Cultural Competence: Who Is A Leader?

Throughout, the course of Issues in Diversity I have been able to grasp a better understanding

Arthur H. Woodard, Jr., MSW Soulhelp@me.com Jim Wuelfing, NRPP Jim.Wuelfing@gmail.com  Name?  From where?  Doing what?  Why here?

The experience that I encountered with Tim Wise’s lecture will stick with me forever. Before this lecture I didn’t have any idea about how big of a problem diversity is and how people face it everyday. The example that he gave should me real life experiences that people face and made me open up my horizons on how diversity is experienced differently for everyone.

I would have to rate our school between cultural precompetence and cultural competence depending on the year in question and even the time of year. We are aware that we have achievement gaps in our minority populations, particularly our African American and special education students. When test scores come back and we see the lack of progress for these special groups, we have meetings and provided professional development on differentiation and small group instruction. Only one year did I participate in a professional development where an expert on teaching African American led the discussion. Usually staff development sessions are more generalized.

Competency is something education and care services and educators strive for constantly. It is what a service must demonstrate to prove it is meeting or exceeding the National Quality Standard. But there is a special type of competency that all services must achieve to deliver high quality education and care to all children—cultural competency. Cultural competence is an essential practice of both the Early Years Learning Framework and the Framework for School Aged Care—My Time, Our Place. It is based on the principle contained in both frameworks—respect for diversity. Can educators and services ever truly become culturally competent? Many would say that achievement of this competency is always just beyond grasp. That is why the

Providing culturally competence are available constructs in augmentation of patient centered healthcare delivery that has been heavily emphasized in recent years. In particular to this writer’s professional career there have been ongoing improvements seen on a corporate and care level made to the implementation in providing culturally competent care. In this paper, we explore culturally competent and patient centered care with the Mexican female population here in the northeast. In doing so, the demonstration of timely theoretical frameworks of cultural competence must be afforded to our patients; to improve interactions in an interpersonal level. This group was recognized primarily due to identifying the integral role the female plays

"A set of congruent behaviors, attitudes and policies that come together as a system, agency or among professionals and enable that system, agency or those professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations. The word "culture" is used because it implies the integrated pattern of human thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values and institutions of a racial, ethnic, religious or social group. The word competence is used because it implies having a capacity to function effectively."

Cultural Knowledge is obtaining a sound educational foundation concerning the various world views of different cultures (Berman, Frandsen, Snyder, p.280, 2016).

Government and accreditation authorities have also incorporated cultural competence in strategic planning of health services in Australia (Victorian Department of Health 2009, 2011a, 2011b)

there is too much that still needs to be done in the study of diversity. Dr. Marilyn states that those of diversity want to be included, not one of margins. I agree with the Dr. here, just like white or other races everyone wants to be thought of as being one, and belonging in any group. Dr. Marilyn states the importance of instructors and their willingness to stand toe to toe with their students for the unlimited possibilities to happen in the classroom. Dr. Marilyn says that we must pay attention to both diversity and inclusion for progress to be possible. Dr. Marilyn talks about the diversity wheel, she refers to this wheel as a cultural contact lens. This wheel shows diversity in many arenas, work, school, and in society. Dr. Marilyn believes

Understand cultural competence and why is it important especially for that have a diverse workforce.

Cultural Competence is one of the eight core practices within the EYLF (above). Outlined in the EYLF Cultural Competence is described as: “Educators who are culturally competent respect multiple cultural ways of knowing, seeing and living, celebrate the benefits of diversity and have an ability to understand and honour differences. This is evident in everyday practice when educators demonstrate an ongoing commitment to developing their own cultural competence in a two way process with families and communities. Educators view culture and the context of family as central to children’s sense of being and belonging, and to success in lifelong learning. Educators also seek to promote children’s cultural competence.

I agree with your assumption of how cultural competence occurs in Government. I see on a daily basis how needs are not being met across the board.

Prior to taking this course I thought I had a clear understanding of what it meant to have diversity awareness. I have been exposed to many different cultures both through my experiences in the Army and as a civilian, however I was not very aware of diversity. Since taking this course I have realized that increasing my awareness in diversity, would greatly benefit me as an Army soldier and as a future Law Enforcement Agent. As a soldier, I interact with different cultures, races, and sexes on a daily basis. I have developed a better sense of understanding in how other cultures may interact. As a future Law Enforcement, having a better sense of diversity awareness, would prevent me from becoming too stereotypical of other cultures. Throughout this course I have been introduced to diversity in a way I never would have imagined. I’m more cautious before casting judgment about the way I view people and the way people interact.

In this essay, we are going to explore my experience as a leader as well as team member in a multi cultured group. What make you a leader? and what are the qualities and requirement to be a leader? The study of leadership has always been a core concern for the social and behavioral science. Leadership is indissolubly knotted to team membership. Studying leadership leads to several questions concerning the social psychology of leadership. Leadership is pre-eminently a group process(Chemers,2001). Since leadership involves people, there must be a group of people following the leader and working towards a common goal. According to Kakabadse, Bank and Vinnicombe (2004) “Synergy is the aim of all team working-to produce an output where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”, output of a team work is much greater than the combination of works made by individual separately. Every team member has their own role in group work. Every member of team has individual roles in their team and are led by one of them who has leadership quality’s towards their goals (Belbin,1981). All members in a group or organization should have a sense of individual responsibility for the task, team and individual circles. But not all are accountable. That is the leaders burden and that is why they have high authority. Even the management have similar qualities but the truth is that leadership and management are different concepts but they overlap.