session vii 7.pdf · · 2018-03-20i. defining culture ii. values iii. culture and caregivers ......

Preservice 907: Cultural Issues in Placement

Ohio Child Welfare Training Program. 2008

SESSION VII

CULTURAL ISSUES IN PLACEMENT

Skill Set and Competencies

Skill Set: Basic understanding of cultural issues in foster and kinship care and adoptive parenting. 1. Aware of the difference between culture, race, and ethnicity.

2. Aware of cultural issues involved in caring for children in alternative care.

3. Aware of ways children’s behavior reflects the values and codes of conduct of their

birth/primary families.

4. Aware of ways caregivers’ cultural point of view affects their relationships with children and birth families whose culture is different from theirs.

5. Aware of how values are often similar among cultural groups. Aware of how codes of conduct may be different, even in the same cultural group.

6. Aware of ways to help children with problems related to cultural issues at school, in the neighborhood, and with social service providers.

7. Aware of the caregiver’s role in making sure all children have equal access to services and activities they need.

8. Aware of why it is important to include the child’s culture into family practices and celebrations.

9. Aware of ways caregiver’s cultural background, values, beliefs, and standards may be different from the child’s. Aware of how these differences can affect the adjustment of the child and the caregiving family.



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Agenda I. Defining Culture

II. Values

III. Culture and Caregivers

Sources This curriculum has been adapted and reproduced, with permission, from the following sources: Rycus, J.S. & Hughes, R.C., (1998). "Culture and Diversity in Child Welfare Practice." In the Field Guide to Child Welfare. Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America. Rycus, J.S., Houston, D.S., Ginther, N.M, Hughes, R.C., and Maultsby, T.J. (1996). Training for Child Welfare Caseworkers and Supervisors in Culture and Diversity. Columbus, OH: Institute for Human Services.

Handouts #1 Culture Defined #2 Understanding Your Own Values and Patterns of Behavior

Section I. 45 minutes

Defining Culture Use: Handout #1

Trainer Instructions: After welcoming the group, the trainer should ask participants the following questions: hhhhIs culture important? hhhhWhy is culture important? hhhhHow is culture important? The trainer should allow a few participants to respond briefly to the questions. Participants should be asked to close their eyes and concentrate on their breathing for the next 20 seconds. The trainer may have participants notice if their breaths are long


Ohio Child Welfare Training Program. 2008 3

and deep or short and shallow. After about 20 seconds, the trainer should ask the following questions: hhhhHow many thought about their breathing earlier today? hhhhWhat about yesterday? hhhhWhat about last week? In general, most participants have not thought about their breathing unless there was a problem with it. The same is true for culture. The trainer should gently challenge the group with the following questions: hhhhIs breathing important? hhhhIf so, why haven’t you thought about it today or yesterday or last week? The trainer should make the following correlation between breathing and culture: hhhhBoth are a vital part of our everyday life. hhhhMost people spend very little time thinking about either until there’s a problem. hhhhIt is impossible to separate either breathing or culture from life. hhhhAs a matter of fact, both sustain our lives. The trainer can conclude this opening exercise by informing participants that they did not just become aware of their breathing. They have been breathing for quite a while; the trainer simply brought it to their conscious awareness. So it is with culture. It has always been a part of the lives of all participants. The workshop will make participants more conscious of their cultures during the next three hours. The trainer should make a poster on a piece of flip chart paper that says: Race = Culture Ethnicity = Culture Gender = Culture The trainer should ask participants to agree or disagree with these statements. Many prospective parents may tend to agree with the statements. The trainer should encourage the group to brainstorm other components of culture. The trainer should assist the group in developing a comprehensive list of these components. Some of the components mentioned by the group will include: Religion Food preferences Educational system Language and dialect Traditions Rituals Generational influences Codes of conduct Art and music Family rules Values Attitudes



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Beliefs Money system Work habits Norms of behavior Discipline styles Coping strategies Ways of relating to outsiders Dress codes and styles Child rearing practices Definitions of “strengths” Family structure Family relationships



Trainer Instructions: The trainer should ask parti cipants to compare and contrast the concepts of race, ethnicity, and gender to the list of cultural components. The trainer should ask, “What do race, ethnicity, and gender have in common?” hEvery person has them. hThey are fairly easy to recognize. hNo one has a choice about which one he or she has. hNo one has the ability to change them. The trainer should now ask, “What do the components of culture have in common?” hThey are all behaviors learned over a period of time. hThough unlikely, they are all behaviors that can be changed or modified. hIt is not easy to recognize all of these characteristics by looking at individuals. hThey are important to our daily functioning. At this point, the trainer should help participants understand that race, ethnicity, and gender affect culture but do not define culture. The trainer should return to the original poster and modify it to look like this: Race ≠≠≠≠ Culture Ethnicity ≠≠≠≠ Culture Gender ≠≠≠≠ Culture Trainer Note: The trainer can write the words “race,” “ethnicity,” and “gender” at the top of a flip chart with the list of the elements of culture at the bottom. With a blue marker, the trainer can draw a wavy line to delineate water between the words “race,” “ethnicity,” and “gender,” and the longer list of elements. The trainer can draw an iceberg to depict visually that, while race, ethnicity, and gender, are easily visible, the bulk of the iceberg (the elements of culture) are below the surface. Trainer Note: The trainer should use PowerPoint slide, Race-Ethnicity-Culture, to summarize key points. Content The first consideration in any discussion of culture is to define it and differentiate it from other related terms such as “race,” “nationality,” and “ethnicity.” While these terms are often used interchangeably, they have very different meanings.

Race refers to an anthropological system of classification of humans based upon physical characteristics. Race is determined by heredity. People who share a genetic heritage and who, as a result, have very similar physical characteristics constitute a racial group. The



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characteristics that determine one's race are strictly biological, and can include color and texture of hair, color of skin and eyes, stature, bodily proportions and bone structure, tooth formation, and many other less visible biological traits.

Currently, many anthropologists and ethnologists are questioning the fundamental validity and utility of racial classification, particularly in a world where there are so many variations in physical features among groups who would, at first glance, appear to belong to the same race, as well as many biological similarities that are shared by members of different racial groups. Jet travel and the removal of both physical and social boundaries between groups of people has also increased intermarriage, resulting in an amalgam of physical characteristics that cannot be easily categorized by race. Participants should also be aware that the criteria for racial delineation is somewhat arbitrary, based more upon political utility and historical inertia than upon different genetic criteria.

Ethnicity generally refers to a classification of people based upon their national or regional origin, such as "Nigerian," "Serbo-Croatian" or "Chinese." The word "ethnic" is derived from a Greek word that means "national" or "foreign." In the centuries prior to easy air and land travel, most people were born, married, had their children, and died within a relatively limited geographic area. As a result, the members of an ethnic group were usually of the same race and often shared a common historical and cultural background.

However, ethnicity and culture are not interchangeable. People from the same ethnic group may differ widely in their cultural traits, especially in today's world with relatively easy and widespread emigration and relocation. Conversely, there are often cultural similarities among people from different ethnic groups. When determining the degree to which ethnicity affects culture, one must consider the person's experiences with outside groups and the degree of assimilation that may have occurred. This is particularly important in the United States, where most people have relocated from their cultures of origin and have adapted to life in a new and different environment.

Gender simply refers to the biological sex of an individual--whether one is genetically and physically male or female. Gender does not refer to sexual behavior or orientation.

Culture is more complex than either ethnicity or race. Culture is a system of values, beliefs, attitudes, traditions, and standards of behavior that govern the organization of people into social groups and regulate both individual and group behavior. Culture is adaptive; it is created by groups of individuals and incorporated into group life to assure the survival and well being to the group's members.



Culture includes:

1) Cognitive systems, such as beliefs, attitudes, and values 2) Norms or rules regarding appropriate and inappropriate ways of behaving; and

sanctions, which are the rewards or punishments for appropriate and inappropriate behavior (These are sometimes referred to as codes of conduct.)

3) Definitions of roles for members of the culture, which are the appropriate and

expected behaviors of certain people based upon their gender, social position, or area of responsibility in the society

4) Spiritual or religious systems and institutions 5) Economic systems, which regulate the production, distribution, and sharing of

resources among members of the group 6) A political system, with designated leadership and identified rules to maintain social

order (These may include large formal governments or small tribal decision-making bodies.)

7) Language, which is the principal tool for communication among group members 8) The products of life, including the artistic and technological artifacts produced by the

group

While race is determined by one's biology, and ethnicity by one's national or regional origin, culture is "created by people." Cultural components are created by people and incorporated into group life to regulate social organization and to assure the survival and well being of group members.

In contrast to race, gender, or ethnicity, culture is entirely transmitted through learning. It is important to emphasize this point, since so much of cultural behavior, once learned, appears to be so "natural" that it can easily be perceived as “instinctive” or biologically determined. In fact, many people remain unaware that their beliefs and actions are, in fact, largely components of their culture, and learned over a lifetime.

Once people are conditioned by culture to meet their needs in particular ways, they tend to become so set in these ways that change is perceived as a threat to personal and interpersonal stability and continuity. However, the capacity to change is essential for ongoing adaptation and optimal adjustment to a changing environment. In short, while cultural traditions sustain people, they must be open to learning new ways and integrating change into their lives in order to survive in the ever-changing world.



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The trainer should prepare another poster that says, "Culture is created by groups of people to regulate their social life and assure their survival." The trainer can refer to this poster throughout the session. People who live together often have a common history and background. They may also have common cultural characteristics (for example, Vietnamese refugees or women in post-feminist America). However, it is just as likely that any two American women or any two Vietnamese refugees will have different cultural backgrounds--values, beliefs, and traits because of different environments, experiences, and different group affiliations.

When people equate race or ethnicity with culture, they are more likely to stereotype individuals and their cultural traits, based on the person's obvious and observable characteristics. In this country, confusing culture with race, ethnicity, and nationality has led to "diversity training" being viewed as a racial or ethnic issue, which is neither accurate nor productive. Trainer Instructions: The trainer should now help trainees understand how this applies to children in care. The trainer may ask the group for examples of how cultural differences may affect a child's adjustment to their home, their ability to understand the child's behavior, and their ability to understand the child's family. The trainer may prompt by asking trainees to consider how they felt, when they were children, going to spend the night at a friend's house for the first time. Do they remember what felt "different" and "uncomfortable" to them? The train er should help them understand how these differences might have reflected subtle differences in the family's culture. The trainer should write all ideas on a flip chart. The following might be included:

� The family might not understand the meaning of words the child uses; or the child might not fully understand them, particularly if the child's primary language is not English.

� The child may be accustomed to very different foods. The family's food may be

very strange to the child.

� Differences in the physical and social environment, or social or economic class of the caregiver family may be quite different from the child's own home. Examples include an urban youth who is placed with a family on a farm; an African American child from the inner city who is placed with a middle-class, suburban African American family; or a child with an Italian-American Catholic upbringing who is placed in an Amish family.



� The rules in the caregiving family may be very different from those in the child's own family. Parents or caregivers may interpret a child's behavior as "misbehavior" and discipline the child, when the child may simply be acting in ways that are approved in his or her own culture.

� The child may smell different to the family; and the family's home may smell

different to the child. � Parents or caregivers may need to learn different strategies for personal hygiene,

diet, and hair care. Children, like adults, want to feel they look attractive. Parents may need to ask for help with skin care or hair care from a knowledgeable professional who can inform parents about appropriate products to enhance the child’s appearance.

� The child in care also has to learn to negotiate a new extended family, school,

church, neighborhood, and community. Everything may have changed.

The trainer should conclude this discussion by introducing the concept of "culture shock." This term suggests that children in substitute care may experience cultural changes of a magnitude that would parallel an American adult, who has never traveled outside this country, spending a few months in a rural village in Pakistan. Caregivers must be sensitive to the enormity of cultural changes a child experiences when placed. Optional Exercise: Prior to training, the trainer should make lemon Jell-O, enough for each participant to have a small portion in a paper cup. Food coloring should be used to make some Jell-O purple, some red, and some green, while leaving some Jell-O yellow. Each participant should receive a small cup and a plastic spoon. Participants should be asked to taste their Jell-O and report what flavor they have. Most participants will report a flavor that matches the color of their Jell-O (purple=grape; red=cherry; green=lime; and yellow=lemon). The trainer should inform the group that they all had lemon Jell-O with food coloring added to some to change the color, but not the taste. To process this activity, the trainer should ensure the group understands how important perceptions are to interpretation of reality. Hint: The trainer should write the word “PERCEPTIONS” in large letters across the cultural iceberg poster.



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Section II. 45 minutes

Values

Use: Handout #2 Bridge: The trainer should begin the discussion by stating that values are the fundamental building blocks of culture. Trainees should, therefore, understand what values are, and how they affect peoples' thinking and behavior. In many cases, cultural differences reflect basic differences in values. At other times, however, the underlying values in different cultures are actually the same--what differs is the way these values are expressed in attitudes and behavior. To fully understand culture, one must understand, recognize, and properly identify the values that underlie that culture. The trainer should write the word "values" on a flip chart and ask participants to define values. The trainer should lead a discussion to arrive at the following definition. Definition of values: Values are general principles or ideals, usually related to worth and conduct, that a culture holds to be important. The values of any culture form the foundation for life within the culture. Values describe strongly held beliefs regarding what life and people should be like, what is "good" or "bad" in life, and what is "right" or "wrong" about behavior. Cultural values are communicated in statements about what represents a "good" life and about "appropriate" behavior. Trainer Instructions: The trainer should ask each trainee to express a value that is important to them, personally, or to their culture. The trainer should prompt the group to be sure that the statement includes a "should" component, and is not simply a "rule" of behavior. The trainer may begin by contributing a few values from the list below. The purpose is to have trainees recognize the diversity--and the similarity--of many values. The following statements could be considered values.

� The needs of the group are more important than individual needs. � Older persons should be esteemed and respected. � Being a good person is more important than attaining wealth. � Shaming your parents is the worst thing one can do. � Providing an education is the most important thing a parent can do for a child.



� People should be as industrious and productive as they can. � People should take all they can get while they can, because they may not have

tomorrow. � The sanctity of life itself is more important than the quality of life. � Harmony in the group is the healthiest way to live. � Personal worth is measured by success in a career. � Being a good person is more important than attaining wealth.

Values often address similar principles across cultures, such as what makes a person worthwhile, what constitutes success, and the importance of particular qualities in interpersonal relationships. However, the content and conclusions of the values, themselves, may be very different from culture to culture. One might also find competing values within a culture. An example of competing cultural values can be seen in the difficulties some women experience in deciding between career and parenting options.

Trainer Instructions: The trainer should prompt di scussion about the ways that commonly held values are expressed differently across cultures. The trainer should give one or two examples, and then ask members of the group to describe how the values were expressed in their own families. An example of a commonly held value across cultures would be: "All children should be educated to assure their survival, well-being, and productivity as adults." However, this may be expressed in very different ways, including:

� Spending a large percent of tax dollars on a public education system with mandatory attendance for all children

� Withdrawing children from public school after the fourth grade and sending them to

apprentice with community craftsmen

� Developing an elaborate "home schooling" program � Teaching children the skills needed to get along in the streets, to deal with racism

and discrimination, and to protect themselves

Exercise: Understanding Your Own Values and Patterns of Behavior Trainer Instructions: The trainer should distribut e Handout #2, Understanding Your Own Values and Patterns of Behavior. The trainer should explain that trainees will now have an opportunity to explore, in a small group, how their own family's values,



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attitudes, traditions, and behaviors may be similar or different when compared to values of other group members. The trainer should divide trainees into subgroups of three or four. Subgroups should be as diverse as possible. Each group should be asked to choose a different one of the questions to discuss. Trainees should be given about 15 minutes to compare notes. The large group should then be reconvened, and the groups should be asked to share what they learned about one another through the discussion.

Section III. 90 minutes

Culture and Caregivers

Trainer Instructions: The group should now focus on specific issues caregivers must address if they care for children whose cultural backgrounds are different from their own. The trainer should present the following points, and ask the trainees to briefly discuss each one. The trainer should use PowerPoint slide, Avoid Common Pitfalls, to illustrate key points. A. Avoid Ethnocentrism There are many ways in which a lack of cultural competence can cause people to seriously misinterpret or misjudge one another. One of the most common causes is "ethnocentrism." The word "ethnocentrism" is derived from the root words "ethnic," and "center." Essentially, when one is “ethnocentric,” he places his own culture at the center of his universe, typically resulting in an emotional attitude that his own race, nation, or culture is superior to all others [Webster 1983]. Ethnocentrism is characterized by a lack of exposure to persons from other cultures, an unwillingness to objectively consider alternative ways to live, or a naiveté regarding a person's own beliefs and values. A person has an ethnocentric perspective when she assumes that her own worldview is the "best one," the "right one," or even the "only one." Ethnocentrism is not an uncommon reaction of persons who have had little exposure to other cultures or cross-cultural training. When a person has an ethnocentric view, that person's own values and standards become the criteria against which he measures other people and their behaviors. Hence, he perceives differences in behavior and lifestyle to be "strange" or "deviant."



However, this attitude reflects, at best, a profound lack of understanding of others and, at worst, a pervasive disrespect for other people. Ethnocentrism prevents people from communicating effectively with those from other cultural backgrounds, and sets them up to misinterpret others’ behaviors, needs, and feelings. It also keeps people from recognizing the shortcomings and limitations of their own culture, and subsequently, prevents them from recognizing a need to change. At worst, the idealization of a person’s own culture, and accompanying self-pride, can become prejudice against anyone or anything that is different. The first step to becoming culturally competent is to be open to allowing one’s own worldviews to be challenged by others who may believe differently, and recognizing the truth of "different strokes for different folks." B. Do Not Stereotype Stereotypes are general statements about the presumed characteristics of a racial, ethnic, or cultural group and its members. The greatest danger of stereotypes is that they have the potential to communicate misinformation and promote misjudgments about these groups and their members. A "stereotype" was originally a metal plate, made from a mold, and used on a printing press. The related dictionary definition of "stereotype" is a "fixed, unvarying form or pattern, having no individuality as though cast from a mold" (Webster, 1983). When ethnocentric travelers return home from a trip abroad, they often describe the people they visited by listing the characteristics and traits they observed. People are led to believe, for example, that all Parisians drink wine at dinner and are generally impolite to Americans.

While it is true that members of a cultural group share many common values, traits, and characteristics, it is not true that all members of a cultural group are alike in all ways. In fact, there is a range of differences in values, attitudes, and behaviors among persons of any cultural or ethnic group.

The fallacy of stereotyping is a common fallacy of logic. People draw conclusions where no conclusions are warranted. As a result, these conclusions will often be wrong. At times, stereotypes may be derived from misinformation about a culture. This may occur if conclusions are drawn about a group from experiences with a small, and not always representative sample. For example, when people are challenged about their stereotypic



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remarks, they will retort, "well, all the (label) people I've ever met are like that!" The "all" referred to could be a handful of people, or a small subgroup in a larger community, but is rarely representative of the group, as a whole. In other cases, stereotypes develop because a few members of a particular group have a high degree of visibility, and are then assumed to be representative of the group, as a whole. For example, a preponderance of black athletes in professional basketball leads many people to conclude "black males are good basketball players." Stereotypes can communicate misinformation that can be viewed as either positive or negative. Stereotypes that communicate negative information can promote censure, mistrust, and fear. The stereotype thus promotes strong emotional reactions of fear, dislike, or censure.

If a stereotype describes a trait that is normally valued as positive, it is less likely to be recognized as a stereotype. For example, a statement such as, "Asian people are very polite and respectful of other people" could be an accurate description of many Asian persons, and could be construed as a compliment. However, the statement is still a stereotype, still has the potential to misinform, and, therefore, can be harmful, particularly when used to "prejudge" another person and expect another to exhibit the traits delineated in the stereotype. Once a stereotype is in place, it can affect all further judgments about a group and is often very difficult to change. The "myth" becomes "truth" simply because it is so widely touted. Once this happens, even the presentation of accurate information, unfortunately, may not alter the stereotypic belief. To understand another culture, a person must be fully familiar with the characteristics and traits that are prevalent in that culture, and their accurate meaning. Yet, such attempts to understand other cultures have too often resulted in the development of a "laundry list" of characteristics thought to exemplify a particular group. This poses a dilemma. To be culturally competent, a person needs accurate and relevant information about that culture. However, making generalized statements about the traits or behaviors of that culture's members can easily become stereotyping.

Trainer Instructions: The trainer should ask trainees to come up with two stereotypes they have heard about their own cultural, ethnic, social, or racial group--one which could be seen as positive, or a compliment, and one which is derogatory. For example, "Anacondans" really promote literacy; and “Anacondans” are all involved in organized crime. Trainees do not have to believe these stereotypes to be true. They may have heard them from other people, at work, from friends and associates, or seen them in the media, movies, or on television. The trainer should strengthen the "safe environment" by stressing that most people use stereotypes and, most often, this is without intended malice. It is important to accept stereotyping as an expectable initial response to diversity and the unknown. General



statements about groups of people are often attempts to organize and categorize information about the world. These general statements can be helpful, or they can be greatly misleading, depending upon their accuracy and how they are used. C. Recognize and Respect the Perceptions of Children and Youth in

Care, and Their Families Children and youth come into care with certain beliefs and perceptions that reflect their own cultures and past experiences. Hence, they may have preconceived ideas about caregivers, as surely as caregivers have preconceived ideas about them. Parents and caregivers must understand that the ways these children and their families view the world are based on many factors, including developmental level, stereotypes they have heard, and past life experiences. Particularly important are past positive and negative experiences with adults from cultures which might differ from the child’s culture. For example, past experience with particular foster, adoptive, or kinship parents, school teachers, or law enforcement personnel might affect how that child views all adults from that cultural group. Parents and caregivers must be careful not to take offense at misperceptions about them, but help children understand that, while the caregiver’s ways might be different, they often reflect common underlying values, and there is value to both the child’s ways and the caregiver’s. If caregivers can communicate acceptance and respect of children’s ways, they are likely to develop more respect for those of the caregiver. D. Support Self-Esteem and Self-Image The development of self-esteem and self-image are very important developmental tasks throughout childhood. This culminates in the development of a positive identity during adolescence. Self-esteem, self-image, and identity are often damaged by the losses of continuity experienced by foster or adoptive children, and by the negative life experiences, including maltreatment, that led to their placement. However, while maltreatment, separation, and placement can hamper the development of self-esteem, a stable placement in a foster, kinship, or adoptive family can also help a child develop positive self-esteem. Much of the literature suggests that children in care must develop a healthy "bicultural" identity, which allows them to incorporate elements from their past and current cultural environments as their own. Foster, adoptive, and kinship parents can enhance this process by being willing to incorporate many of the child's cultural practices into their family, as they expect the child to take on some of the family's cultural patterns. The ability of the parents to accept communication differences, differences in values, beliefs, and patterns of behavior, also enhances the development of mutual respect and regard, better understanding, and stronger attachments, between the culturally different youth and his or her foster or adoptive parent.



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Trainer Instructions: The trainer should use PowerPoint slide, The Distorted Mirror Metaphor, to reinforce this point: The Different Mirror metaphor (by poet Adrienne Rich) states that the image of a mirror is a distorted mirror in which those omitted from consideration by society cannot see themselves reflected. The self-image of a foster child may depend on whether these children can look into the mirrors of a foster parent and see themselves compassionately reflected. Trainer Note: As part of the discussion about development of positive self-esteem and self-image, the trainer should emphasize the importance of learning about grooming skills important to all skin and hair types of children entering the caregiver’s home. Caregivers who are unfamiliar with the skin and hair care of children entering their homes should be encouraged to take advantage of the expertise of beauty salons familiar with the grooming needs of foster or adopted children for information about appropriate products and techniques. Additional resources helpful to foster caregivers and adoptive parents can be found in training workshops about grooming products and techniques specific to the needs of children in care. E. Dealing With Issues of Racism and Discrimination Evidence suggests youth and adolescents of color face various forms of racism and discrimination from peers, educational institutions, and from the community1. Awareness of these issues by foster, adoptive, and kinship parents is the first step in helping youth to deal with discrimination2. Foster, adoptive, and kinship parents must develop a level of comfort in addressing issues of racism and discrimination with the child. This would include acknowledging that the incident has occurred, by eliciting and carefully listening to the child's reactions and feelings about the incident, and by reflecting back to the child his or her feelings of anger, confusion, or disappointment. (Reflection of feelings is a strong coping strategy within the cultures of many peoples of color.) Another strategy is to maintain an open and ongoing dialogue about racism and discrimination in the child’s environment. The child must feel permitted and empowered to discuss these issues with someone the child perceives to understand the nature and impact of discrimination. Discussion should help the child acquire the coping and survival strategies in dealing with racism and other forms of discrimination.

1 Feagin, Joe and Sikes, Melvin. Living with Racism. Beacon Press. 1994. pp. 1-36. 2 Steinberg, Gail and Hall, Beth. An Insider’s Guide to Transracial Adoption. Pact Press. 1998. p. 37.



Trainer Instructions: The trainer may engage the group in the following exercise to reinforce their perceptions of themselves and their own cultural milieu.



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Exercise: Cups and Beads

Trainer Instructions: The trainer should divide the group into subgroups of four to five trainees, and should give each participant a clear plastic cup. Each small group or table should have six different colors of beads, each color representing a racial group, as denoted below. The trainer should explain to participants that stereotypic colors are used to represent various racial groups to make the activity easy for participants to complete without need for checking “codes” (i.e., lavender beads being used to represent one racial group, lime green beads another, etc.). Black beads = African Americans Red beads = Native Americans Tan beads = Latino Americans White beads = European or White Americans Yellow beads = Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Brown beads = Multi-Racial Americans, or a highly mixed group of people The trainer should tell participants:

“I will be asking you to complete a series of sentences. You should complete each sentence in a way that best describes your own personal situation, by placing one bead per phrase in your empty cup. In other words, as I call out the following phrases, place into your cup the one colored bead that best completes the phrase. If one question does not apply to you, simply skip that question, put no bead into your cup, and wait to respond to the next question.”

If there is not sufficient time to complete all the phrases, the trainer should choose half of the phrases, a sufficient number to get the point across. Phrases.

1. I am__________ 2. My immediate family is__________ 3 Most of my co-workers are__________ 4. My supervisor is__________ 5. If I choose to worship, the people I worship with are predominantly_________ 6. My high school was predominantly__________ 7. My teachers were mostly__________ 8. My children’s teachers are mostly__________ 9. My close friends are mainly__________



10. My dentist is__________ 11. My primary doctor is__________ 12. My lawyer is__________ 13. My hairdresser or barber is__________ 14. My spouse or partner is__________ 15. People who live in my home are mostly__________ 16. People who regularly visit my home are mostly__________ 17. People whose homes I regularly visit are mostly__________ 18. My closest friend is__________ 19. The authors of books I read are mostly__________ 20. Musicians I listen to are mostly__________ 21. The actors in movies I prefer are mostly__________ 22. The TV shows I prefer contain actors who are mostly__________ 23. Artists whose works I prefer are mostly__________ 24. The writers and publisher of the newspapers and magazines I read are mostly_ 25. The CEO of my company is__________

Debriefing Questions

� How would you describe the composition of your cup?

� How do you feel about your cup?

� Are all the cups the same? Why or why not?

� Is there value in having a multi-colored cup? If so, what are some of the benefits (list benefits for both adults and children)?

� Why is diversity important for all children?

� If you are dissatisfied with your cup as it is, how do you get your cup to look

different? Now, one final question:

27. Place a bead in your cup that represents the child(ren) you plan to adopt or foster. What do you notice about the “child” bead in relation to the rest of the beads in your cup? Key Learning

� Each person’s cup is a reflection of him or herself.

� Diversity--or gaining the benefits from interacting with people of different ethnicities--is a deliberate and conscious choice.



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� Because of demographics, people of color do not always have the choice to interact

only with those like them. People of color live in a bicultural world in which they must learn codes of conduct for the majority culture as well as those for their own ethnic or cultural group.

� No one should feel guilty about the contents of his cup.

� While each person’s cup may not yet be filled with multi-color beads, this activity

can metaphorically represent the opportunity for additional exposure to different races, ethnicities, and cultures to diversify and enrich each person’s future life experience.

Trainer Instructions: The trainer should conclude the session by making the following points. It is helpful to make a poster of these points on a flip chart to display while closing the session and responding to questions. Foster or adoptive parent awareness of the issues of racism and discrimination, racial identity formation, and self-esteem issues will assist children of color to survive in today’s society. Foster or adoptive parents who are sensitive to cultural differences can make a significant difference in helping a child adjust and feel more "at home" in their family. Some children in care may experience discrimination as a result of racial differences or cultural differences. Racial differences can be obvious, but many children struggle with discrimination related to more subtle, or cultural, differences. Some children may experience discrimination because of their sexual orientation, because they are differently abled, or even because they speak, behave, or dress differently than the children in the neighborhood or school district of the new parent. Most children do not like to be perceived as different from their peers. Parental sensitivity to the human need for acceptance as well as barriers to that acceptance will assist the child in developing positive self esteem. Optional Homework Assignment: Participants should talk with a close friend about the biggest mistake of his or her life. What happened? Why did it happen? How has this mistake impacted his or her current life? How has this mistake impacted the way other people perceive him or her?



Pre-Training Handout

Skill Sets and Competencies Skill Set: Basic understanding of cultural issues in foster and kinship care and adoptive parenting. • Aware of the difference between culture, race, and ethnicity.

• Aware of cultural issues involved in caring for children in alternative care.

• Aware of ways children’s behavior reflects the values and codes of conduct of their

birth/primary families.

• Aware of ways caregivers’ cultural point of view affects their relationships with children and birth families whose culture is different from theirs.

• Aware of how values are often similar among cultural groups. Aware of how codes of conduct may be different, even in the same cultural group.

• Aware of ways to help children with problems related to cultural issues at school, in the neighborhood, and with social service providers.

• Aware of the caregiver’s role in making sure all children have equal access to services and activities they need.

• Aware of why it is important to include the child’s culture into family practices and celebrations.

• Aware of ways caregiver’s cultural background, values, beliefs, and standards may be different from the child’s. Aware of how these differences can affect the adjustment of the child and the caregiving family.



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Handout #1

Culture Defined

The first consideration in any discussion of culture is to define it and differentiate it from other related terms, such as “race,” “nationality,” and “ethnicity.” While these terms are often used interchangeably, they have very different meanings.

Race refers to an anthropological system of classification of humans based upon physical characteristics determined by heredity. People who share a genetic heritage and who, as a result, have very similar physical characteristics constitute a racial group. The characteristics that determine one's race are strictly biological, and can include color and texture of hair, color of skin and eyes, stature, bodily proportions and bone structure, tooth formation and many other less visible biological traits. Currently, many anthropologists and ethnologists are questioning the fundamental validity and utility of racial classification, particularly in a world where there are so many variations in physical features among groups who would, at first glance, appear to belong to the same race, as well as many biological similarities that are shared by members of different racial groups. People should be aware that the criteria for racial delineation is somewhat arbitrary, based more upon political utility and historical inertia than upon different genetic criteria.

Ethnicity generally refers to a classification of people based upon their national or regional origin, such as "Nigerian," "Serbo-Croatian," or "Chinese." The word "ethnic" is derived from a Greek word that means "national" or "foreign." In the centuries prior to easy air and land travel, most people were born, married, had their children, and died within a relatively limited geographic area. As a result, the members of an ethnic group were usually of the same race and often shared a common historical and cultural background.

However, ethnicity and culture are not interchangeable. People from the same ethnic group may differ widely in their cultural traits, especially in today's world with relatively easy and widespread emigration and relocation. Conversely, there are often cultural similarities among people from different ethnic groups.

Gender simply refers to the biological sex of an individual--whether one is genetically and physically male or female. Gender does not refer to sexual behavior or orientation.



Culture is more complex than either ethnicity or race. Culture is a system of values, beliefs, attitudes, traditions, and standards of behavior that govern the organization of people into social groups and regulate both individual and group behavior. Culture is adaptive; it is created by groups of individuals and incorporated into group life to assure the survival and well being of the group's members.

Culture includes:

1) Cognitive systems, such as beliefs, attitudes, and values 2) Norms (rules regarding appropriate and inappropriate ways of behaving and sanctions,

rewards, or punishments for appropriate and inappropriate behavior) 3) Definitions of roles for members of the culture, which are the appropriate and

expected behaviors of certain people based upon their gender, social position, or area of responsibility in the society

4) Spiritual or religious systems and institutions 5) Economic systems, which regulate the production, distribution, and sharing of

resources among members of the group 6) A political system, with designated leadership and identified rules to maintain social

order (These may include large formal governments or small tribal decision-making bodies.)

7) Language, the principal communication tool among group members 8) The products of life, including the artistic and technological artifacts produced by the

group

While race is determined by one's biology and ethnicity by one's national or regional origin, culture is "created by people." Cultural components are created by individuals and incorporated into group life to regulate social organization and to assure the survival and well being of group members.

Human culture, in contrast to race, gender, or ethnicity, is almost entirely transmitted through learning. It is important to emphasize this point, since so much of cultural behavior, once learned, appears to be so "natural" that it can easily be perceived as “instinctive” or biologically determined. In fact, many people remain unaware that their beliefs and actions are, in fact, largely components of their culture, or learned over a lifetime.



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Handout #2

Understanding Your Own Values and Patterns of Behavior Please dialogue the following topics in your groups. See if you could determine the values that underlie each set of behaviors. Do your group members have different sets of values, or different patterns of behavior that reflect common values? 1. Who took care of you when your mother had to go out? At what age were you left

alone? At what age were children in your family given responsibility to care for the other kids in the family? At what age were you allowed to babysit when your parents weren’t at home?

2. What form of discipline or punishment did your family use most often? Did this form

of discipline affect how you felt about your parents? How so? Were there any kinds of discipline or punishment that your parents wouldn’t use because they felt it was harmful to you?

3. What were the family rules about meals? Did everyone sit down at the table together?

Did your mother cook regular meals? Did children cook? Did the kids feed the other kids? Could you eat whatever you wanted, when you chose? What kinds of foods did you eat a lot of?

4. Did your family have different expectations for different children in the family? For

older (or younger) children? For boys and girls? 5. Who made what kinds of decisions in your family? Which were made by your mother,

and which by your father? Were there any joint decisions? Was there influence from extended family, grandparents, or others living in the home? What decisions were children permitted to make for themselves?

6. Who did your family turn to for help and support in times of need or trouble? Did you

help yourselves? Did you turn to immediate, close, or extended family? Did you turn to a wide range of extended family and friends? A religious group? A community? Professional help?

7. Did adults other than your parents care for you for a period of time or have a strong

influence on your development? How did you feel about being cared for by people other than your parents? What was your relationship with kin? What part did aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, non-blood family, godparents, or others play in your life?



8. What were your family’s values and beliefs about the following:

� Respecting your elders � Sex outside of marriage � Pregnancy outside of marriage � Parents who neglect their children � Formal education � Talking to people outside the family about family matters � Finances, money, and the importance of money and success � What your parents wanted for you

9. Which of your family’s values and patterns of behavior do you still adhere to, and

which have you changed? 10. Relate your values and patterns of behavior to those of children or adolescents who may

be placed in your home. Will they have similar values? Do you think they might place similar priorities on values, such as education or respect for elders?

11. Were there any times when you felt strange or different from your peers? Did you feel

like an outcast or like you just didn’t fit in? What were the circumstances? At what age did you feel this way? How did you feel your peers related to you? Did you overcome these feelings or circumstances?

12. Did your family attend a religious institution? Did your parents encourage you to

attend? Did you have any choice to attend or not to attend? What were the family rules about attendance? How did you feel about attending or not attending a religious institution?

13. At any time did other children come to live with your family? What were the

circumstances? How did you feel about those children? How do you think they felt? How long did they stay? Under what circumstances did they come or go?

session vii 7.pdf · · 2018-03-20i. defining culture ii. values iii. culture and caregivers ......

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