strong those friendships are. Eighty four international students completed a survey examining the relationship between friendship networks, social connectedness, homesickness, contentment, and satisfaction. Contrary to prior research, international students did not report having a higher ratio of individuals from their home country in their friendship networks. However, international students with a higher ratio of individuals from the host country in their network claimed to be more satisfied, content, and less homesick. Furthermore, participants who reported more friendship variability with host country individuals described themselves as more satisfied, content, and more socially connected. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Birds of a feather end up flocking together when studying abroad. Can a university bridge the cultural differences that challenge friendships between Pacific Island students and New Zealand students?

Intercultural friendship formation is a key challenge for international students studying abroad. In an increasingly globalised world, where people regularly engage with others from different cultures, meaningful intercultural friendships are important. However, culture can pose a considerable challenge that hinders the formation of friendships between people of different cultures. This paper explores challenges and insights into developing intercultural friendships between international Pacific Island students studying in Aotearoa New Zealand and domestic New Zealand Palagi¹ students. Similar to other studies, the findings in this study highlight the key challenges connected to cultural differences. These findings are surprising as New Zealand Palagi students would have gone to primary and secondary schools with Pacific Island students and should have had some contact and interactions with them and be more accustomed to cultural differences. Unique to this study is that these international Pacific Island students recognised that universities are in a prime position to champion and promote systemic interventions to assist both international and domestic students to engage with each other in order to promote cultural understanding. Overcoming intercultural friendship development challenges involves creating meaningful intercultural spaces and campus ‘friendship’ events to increase intercultural interactions, raise domestic students’ cross-cultural awareness, and encourage reciprocal intercultural learning. Such activities are likely to enhance the overall well-being of all students and improve the internationalisation of universities with increasingly diverse student cohorts.     

The Heuristic for Thinking About Culturally Responsive Teaching (HiTCRiT)

Michèle was hurrying to class. How, she thought, could she offer the students in her African American English in Society and Schools class a method of understanding, comparing, and abstracting the studies they had been reading in class? The heuristic described in this study evolved from a desire to capture aspects of several seminal studies that illustrated how African American English was deployed in classrooms for productive work with African American students. Michèle recalled that whenever she asked graduate students or practicing teachers what they, other teachers, and schools might do to improve the schooling of students of color, one of the most consistent responses was Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP). However, when pressed and asked what one would detect in classrooms where CRP is being put into practice, few were able to specify what an observer might see. Specifying the dimensions of CRP and its relationship to the heuristic had not been on Michèle’s mind. Even so, it was during the class discussion that the heuristic’s relevance to CRP became clearer. Jonathan, who had been tapped as a teaching assistant in an English language arts methods class, believed HiTCRiT could be modified to use with teacher education candidates, as a substitute for the standardized lesson planning tool used in the department. He piloted its use with the class the following semester. Utilizing HiTCRiT to explain research and existing practices as well as to assist teachers in creating culturally relevant instruction modified and shaped it, creating a more robust tool. Thus, the HiTCRiT came into being and came to inform our thinking and teaching practice.     

Intercultural Friendship: Linking Communication Variables and Friendship Success

International students often complain about the lack of friendships with host nationals. This study explores the relationship between communication variables, number of friendships, and friendship satisfaction. International students at a large urban university in the United States completed a survey on willingness to communicate, communicative adaptability, English language proficiency, loneliness, and friendship with the Americans. Results show that international students rated their American friendships lower than their home- or other-culture friendships. Friendship numbers and satisfaction were significantly related to communicative adaptability, language proficiency, and loneliness. There was no significant correlation between friendship success and willingness to communicate or length of stay.     

Navigating multiple worlds of Ghanaina-born immigrant adolescent girls in US urban schools

African immigrant populations are among the fastest growing immigrant populations in the United States, yet they are understudied and are invisible immigrant group in the educational literature, particularly, in the context of educational discourses in the United States urban schools. Drawing on Phelan et al.’s multiple worlds model, we analyzed individual and focus group interviews of forty students, thirty-six parents, and twelve teachers from two schools. Findings showed that Ghanaian-born immigrant students undergo several complex transitional paradigms combining two worlds (school and home) of Ghanaian culture, past educational experiences, family values, and adapting to new school environments to achieve success in American educational systems. In addition, they faced racial and ethnic discrimination and stereotypes from peers, which negatively impacted their academic progress and social adjustments in school. The authors recommend that teachers should establish new ways of understanding the multiple worlds of African-born adolescent immigrant girls by accounting for their culturally diverse ways of navigating their worlds of school, peers, and families to achieve academic success in US schools.