Module 2: Valuing Cultural Diversity

Major Sections

Day and Time

Purpose

Learning Objectives

1. Explore their attitudes and values concerning cultural diversity.
   
   
2. List and explain stages for developing cultural competence.
   
   
3. Begin learning how a partnership can work effectively as a multicultural organization.

Linkages with Preceding and Following Sessions

Equipment, Materials, and Supplies Needed

• Two easels, newsprint, masking tape, and markers
  
• Overhead projector and screen
  
• Audio playback equipment
  
• Music to accompany quotes and cultural walk

• Transparencies
  • T-1-12: Cultural Awareness Quotations
    
  • T-13: Goals, Part One
    
  • T-14: Goals, Part Two
    
  • T-15: Agenda
    
  • T-16: Culture of Origin
    
  • T-17: Culture Involves
    
  • T-18: People Identify
    
  • T-19: Ethnicity
    
  • T-20: Race
    
  • T-21: Personal Memories
    
  • T-22: Cultural Competency
    
  • T-23: Identify ... Not Resolve
    
  • T-24: The Cultural Awareness Model
    
  • T-25: Levels of Cultural Awareness (Level 1-3)
    
  • T-26: Levels of Cultural Awareness (Level 4-6)
    
  • T-27: Cross-Cultural Stumbling Blocks
    
  • T-28-29: Culture Walk
    
  • T-30: Tossed Salad
    
  • T-31-35: Strategies for Developing a Culturally Competent Prevention System
  
  
  
• Prepared Newsprint
  
  
  • Discussion Questions
    
    
  • How did you make this discovery?
    
    
  • How did you feel?
    
    
  • Who did you talk to about it, and how did they react?
    
    
  • The New Tape Exercise
    
    
  • Comments about their group that they never want said again
    
    
  • Things they never want done to their group again
    
    
  • Ways they want their group to be viewed and treated
  
  
• Trainer Supplements
  
  
  • TSupp-1(1,2): Cultural Awareness Quotations
    
  • TSupp-2(1,2): Culture Walk Instructions

Materials in Participant Manual

Room Setup

Predelivery Preparation

Trainer Resources

A. Quotes

1. Encourage participants to come into the room and be seated approximately 5 minutes before the start of the program.
   
   
2. When it is time to begin, one trainer shuts the doors.
   
   
3. Trainers who are reading quotations should place themselves around the room. They can be a part of the audience or stand in the back. One trainer dims the lights. One trainer is assigned to work the computer and another the music; both will be timed to work together with the reading of each quotation.
   
   
4. The trainers read the quotations in TSupp-1.
   
   
5. After the quotations have been read, the lights are returned to normal.

B. Welcome and Introductions

1. The trainer team comes forward and each member gives a brief introduction.
   
   
2. If this session is running concurrent to Days 1 and 2 of Principles of Prevention Partnerships ...
   
   ... a formal introduction of all the members may not be required. However, some of the participants may not have attended the first 2 days of this workshop-Part 1 is a prerequisite for Day 3 but participants do not have to attend all 3 days concurrently. Therefore, participants new to the large group should be welcomed and given an opportunity to introduce themselves.
   
   
3. If this session is not running concurrent to Days 1 and 2 of the Principles of Prevention Partnerships ...
   
   ... a formal introduction of all the members is required. Remember, all of the participants should have, at one time, attended the first 2 days of this workshop-Part 1 is a prerequisite for Day 3, but participants do not have to attend all 3 days concurrently.

A. Review the goals of Part 1 of this workshop:

1. To initiate the creation of a vision for a healthy community.
   
   
2. To review AOD problem prevention approaches.
   
   
3. To highlight a community prevention system.
   
   
4. To learn about prevention planning methods.
   
   
5. To explore community mobilization strategies.
   
   
6. To enhance the participants' prevention skills.

B. Review the goals of Part 2 of this workshop:

• Explore the effects of cultural issues on community prevention efforts;
  
  
• Understand appropriate and inappropriate behavior in culturally diverse situations; and
  
  
• Define key elements of an organization that values and effectively works with cultural differences.

C. Discuss the design of the workshop

• Large group presentations, small work group sessions, and intimate one-on-one exchanges.
  
  
• Miniteaches, participant participation, and experiential activities.
  
  
• Work and fun.

D. Establish norms for the workshop

1. As appropriate, review norms established during Day 1 and Day 2.
   
   
2. Ask the participants to suggest any additional norms for how the group will work together.
   
   
3. Remind participants that they may pass on participating in any activity.
   
   
4. At the same time, encourage everyone to take the risk of being involved in this day's activities, because they are crucial to the success of a prevention partnership.

E. Identify Participants' Expectations

1. Ask participants to think about one or two expectations they have for this portion of the workshop.
   
   
2. Ask participants to share expectations for about 5 minutes and write responses on newsprint. If participants' expectations are clearly outside of the scope of the workshop, let them know now and offer to refer them to another source of information if possible.
   
   
3. After the 5 minutes are up, let participants know that they can pass any other expectations on to one of the training staff.
   
   
4. Ask participants to think silently about the following two questions:
   
   
   • How do you stand in the way of getting what you need/want at this training?
     
     
   • What are you willing to do differently during this workshop to meet your individual expectations and needs?
   
   
5. Invite participants to keep these expectations in mind throughout the workshop. Opportunities to explore these issues will be available during the structured time and during breaks with participants, trainers, and resource staff.

F. Review Agenda

1. Present overview of the day.
   
   
2. Point out in the agenda where the identified expectations might be met.

A. Explain the definitions of "culture," "ethnicity," and "race," using transparencies and the following content points:

1. Our culture of origin provides us with our basic understanding of the world. It provides us with the means to perceive and explain our experiences. It teaches about customs, philosophy, and behavior.
   
   People can identify with multiple cultural groupings based on characteristics such as:
   
   
   • Ethnicity,
     
   • Race,
     
   • Gender,
     
   • Sex,
     
   • Sexual orientation,
     
   • Religion,
     
   • Physical challenges,
     
   • Socioeconomic status, and
     
   • Living environment (rural, urban, suburban).
   
   
2. Ethnicity refers to a population's or group's common cultural heritage, as distinguished by such characteristics as:
   
   T-19: Ethnicity
   
   
   • Customs. Appropriate and inappropriate behaviors.
     
     
   • Language. Refers not only to different languages but to different usages of the same language.
     
     
   • History. History as a community, region, or country that shapes how we perceive ourselves and others.
     
     
   • National origin. People who share a common cultural heritage may be affected by the different political and socioeconomic characteristics of different countries of origin.
   
   
3. Race refers to groupings based on physical traits by which people can be distinguished.

A. Set up activity

1. Ask participants to pair with someone whom they do not know for the next activity.
   
   
2. After a few minutes, ask persons who have not found a partner to raise their hand, and help them find a partner or be their partner.
   
   
3. Ask participants to close their eyes and think about the first time that they realized that they were different from people of other cultural groups. Ask them to think about the following questions:

• How did you make this discovery?
  
  
• How did you feel?
  
  
• Who did you talk to about it?
  
  
• How did they react?

B. Run the activity

1. Ask the partners to discuss their experiences.

C. Process the activity

1. Reassemble the group, and ask a few participants to share their thoughts about this exercise.
   
   
2. Ask what these experiences mean for understanding how to work with people from different cultural groups.
   
   T-22: Cultural Competency
   
   
3. Use T-22 to make the following points:
   
   
   • Since we all grow up with a perspective based on our culture of origin, everyone has difficulty working with people from another cultural background.
     
     
   • All cultural groups need to learn to work with different culture groups. It is a challenge that we all face together.
     
     
   • Our cultural heritage may provide us with filters, called prejudices, that give us a set of preconceived ideas about other groups.
     
     
   • Members of dominant groups in society may have certain privileges of which they may be unaware. Their failure to perceive these privileges may act as a barrier to cross-cultural understanding.
     
     
   • People who share one grouping (e.g., race) may differ because of a predominant or primary identification with another grouping (e.g., ethnicity).
   
   T-23: Identify ... Not Resolve
   
   
4. Also, emphasize the following points:
   
   
   • We learn about cultures (ours and others) early in life.
     
     
   • Awareness of culture, racial, and other differences that we experienced as children may have been painful to us.
     
     
   • Many of the messages we received as children about other cultures are based on misinformation and stereotypes.
     
     
   • Many of those childhood messages continue to affect our thoughts and feelings as adults, and they become "tapes" from which come our "knee jerk" reactions to differences.
     
     
   • Through sustained effort, it is possible to get off automatic, to become aware of our reactions to differences, and to make choices about how we wish to respond- to erase and then record a new tape.

A. Present and discuss the following points:

1. The cultural awareness model is based on work by Peter Muniz and Robert Chasnoff. It is intended to outline a process by which people can become more aware of how to work with people from different cultures.
   
   
2. The model is intended to be fluid; an individual will necessarily go through the stages in the same order as others or in the same way each time. However, each level must be explored anew with regard to each different culture one seeks to understand.
   
   
3. The levels are:
   
   T-25: Levels of Cultural Awareness (Levels 1-3)
   
   
   • Level 1-The Self. The first level requires that one understand one's own experiences, values, and interpersonal abilities.
     
     
   • Level 2-Prevention Skills. This level requires that the individual have the necessary skills to work within the technical areas he or she wants to use for building a relationship with another cultural group or an awareness of the technical areas he or she wants to learn about from another cultural group. It is important to be honest about one's level of competence.
     
     
   • Level 3-Factors Beyond Culture That May Influence Behavior. Although everything is affected by cultural interpretations, other factors such as skill levels, hunger, homelessness, health, and safety will have an impact on one's ability to work with another cultural group.
     
     T-26: Levels of Cultural Awareness (Levels 4-6)
     
     
   • Level 4-One's Own Culture. We often take our own culture for granted. We need to explore our culture and understand how it affects our motivations, behaviors, and thoughts before we can know how to interact with other cultures. In the United States, past generations may have buried aspects of their culture of origin to blend in with the dominant culture, and burying one's culture may have an emotional impact on one's ability to learn about other cultures.
     
     
   • Level 5-Factors Specific to One's Own Community (or Country). It is important to understand how our own community history affects how we view other communities. Both positive and negative experiences are a part of every community heritage. As one begins to work with other communities, one must understand that communities may differ, even among people with common cultural heritages. Local issues, especially events receiving high publicity (such as a recent teenage death related to driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs) and politically powerful groups (such as alcohol producers and distributors who employ a large percentage of community members), shape community perceptions.
     
     
   • Level 6-The Other Culture. We must be able to step outside our biases and accept that other cultures have different ways of perceiving the world that are equal to our own. We must be open to trying new behaviors and learning new ways of communicating. We must learn to be able to see things from a different perspective in a way that does not threaten our own identity or culture of origin. Being open to another culture means accepting the disorientation and awkwardness of learning new ways of perceiving and behaving and at the same time strengthening our understanding of our own culture. Finally, working with other cultures allows us the flexibility to choose new ways of living if they are congruent with who we want to become in the future.

A. Explain the exercise (10 minutes)

1. Participants will meet in small groups, each of which represents a population to which all members of the group belong.
   
   
2. Each work group will have 15 minutes to make the following 3 lists on a sheet of newsprint:

• Things they never want done to their group again,
  
  
• Ways they want their group to be viewed and treated.

B. Set up and run the exercise (20 minutes)

1. Solicit from the participants, in a brainstorming session, the population groups into which they would like to be divided. List the groups on newsprint as they are called out.
   
   
2. After all named groups are listed, call each one out for a show of hands of how many people will go to that work group (note-each person can select only one group).
   
   
3. Write the number of people beside the group name. When done, if the people who "signed-up" for a group with less than three participants are willing to join other groups, ask them to do so and eliminate these groups from the list. Send each group to a different location.

4. Give each group 15 minutes to develop the 3 lists. Encourage the participants to brainstorm items, so that they develop as many items as possible.

C. Process the exercise (30 minutes)

1. Reconvene the large group.
   
   
2. Have someone from each of the small work groups read their first two lists.
   
   
3. After all of the groups have shared their first two lists, lead a discussion about what people were feeling while the lists were being read and what they learned from the lists.
   
   
4. Have one person from each group read that group's third list to the larger group.
   
   
5. Discuss the feelings and learnings at this stage.

A. Lead an interactive discussion, using the identified learnings from "The Recording A New Tape Exercise" to examine the following cross-cultural stumbling blocks:

1. Language. People may use different languages or different dialects of the same language. Certain words, phrases, or concepts may be difficult or impossible to translate.
   
   
2. Class-related values. Differences based on socioeconomic class may create differences in values and customs. Privileges may be taken for granted by people in higher socioeconomic groups.
   
   
3. Culture-related values. Different meanings and values are attached to behavior, objects, events, and situations by different cultures.
   
   
4. Nonverbal communications. Gestures, physical distance, facial expressions, and eye contact may have different or even opposite meanings among different cultures.
   
   
5. Stereotyping. The assignment of characteristics or beliefs about another culture based on prejudice or limited exposure.
   
   
6. Racism. The belief that one race is superior in some way to another.
   
   
7. Ethnocentricity. The belief that one's ethnicity provides the true or correct view of the world and that any other interpretation is false.

A. Set-up the activity (10 minutes)

1. Ask everyone to go to one side of the room.
   
   
2. Ask people to spend 2 minutes thinking about their cultural identity.
   
   
3. Give participants the following information and instructions:
   
   
   • The purpose of this activity is to help create awareness about our feelings, our own cultural identity, and our relationships with people from other cultures.
     
     
   • This is a nonverbal exercise. It will enhance the experience if you do not talk during the activity. Focus your own reactions to the experience.
     
     
   • Trainers will be calling out specific cultural groupings and asking people who are members of, or identify with, this grouping to cross to the other side of the room.
     
     
   • People have various reactions to this activity. We encourage you to be honest with yourself during the activity and with the group during the discussion afterwards.
     
     
   • Remind people that anyone has the right to pass on an activity, but that they are asked not to leave once the walk begins and to participate fully if they stay.
     
     
   • If a participant chooses to walk for a group, she or he should walk completely to the other side of the room.
   
   
   
4. Ask everyone to close their eyes for 1 minute and think about who they are and which cultures they identify with.

B. Run the activity (25 minutes)

1. Begin the music. Generally, an instrumental tape is best.
   
   
2. The cotrainers will alternate calling a cultural grouping and reading the instructions for that grouping.
   
   
   • Cofacilitators are urged to read the instructions for the walk from TSupp-2 exactly as written for each grouping.
     
     
   • Other trainers should be aware of participants who have strong emotional reactions to the activity and be available to assist.
     
     
   • Trainers need to be aware of anyone who leaves the room during the activity, and one trainer should follow the person out of the room to see if he or she needs any assistance. The trainer should not insist that the participant return.

C. Process the activity (25 minutes)

1. After 30 minutes are up or all groupings have been read, ask participants to form triads.
   
   
2. Encourage participants to find people they do not know well.
   
   
3. Give the small groups 15 minutes to process the activity, using the following questions as guidelines. (It is unlikely a group will be able to cover all of them.)
   
   Discussion Questions
   
   
   • How did you feel during this exercise?
     
     
   • What was personally powerful for you?
     
     
   • What did you learn during this exercise that will help you advance your prevention vision in your community?
   
   
4. After 15 minutes, convene the large group and for the next 10 minutes discuss what their communities would be like if they were culturally competent and inclusive.

A. Set up and conduct the activity (30 minutes)

1. Introduce the difference between the concept of a melting pot and that of a tossed salad.
   
   
2. Have participants self-select into diverse groups of five people.
   
   
3. Ask each group to select one of the following topics:
   
   
   • Food
     
   • Holidays
     
   • Dating practices
     
   • Music
     
   • Gestures
     
   • Family.
     
   
   
4. Have each person in each group take a turn to share his or her cultural experience with the selected topic.

B. Process the activity (15 minutes)

A. Review

1. The words used to describe work on cultural competence.
   
   
2. The philosophy for building a community prevention partnership as presented in Part 1 of Principles of Prevention Partnerships:
   
   
   • Prevention is a moral and an ethical imperative.
     
     
   • In order to be successful, prevention efforts must address the individual, the drug, and the environment through a systems approach.
     
     
   • The effort must reach all of the community. All segments of the community need to be involved in some way.
     
     
   • The community is the best vehicle through which to develop and implement prevention programs and activities.
     
     
   • Prevention programs and activities must be ethnically and culturally appropriate.
   
   
   
3. The themes for building a community prevention partnership as presented in Part 1 of Principles of Prevention Partnerships:
   
   
   • Paradigm shift. We need to rethink how we view prevention and the community's role in prevention.
     
     
   • Community empowerment. We need to return power to communities to take responsibility for themselves and to make decisions about their collective future.
     
     
   • Cultural competency. We need to learn how to appreciate both the cultures into which we were born and those which are new to us, and to work together in our communities.

B. Discuss the strategies for developing a culturally competent prevention system

1. Mobilize all sectors and systems within the community.
   
   
2. Use actions, as well as attitudes, that seek to facilitate community empowerment.
   
   
3. Emphasize ways to facilitate the involvement of diverse cultural groups and communities.
   
   
4. Recognize, value, respect, and build on the diversity of groups within the community.
   
   
5. Be committed to inclusion and building relationships.
   
   
6. Be committed to intensive outreach.
   
   
7. Encourage maximum participation and involvement at all levels and in all phases of planning and decisionmaking.
   
   
8. Recognize the need for legitimacy, acceptance, and credibility within all cultural groups and communities.
   
   
9. Identify one's own norms, attitudes, values, practices, knowledge, understanding, and beliefs regarding one's culture of origin and all diverse cultural groups in the community.
   
   
10. Be committed to learning about other cultural groups and communities.
    
    
11. Acquire skills in culturally appropriate:
    
    
    • Communication,
      
      
    • Etiquette, and
      
      
    • Problem solving.
    
    
12. Include the themes of:
    
    
    • Communication,
      
      
    • Cooperation,
      
      
    • Coordination,
      
      
    • Inclusion, and
      
      
    • Commitment (personal and collective).

A. Drawing Exercise (20 minutes)

1. Have the participants form small groups of five to six
   
   
2. Ask them to draw a collective picture of a culturally competent prevention system based on the information, learning, and feelings that they experienced today.

B. Process the Exercise (10 minutes)

1. After 20 minutes, ask each group to hold up their picture and give a brief-1 minute-oral summary of their collective effort.

XII. Closing Session (15 minutes)

A. Give Thanks

B. Conduct the Evaluation

1. Distribute evaluation forms.
   
   
2. Collect evaluation forms.

C. Wrap-up