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Higher education institutions shape the professions which are the conduit for the disciplines’ ways of knowing, the worldview or mindset of the professions, and the intellectual frameworks by which problems and policies are defined. The generational, conscious, and unconscious agreements between higher education and the professions perpetuate the status quo, resulting in continued disproportional impacts based on race, gender, ethnicity, language, orientation, and differing abilities in every major industry sector; including education, health, employment, housing, finance, technology, and the criminal justice system. Cultural responsive pedagogy provides a process of altering these agreements by surfacing the dual consciousness of our multiple social identities and the multidimensional social, political, and economic contexts in our collective co-existence. The connections between culture and mindset, conscious and unconscious, and the social-political context shape teaching and learning. Mindfulness is a pathway for cultivating cultural competency through embodied awareness by building the reflective muscle to recognize, disrupt, and transform deep-rooted beliefs, entrenched assumptions, and well-established behaviors. Mindfulness invites both faculty and students to bring their intellectual, social, emotional, and spiritual selves to the learning exchange.

The purpose of this study is to explore how multicultural curriculum and instruction in a teacher-credentialing program prepared pre-service teachers to work with diverse students.

The research method used was a qualitative approach. The research design was a descriptive single embedded case study to interview pre-service teachers who were in their second semester in a teacher-credentialing program at a university on the west coast and pre-service teachers who were in their final semester in the same teacher-credentialing program. Pre-service teachers discussed their disappointment in the program for their lack of training in how to work with culturally diverse students.

The findings from the study will add to the body of knowledge specific to teacher-credentialing programs, curriculum developers and universal design for learning on K-12 education.

As schools become more diverse, an important role of teacher-credentialing courses is to train future teachers with the knowledge to assist culturally diverse students. If teachers were multicultural teachers, they would be better prepared to instruct culturally diverse students and could acknowledge sociocultural resources and information that students bring to the classroom.

The study is essential because training teachers to instruct culturally diverse students is critical as student demographics become more diverse.

The need for social and emotional learning (SEL) has never been so clear. The growing understanding of its benefits has been made more evident by the stronger focus of state, district, and school leaders, educators, and families to leverage SEL as a strategy to promote emotional well-being, to combat systemic and interpersonal inequities, and to engage students in positive learning environments. With this urgency to use SEL practices, now is the time to ensure a focus on creating environments and experiences that promote social and emotional development and deepening understanding of the motivational factors that promote student and adult success. Motivation researchers have been studying the motivational elements – and associated interventions – that better equip youth and adults to engage in their learning environments, suggesting the importance that the two fields learn with and from each other. The introductory chapter of the volume, Motivating the SEL Field Forward Through Equity, explores the intersections and accelerators of the two fields to create optimal learning environments and experiences for all youth. Specifically, we provide a high-level overview of the two fields, including ways each field takes into account personal development in relation to context and culture. We further explore ways in which the two fields intersect, elevating the importance of understanding the role of equity and excellence in research and practice. We then focus on one approach that we believe elevates equity of voice in research – research–practice partnerships. Finally, we highlight how this volume is organized.

The United States’ National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems provides technical assistance to human service systems on person-centered thinking, planning and practices. To apply for the Center's technical assistance, 33 state human service systems submitted applications and participated in interviews in which they detailed technical assistance needs. This technical paper examines themes that emerged from these technical assistance applications and interviews. These themes offer a view into barriers, obstacles and priorities for human service systems as they work toward more person-centered practices. Common themes point to key areas that, if enhanced, could result in a more person-centered system overall.

The application process generated 33 applications containing technical assistance goals and priorities, summaries of recent and ongoing initiatives to advance person-centered approaches, measurement methods and anticipated challenges. Using thematic analysis, the authors organized the information into seven themes.

Applicants identified seven themes to improve person-centered thinking, planning and practices: Staff Training and Competencies, Participant Engagement, Measurement and Quality Improvement, Cross-System Consistency in Planning and Practice, Payment and Managed Care, Cultural and Linguistic Responsiveness and Other Practice-Related Goals. They also articulated contextual factors that help or hinder systems efforts and a vision for an ideal person-centered system.

The themes provide a unique window into human service system administrators' priorities for achieving more person-centered human service systems and the conditions that may promote or hinder systems change.

This paper aims to examine critical, college-going identities and literacies of first-generation immigrant youth within a dual enrollment, youth participatory action research seminar.

This study is a qualitative case study drawn from a larger, critical ethnographic study.

Findings illustrate that youth’s multiple literacies, forged in a deliberately intergenerational and relational space, served as a powerful site of analysis as well as a means to disrupt restrictive definitions of success, supporting youth’s worldmaking amidst the construction and negotiation of new and critical “academic” identities grounded in the familial, cultural and historical knowledges that their inquiries surfaced.

This research attends to the transformative power afforded by humanizing collectives that center youth voices and perspectives, specifically those of first-generation immigrant students.

The purpose of this paper is to examine educators’ beliefs, perceptions and use of culturally responsive practices in implementing a social-emotional learning (SEL) intervention.

Focus groups with school personnel in a school with a diverse student population that had sustained success with an SEL intervention were conducted. Grounded theory was used to analyze data.

The analyses produced 11 interrelated themes.

School personnel noted that instruction in culturally responsive practices was foundational and should occur before SEL intervention implementation commences to ensure the use of culturally responsive practices as part of SEL implementation. Moreover, they noted the importance of school community buy-in (administrator, faculty, staff, parent and student) in supporting school-based SEL intervention sustainability.

Within the USA, continued diversification of the student population is predicted, while the teaching force is projected to remain primarily White, middle class and female. Consequently, educators often differ in cultural background from their students, which has implications for SEL instruction. Incorporating the use of culturally responsive pedagogy in teaching SEL skills is one approach to addressing this cultural mismatch.

There are currently few studies that explore educator perceptions of SEL and no studies that examine the use of culturally responsive pedagogy in teaching SEL.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the findings from focus group interviews conducted with librarians and library staff, faculty and students. It highlights the significance of implementing inclusive teaching and culturally responsive strategies in instructional settings and interactions with library patrons and seeks to emphasize the importance of developing guidelines, best practices and effective strategies.

Using focus groups, this study interviewed librarians and library staff, faculty and students. This research approach identified, reviewed and assessed existing programs and practices in instruction and library interactions.

The findings from this paper indicate that while faculty and librarians are making individual efforts to promote inclusivity in teaching and interacting with patrons, many participants expressed the necessity for institutional-level training, guidelines and good practices on how to achieve and implement culturally responsive and inclusive teaching strategies.

The methodology utilized in this study can be adapted by other libraries or institutions aiming to explore the practice of inclusive pedagogy and culturally responsive teaching within their own context. The insights from the study inform the development of strategies that librarians, faculty and staff can employ to integrate inclusive and culturally responsive teaching into their instruction and services for the wider academic community.

In this chapter, we discuss teaching physical education to Black male students in urban schools. We present a brief account of the history and status of physical education and specifically examine school physical education, particularly for Black male students in urban geographical contexts. We also offer strategies to counter the narrative of Black male school failure and present strategies for addressing the needs of urban teachers and Black male students.

The dramatic population growth of Hispanics and immigrants, combined with the issue of diversity, in the United States population raises several important questions about the future role of public administration and the delivery of culturally appropriate and culturally responsive public programs and public services in the post modern era of diversity. What is cultural competency in public programs and public service delivery? Can public agencies become culturally competent organizations? What is a cultural competency model for public administration and public service delivery? Aims to answer these questions that point to the need for a “new” kind of public servant and public service agency provider– one who possesses explicit cultural competency skills to work with racial/ethnic and cultural/linguistic groups in the delivery of public programs and public services.

Utilizing a literature review approach, the paper examines the concept of culture in public administration and argues that “culture” and “competency” must be tied together thereby leading to a contemporary standard and operational framework for advancing cultural competency in public administration and public service delivery. The article argues that cultural competency can enhance public administration/public service delivery normative values by increasing an agency's ability to work efficiently, effectively, and equitably in the context of cultural differences.

The paper concludes that there are five reasons for incorporating cultural competency into the study and practice of public administration/public service delivery and moving a public agency toward cultural competence.

Embracing cultural competency in public service delivery recognizes the salience of understanding the cultural context in which any direct public service encounter occurs. Advancing cultural competency presents an opportunity to address the incomplete and often times inaccurate public services and public programs provided to minority populations. A focus on cultural competency increases the relevancy of a public agency's administration, services and programs to the groups that can best utilize them. Having knowledge, awareness, and skills in cultural competency, service delivery professionals are better prepared to do their jobs.

This paper should be of value to both academics and practitioners as they grapple with diversity and immigration issues, public administration, public programs and public service delivery.