As the semester comes to an end, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect back on the last fourteen weeks of class. Reflect on the good, the bad, the challenges, the inspirational and learning experiences I have encountered while learning about Culture and Diversity. Course content was covered in of ways; guest speaker, movies, video/TV series clips, group work, individual assignments, and class activities. The objective of this course was to expand and increase our cultural competence, to challenge ourselves to try new experiences, gain knowledge and explore of different cultural experiences, understand our own cultural background and most of all to have the ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures. Cultural competence consists of four components (1) awareness of one’s cultural worldview, (2) attitude towards cultural differences, (3) knowledge of different cultural practices and worldviews and (4) cross-cultural skills. Developing and maintaining a cultural competence results in the ability to understand, communicate with, and effectively interact with people across cultures.
Second week of class, we were asked to evaluate our cultural knowledge on the “Cultural Competence Spectrum.” I evaluated myself as the third stage Minimization “underestimate differences; similarities means ‘like me’.” At the beginning of the semester, I wasn’t sure how to respond to the course, whether I liked it or if I thought it was relevant. I quickly realized and learned how important it is to understand one’s own culture and other cultures. Throughout the course, I have enjoyed learning about different cultures and the content covered in class. Fourteen weeks later, when asked to re-evaluate my cultural knowledge I have found myself at the fourth stage Acceptance “recognizes and values differences” and the fifth stage Adaptation “skilled in communicating across differences and can take on other’s view.” I am now aware of cultural differences and developed a new understanding, knowledge and the skills needed to effectively and respectfully work people of different cultures.
We started the semester off with exploring our own culture. Personally, I was excited to research on my own culture and find out more about myself. My cultural background is Italian, Irish and Canadian. For this assignment I sat down with my dad, my mom and my grandmother all individual and asked then questions to get a better understanding of my culture. Growing up I was strongly influenced by my father’s culture, Italian as he is very connected with all aspects of his culture. This assignment provided me with the opportunity to explore my Irish and Canadian culture background with my mom. Overall, this assignment helped me to understand how my culture has shaped me into the person I am today by giving me direction, understanding and insight to the person I want to be.
Our second assignment of the year was our culture group project plan and presentations. From listening to my classmates and presenting on my own cultural presentation, I had the chance to learn and increase my awareness for being a Child and Youth Worker working with people of different cultures. My group presented on Amish Canadians, and I feel that I really benefited from the learning of this culture and group experiences. With this assignment, my group faced many challenges and unfortunately some of those challenges did not get worked out. When listening to my classmates, I learned valuable information on how to work effectively with children and youth from South Asian culture, Mediterranean cultures, new Canadians, African Canadians, Biracial Canadians, Hispanic Canadians, Muslim Canadians, and Canadian Aboriginals.
In the third assignment, we were asked to create and develop a Diversity Toolkit for a Child and Youth Worker to potentially use. My group and I decided to create a toolkit for working with biracial families based on the Poston's Multicultural Identity scale. Each of us picked one of the five stages and created interventions for each stage and combined them as a final package. I found this assignment very interesting and a good learning tool. As a Child and Youth Worker, I would use the toolkit my group created when working with a biracial family.
The fourth assignment was "Beyond my Cultural Comfort Zone," where we were asked to challenge ourselves to expand our cultural competence. For this assignment we were to participate in events and projects that push us out of our “cultural comfort zone.” The objective was to engage and interact with others from backgrounds that are different from our own and to develop an awareness of the culture. For this assignment, I attended the Annual Aboriginal Festival in Hamilton. At the Festival, I collected bags of information (Aboriginal services, Post Secondary services, Aboriginal newspapers, Healthy eating, etc.) and compiled everything I collected into a resource binder that I can use in the future. I am excited to use this resource at my new job as a Clinical Support Worker for Broken Arrow, as they work with Aboriginal Children and Youth.
The last and final assignment of the semester was to complete a required amount of blogs. Before this class, I had never blogged before. This was a new experience for me, but this was a new way to express and share my learning. I quickly found myself feeling more comfortable reflecting and sharing my learning through blogging. I have found the blogging to be fun and creative, as I have learned to include YouTube videos, pictures, website links and etc. Over the semester, I have enjoyed using the blogging technique and I hope to continue blogging or use this technique myself with a client.
This semester, we had the chance to listen to many personal experiences, stories and perspectives from our guest speakers. Our guest speakers included; Andy Legget, co-founder of Broken Arrow Residential Treatment Services, Colleen from the DSW department, Eric and Kym from the “Say It Out Loud” group in Belleville, and Aaron Walsh from Sir James Whitney. Each speaker had their own unique experiences and stories. Andy shared his experience working with children and youth from the Aboriginal culture, Colleen talked about working with child and youth with developmental (intellectually) delayed, Kym and Eric spoke about working with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and two-spirited youths, and Aaron talked about working with the Deaf children and youth among the Deaf community. I really found the guest speakers to help increase my learning and help me develop a sense of clientele that I will potentially work with in my career as a CYW. Unfortunately, I was not able to meet or see Aaron’s presentation but my classmates shared that it was a great presentation.
Throughout the semester, our professor would read parts of the book "If the World Were a Village" by David Smith. I found this book to have a great impact on me and very powerful. The objective of this book was to teach and create an awareness surrounding poverty, mortality, food and education is different all over the world. I feel that this book was a great way to display all the research that was discovered. I found it to be a very creative and unique way to display the research and statistics in a simple way.
In reflecting of my overall experience in this class, I feel that I have truly gained a great sense of knowledge and understanding of culture and diversity. I learned how I needed to understand all aspects of my own cultural background (values, ethics, traditions, perspectives, etc.) to begin to understand and work effectively with people of another culture. I learn how significant my cultural background and values play an important role in my future as a Child and Youth Worker. I learned that understanding one’s own cultural background is a lifelong experience and we all need to keep an open mind to learn about others and their culture. It is important to respect another person’s view whether we agree or disagree.
In the future, I plan to continue my learning of cultural differences and diversity. I hope to encounter working with individuals and their families of different cultures to gain more experiences and practice the skills I have developed as a result of this course. I promise to my future clients of different cultures that I will do my best to establish effective and respectful therapeutic relationships with them to best support them.
Fourteen weeks have past and I feel confident and prepared to work with child/youth and their families of different cultures. I have challenged my cultural competence and tired new experiences to work effectively with people of different cultures. Most importantly, I have learned that…
DIFFERENCES DOES MATTER!!
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