Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
for Sensitive Infant Care
OUTLINE
1. Opening remarks
2. Video clips from The Way Home showing
diverse identity issues
3. Debriefing video clips in pairs and/or small
groups
4. “Race and culture as Taboo Subjects” (Small
group exercise)
5. Report-back and processing exercise.
6. Training strategies
7. Experiential exercise around cultural differences
in feeding practices
8. Communication skills in the face of
disagreements: Acknowledge, ask, and adapt
Role play illustrating some blocks
9. Wrap up
Developed by Douglas Quiett and Janet Gonzalez-Mena. © WestEd, The Program for
Infant/Toddler Care. This document may be reproduced for educational purposes.
Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
for Sensitive Infant Care
KEY CONCPETS
• Understanding your own
assumptions and childhood
conditioning
• Developing cultural
responsiveness and skills in
authentic dialogue
• Gaining information about
identity formation in infants and
toddlers
• Harmonizing cultural differences
in childrearing practices.
Developed by Douglas Quiett and Janet Gonzalez-Mena. © WestEd, The Program for
Infant/Toddler Care. This document may be reproduced for educational purposes.
Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
for Sensitive Infant Care
GOALS FOR SESSION
1. Allow participants to experience a session on
diversity that goes beneath the surface into deep
underlying issues of race, culture, and class.
2. Increase participants understanding of the critical
role that caregivers play in the process of infants’
identity development
3. Explore with participants how stereotypes and
belief systems influence each person’s ability to
communicate with people different from
themselves and work cross racially and cross
culturally.
4. Explore cultural competency in caregiving
practices and how to use a process to
communicate around differences
5. Expose participants to a variety of training
strategies and materials to help them plan their
own workshop.
Developed by Douglas Quiett and Janet Gonzalez-Mena. © WestEd, The Program for
Infant/Toddler Care. This document may be reproduced for educational purposes.
Culture
Ethnicity
Self
Identity
Values
Beliefs
Attitudes
Behaviors
Power
Social Class
Race
Skin Color
or
Tone
Racist Society
Sexist Society
Homophobia
Cultural
Ethnocentrism
Racial
Differences
Stereotypes
Differences
Experiences
Power
Experiences
Language
Differences
Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
for Sensitive Infant Care
CHILDHOOD CONDITIONING
1. No human being is born with racist, sexist
and other oppressive attitudes.
2. As children, we received messages both
overt and subtle that conditioned us to
think about people different from ourselves
in stereotypical ways.
3. The messages were not necessarily
intentional.
4. We got those messages family, friends,
from the society-at-large – from TV, from
textbooks…
5. Our responses to stereotypes affected how
we saw people, felt about them and
automatically responded to them.
6. It is possible to get off of automatic,
become aware of our reactions and make
choices about how to respond.
Developed by Douglas Quiett. © WestEd, The Program for Infant/Toddler Care.
This document may be reproduced for educational purposes.
Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
for Sensitive Infant Care
THE WAY HOME
A VIDEO
by World Trust Educational
Services, Inc
Developed by Douglas Quiett. © WestEd, The Program for Infant/Toddler Care.
This document may be reproduced for educational purposes.
Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
for Sensitive Infant Care
Processing the video
in pairs
and in the
whole group
Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
DISCUSSIONS REGARDING
CULTURE AND RACE
•
Why are race and culture taboo
subjects and emotional topics to
discuss in this society?
•
What makes you uncomfortable or
comfortable about discussion culture,
ethnicity and race in the following
settings:
A. A group of same race and culture
B. An equally mixed group
C. A group where you are in the
minority
•
What is the worst thing that you can
imagine happening when discussing
culture and race?
Developed by Douglas Quiett. © WestEd, The Program for Infant/Toddler Care.
This document may be reproduced for educational purposes.
Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
for Sensitive Infant Care
Sharing from the groups
What one thing stands out
from the group discussion
that is worth sharing with
the whole group? Please
be brief.
Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
for Sensitive Infant Care
Planning your own
training:
Some handouts and
training strategies
Please see handout:
“Definitions on Culture,
Ethnocentrism,
Oppression, and
Internalized Oppression”
Developed by Janet Gonzalez-Mena. © WestEd, The Program for Infant/Toddler Care.
This document may be reproduced for educational purposes.
Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
for Sensitive Infant Care
“Ethnic SelfAwareness”
Activity
Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
for Sensitive Infant Care
“Uncovering Memories
of Oppression”
Activity
Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
for Sensitive Infant Care
“Racial Awareness”
Activity
Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
for Sensitive Infant Care
“Checklist
for
Equity identity
Formation in InfantToddler Programs”
Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
for Sensitive Infant Care
“The Givens of
Culture”
Can be used for
Lecture and
Discussion
Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
for Sensitive Infant Care
“Assumptions”
Can be used for
Lecture and
Discussion
Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
for Sensitive Infant Care
Find other handouts
in your packet that can
be useful for planning
training strategies.
Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
for Sensitive Infant Care
Cross Cultural
Feeding Exercise
Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
for Sensitive Infant Care
Directions for Feeding
Exercise
Harmonizing Cultural Diversity
for Sensitive Infant Care
Wrap up and
Evaluation