Cultural Diversity and Social Skills Instruction: Understanding Ethnic and Gender Differences
Gwendolyn Cartledge, JoAnne Fellows Milburn
This book affirms that the behaviors of young people from culturally diverse populations need to be viewed from a cultural perspective, and that instruction should affirm students and empower them to achieve maximally as well as to benefit others. A theme that underlies the entire book is the advocacy of direct instruction in social skills, followed by opportunities for practice and conditions for maintenance. The first chapter emphasizes the relationship between culture and social behavior and highlights the importance of ethnic identity. Chapter 2 outlines generic and empirically validated methods for social skills instruction, consisting of skill training and cooperative learning procedures. Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 consider approaches pertinent to the education of Asian Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanic Americans, respectively. Chapter 7 concludes the discussion with a consideration of gender differences. Within the framework of success for all, the book advocates achievement over survival, prevention over intervention, development over containment, and proactive approaches over reaction. References follow the chapters. (Contains eight tables.)
Gwendolyn Cartledge, JoAnne Fellows Milburn. Cultural Diversity and Social Skills Instruction: Understanding Ethnic and Gender Differences (1996). Research Press: Champaign, IL.
(398 pages).
Language: English
Reading Level: Average
Formats Available: Printed Material
Research Press
2612 North Mattis Avenue
Champaign, IL
61822
Phone: (800) 519-2707
Fax: (217) 352-1221
Email: rp@researchpress.com
URL: http://www.researchpress.com
Languages Available: English
Intended User Audience:
This book is appropriate for administrators, pre-service students, faculty/trainers, service delivery personnel, and paraprofessionals wanting to work with K-12 students from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Product Development:
This book is developed by Gwendolyn Cartledge with contributions by JoAnne Fellows Milburn as well as a diverse group of developers who come from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
Product Evaluation:
Not done yet.
Product Dissemination:
This book is disseminated in the US for K-12 schools and university courses. The number of copies of this material is unknown.
Review #1
About the reviewer:
The reviewer has worked for over 20 years with culturally and
linguistically diverse children and their families in urban,
suburban, and rural settings. She has worked directly with Latinos
in California, Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. She has examined
model inclusive early childhood programs and their cultural
responsiveness for Native Americans in New Mexico. She currently
works with students and families from the Middle East and Pacific
Rim. She has a Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico in
special education with an emphasis on multicultural early childhood
special education.
Audience:
The author recommends this book for administrators, pre-service students, faculty-trainers, service delivery personnel, and paraprofessionals who want to work more effectively with K-12 students from diverse cultural backgrounds. In addition, personnel in nursing, social work, and other related fields will find this text insightful. The material provides the reader an opportunity to self-examine personal and professional responsiveness toward the social skills of children from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Strengths of the Material:
This text defines a number of issues surrounding cultural differences and social learning in classrooms across the United States. Instead of stressing differences, the author emphasizes the complexities of increasing diversity in our educational institutions. The material provides teachers' and other practitioners' experiences helping children and adolescents develop more adaptive social behaviors. Further, strengths of this text include (a) a skillful blending of research from the outstanding researchers in the field, making their work highly understandable for readers from a variety of backgrounds; and (b) an excellent organizational format that serves as both a textbook and a resource on the topic.
The text consists of seven chapters discussing (a) the relationship between cultural and social behavior and between school culture and the child's culture; (b) validated methods of social instruction and cooperative learning strategies for specific cultural groups including Asian Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanic Americans; and (c) issues related to gender differences and their implications for teaching. The author repeatedly advises the reader to provide a respectful, non-threatening, and nurturing environment supporting the culturally sensitive and research-based classroom practices described in the text.
Overall, the text reflects accepted theories and recommended practices in multicultural education, diversity studies, and intergroup communication and social skills. This text also goes a step further and extends theory with an in-depth consideration of social skills and behaviors of specific cultural groups, information often lacking in other publications for fear of creating a "them and us" mentality.
Limitations of the Material:
A limitation of this material is that it requires the reader to be proficient in written English. The material is responsive to and reflective of cultural, linguistic and gender diversity; however it is not equally responsive to contemporary issues faced by students such as gangs, media, drugs, and diverse parenting styles. For example, while the text provides wonderful role-playing activities and scenarios, it does not take the opportunity to extend these valuable types of social skills to the difficult issues students face in their daily lives. An additional limitation is that the values, beliefs, and practices common to the intended participants may be in conflict with and invalidate the understandings being addressed. The author does not specifically address these possibly divisive issues.
Adaptations:
This text reflects best practice in multicultural and diversity research and research on cultural differences in social learning in culturally diverse groups in the United States. This reviewer works in a highly culturally diverse area in Southern California where Euro-Americans are often the minority in the classroom and workplace. This reviewer would suggest the author address this issue of "demographics reversal" and its dynamics in the classroom. Additional recommendations include (a) translation into diverse languages, and (b) adaptations/insight for readers who are other than Euro-American.
Generalizability:
This text is useful for classrooms and educational settings across the United States. Obviously, to understand and apply this text to its fullest benefit the reader must be comfortable and proficient in reading English and have some knowledge of child development and educational practices. The concepts and practical strategies related to cultural and linguistic responsiveness, improved social skills, and the relationship of ethnic identity to psychological adjustment and adaptive behavior are meaningful to individuals in any culturally diverse setting.
Recommendations:
Recommend. The material is highly inviting and responsive to diversity and social learning with specific cultural groups. This text has many strengths and is an effective textbook and/or resource needing few adaptations for its use. As a textbook, the material is a wonderful resource for teachers and a stimulus for in-depth classroom discussions for its intended audiences.
Producer's Response:
Not available at this time.
Review #2
About the reviewer:
The reviewer has been an educator and administrator for several
schools and universities in the Midwest, South, and Southwest and
has received a doctorate from the University of Cincinnati. The
reviewer has worked with diverse populations in urban, rural, and
isolated areas, including children and families who are African
American, European American, Native American (Navajo and Hopi), and
Mexican American.
Audience:
The purpose of this material is to define the issues and share information about children's social skills within the context of classroom teachers' and other practitioners' efforts to help culturally diverse children and adolescents develop adaptive social behaviors and to examine the relationship between culture and social learning. This material is relevant for administrators, pre-service students, faculty/trainers, service delivery personnel, and paraprofessionals, counselors, and school psychologists working with K-12 students from diverse cultural backgrounds. This material is also appropriate for professionals involved in early childhood education, early intervention/early childhood special education, bilingual education, special education, ESL education and therapy staff such as speech-language pathologists. Users should be at an advanced level, as the material contains a great deal of research and some technical writing.
Strengths of the Material:
The strengths of this material are numerous. It is well organized with an average to above average reading level. The text has eight highly informative tables on topics such as "Family structure and dynamics in East Asian and American cultures" and "Comparison of African Americans and European Americans in communication behaviors". Three chapters focus on culture and social behavior, social skills and gender, and a social skills teaching model, respectively.
The authors dedicate one chapter to each of the following groups: Asian American, African American, Native American, and Hispanic American. Each chapter begins with demographic and background information regarding family and school. A component of these chapters that this reviewer finds particularly helpful to teachers and other educators are social skill profiles and associated social skills interventions. The material provides detailed examples of culture-specific social skill strengths and needs and culturally appropriate intervention strategies. A wide range of instructional strategies is described including direct instruction, peer mediation, cooperative learning, peer tutoring, multisensory presentations, and storytelling. The material also includes an extensive reference section after each chapter.
This material is suitable for interdisciplinary teams, including families, as the role of parents and families are addressed throughout the text. The material does an excellent job of providing a variety of methods for conveying information that reflects different learning styles and social skills patterns. The material acknowledges and addresses issues of power, racism, prejudice, and socio-economic class. For example, the material provides information about the Racial Identity Attitude Scale (RAIS) (Parham & Helms, 1981) which is an instrument measuring self-identity among African Americans.
The importance of family participation in the successful development of their child's social skills is a definite strength of this material. The material emphasizes the importance of establishing rapport with families and their unique learning goals in order to support parent-child social skill building activities. The authors show how everyday activities that occur in children's home, school, and community can help facilitate children's social skill development. Further, the information in this material encourages communication among partners (e.g., families, teachers, childcare providers) regarding behavioral expectations.
Limitations of the Material:
The material does not contain any graphics or photographs. The material also has a strong research orientation, which may cause it to be underutilized by audiences such as paraprofessionals, or undergraduates with limited research background.
Adaptations:
Depending upon the audience, the presentation of the information in this material may need to be modified. The potential audiences range from parents to undergraduate teacher candidates to graduate students in advanced courses. The material is an excellent resource, reference, or text for all of these audiences, but may need to be revised to better meet each group. For example, the undergraduate student may need more information in order to facilitate rapport with the family. The user of the material may need to supplement with application information such as family systems theory, tips for working with families, or strategies (e.g. home visits, informal communications, notes home, phone calls, meeting at a neutral setting).
Generalizability:
The material provides a sound theoretical base in the area of social skills development and could be useful in many communities and with many types of audiences (including pre-service students, teachers, and administrators with different backgrounds and from diverse cultural/ethnic groups). However, the user needs to have knowledge reflective of the specific cultural and linguistic diversity in their community in order to match the information in the material to those specific group(s).
Recommendations:
Recommend. As a trainer and researcher, this reviewer finds the information in this material both educational and useful. This material is an asset to professionals working with culturally diverse children, parents, and staff. The material is also easy to use and reflects current recommended practices.
Producer's Response:
Not available at this time.
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