Social Transformations in India, Myanmar, and Thailand: Volume II: Identity and Grassroots for Democratic: Progress

This book explores the multifaceted obstacles to social change that India, Myanmar and Thailand face, and ways to overcome them. With a collection of essays that identify common challenges and salient features affecting diverse communities, this volume examines topics from subnational and local perspectives across the peripheries. The book argues that identity-based divisions have created a system of oppression and political contention that have led to conflicts of different kinds, and hence serving as the common cause of different social issues. At the same time, such issues have created space for marginalized groups around the world to call for change. The volume recognizes that social transformation comes into being through an active process of deconstructing and reconstructing shared norms and ideas. The contents in this book are thus centered around two focuses: The impacts of identities and grassroots. Both of these aspects are at the heart of each country's transformations towards democracy, peace, justice, and freedom. Under this framework, the chapters cover a diverse range of common issues, such as, minority grievances, gender inequality, ethnic identity, grassroots power in alliance-making towards community peace, recovery and resilience, digital freedom, democracy assistance and communication, and bridging multiple divides. As identity-based cleavages are daily lived experiences for individuals and communities, it requires grassroots initiatives and alliances as well as democratic communication to tackle obstacles at the root. Ultimately, the book convinces readers that social transformations must begin at the individual to communal level and local to national level. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.

Historically marginalized student expression through culturally sustaining

With the adoption of the new Common Core Visual and Performing Arts Standards by the California Department of Education in 2019, there was an emphasis on creating a more inclusive and equitable arts educational experience for students through their arts educators. Unfortunately, with the majority of educators in the Visual and Performing Arts departments within California with an average of more than five years teaching experience, they obtained their knowledge of mandatory California teacher standards before the adoption took place for new common core state standards. Therefore, how are current students enrolled in these courses, specifically Historically Marginalized Students, obtaining an arts education that emphasizes inclusivity and equity? Professional development has not been provided that emphasizes equity and inclusive as well as a shift with the COVID-19 pandemic that has affected the educational system. How are students interacting with curriculum, and how arts educators looking to increase student engagement? This three-part qualitative action research study builds on a collaboratively developed lesson plan to engage a diverse art class consisting of historically marginalized students. Within this secondary visual arts classroom setting the implementation of culturally sustaining pedagogical practices consistently occurs. Second, the study explores the effectiveness of this implementation through student self-expression in the form of media influenced, design concept analysis. Third, through the analysis of completed student artifacts and reflections, understand the effect of culturally sustaining pedagogical practices through artistic self-expression. The concluding recommendations support the implementation of culturally sustaining pedagogical practices to increase authentic student self-expression. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

When I Think of Home: Black Families Supporting Their Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic crisis, and persistent systemic and structural racism have plagued Black communities. The continued physical and symbolic violence and murders of Black bodies are undeniable. As White institutions, schools are definite contributors to this brutality as they center the culture and realities of White children while ignoring or denigrating Black children. This is even evident in the undermining of Black families' efforts to prepare their children to face the inequities and injustices they experience in the U.S. In this article, we discuss Black families' engagement in their children's education amid threats through racial socialization research aimed at developing and validating Black children's perspectives, experiences, and realities in Black identity to promote their positive social-emotional and psychological development. Black families must know how to cultivate their child's healthy self-identity, voice, and agency, along with academic achievement. Schools should learn from these practices. Schools that choose to ignore these concepts will continue contributing to trauma and violence against Black children and maintain deficit-oriented views. The article includes examples and implications for teaching and supporting the well-being of Black children, and concludes with practical ideas that educators can learn from and integrate into their practices.

Global Leaders for Global Teams: Leaders with Multicultural Experiences Communicate and Lead More Effectively, Especially in Multinational Teams

In an era of globalization, it is commonly assumed that multicultural experiences foster leadership effectiveness. However, little research has systematically tested this assumption. We develop a theoretical perspective that articulates how and when multicultural experiences increase leadership effectiveness. We hypothesize that broad multicultural experiences increase individuals' leadership effectiveness by developing their communication competence. Because communication competence is particularly important for leading teams that are more multinational, we further hypothesize that individuals with broader multicultural experiences are particularly effective when leading more versus less multinational teams. Four studies test our theory using mixed methods (field survey, archival panel, field experiments) and diverse populations (corporate managers, soccer managers, hackathon leaders) in different countries (Australia, Britain, China, America). In Study 1, corporate managers with broader multicultural experiences were rated as more effective leaders, an effect mediated by communication competence. Analyzing a 25-year archival panel of English Premier League soccer managers, Study 2 replicates the positive effect of broad multicultural experiences using a team performance measure of leadership effectiveness. Importantly, this effect was moderated by team national diversity: soccer managers with broader multicultural experiences were particularly effective when leading teams with greater national diversity. Study 3 (digital health hackathon) and Study 4 (COVID-19 policy hackathon) replicate these effects in two field experiments, in which individuals with varying levels of multicultural experiences were randomly assigned to lead hackathon teams that naturally varied in national diversity. Overall, our research suggests that broad multicultural experiences help leaders communicate more competently and lead more effectively, especially when leading multinational teams.

Music Festivals in Modern Italy during the Covid-19 Pandemic

This study analyses one of the complex problems of modern artistic discourse - the functioning of a music festival as a special form of intercultural dialogue and its integration into a modern cultural medium. The article reveals the issues of the relationship of its components, such as the conditions for the implementation of intercultural communication in the context of a music festival;the morphological space of the multi-layer score of this artistic phenomenon;forms of intercultural communication, and sociocultural constraints associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to analyze the music festival as one of the forms of polyculture dialogue and its functioning in the new realities of the Covid19 pandemic. In this regard, both theoretical (semantic analysis) and practical (comparative analysis) research methods were used. As a result of the study, it was proven that a music festival as one of the forms of intercultural dialogue allows realizing different semantic levels of culture, enriches spirituality, and contributes to the consolidation of representatives of different cultures, leading to a constructive solution of the problems of artistic discourse;it was revealed that during the Covid-19 pandemic, not all genre and stylistic forms could be realized, due to the difficult situation of socio-cultural isolation;a classification of new formats for holding music festivals was proposed, which take into account the current conditions for its functioning in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. The practical significance of this study is that its results can be used for further analysis of the mechanisms of functioning and broadcasting of a polyphonically complex score of a music festival.

A poetic autoethnography of when poetry became my synergistic approach for pedagogy and andragogy

As an early career educator with various teaching roles in the U.S. higher education context and as an international student from India, the author's research interests are second language writing, multicultural literacy development, and equality and equity in language education. This poetic autoethnographic chapter focuses on two social identities: (1) teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) scholar and (2) international multilingual student. It elaborates on the author's experiences of finding solace in poetry when there was emotional uncertainty in the author's life as an early career teacher during the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapter focuses on how the author managed the stress of beginning PhD studies during the same time. Throughout this poetic autoethnographic inquiry, it uses the poems the author wrote during the semester of spring 2021 as data. The poems include lilts of identities, which include the legal status that an F-1 (i.e., nonimmigrant) student visa, the race the author belongs to, the "accented" English (i.e., Indian English), the skin color, and the stress experienced related to COVID-19. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Psychotherapy and Culture: Past, Present, Future

During 2020, the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and social unrest exposed significant socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities within the United States. Unfortunately, psychotherapy has often reflected these disparities. If psychotherapy is to remain meaningful and credible it needs to be inclusive of the needs and characteristics of all, not just of a privileged few. However, this does not mean that psychotherapy has not strived to diversify. In fact, significant advances in the field are the results of these efforts. In this article, the intersections between culture and psychotherapy are examined through three distinct types of psychotherapy underscoring their strengths and limitations and using these to propose future areas of cultural psychotherapy research. It is hoped that an enhanced awareness of these distinctions will lead psychologists to more effectively embrace a psychotherapy that is more efficacious and beneficial for all. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

A Mixed Methods Evaluation of an Integrated Primary and Behavioral Health Training Program for Counseling Students

Behavioral health provider shortages continue to grow in the United States, with the need for related services increasing as the SARS-COVID-19 pandemic persists. The implementation of integrated primary and behavioral healthcare (IPBH) practices represents one viable approach to leverage existing resources and maximize the potential for client outcomes;however, best practices for counselors within an IPBH paradigm remain unclear. We report the findings of a mixed method evaluation of an IPBH training program with 45 (36 females;9 males;Mage = 31.65) professional counseling students who predominately identified with ethnic minority identities (55%), urban residences (66%), and disadvantaged backgrounds (44%). We detected statistically and practically significant changes in self-efficacy (p = .01, d = .55) and interprofessional valuing and socialization (p < .01, d = .76), but mixed findings for variables associated with multicultural competence. Stakeholder interviews and document analysis identified four key facilitators (Financial Support;Facilitated Engagement;Witnessing Collaboration;Holistic Representation of Clients and Client Care) and four barriers (Awareness Raising and Recruitment;Logistics and Coordination;Inconsistent Culture of IPBH;Momentum Maintenance) to program success.

Drawings + Talk: Capturing the Multimodal Authoring of Emergent Bilinguals through Culturally Responsive Teaching

Hao and Brown explore how a teacher-researcher team created a virtual learning space that embraced culturally relevant/responsive literacy practices and supported multimodal authoring practices for emergent bilingual children during COVID-19. The extenuating circumstances of the pandemic closed many heritage language schools, and there was a need to continue literacy learning for Chinese American children. These factors caused to rethink the best ways to maintain culturally responsive and relevant literacy instruction with young learners in a distance-learning format given the power of this approach to move children toward academic success, cultural competence, and an ability to navigate critical consciousness. Their central question was: How did emergent bilingual children make meaning of stories during a virtual book club driven by culturally responsive literacy practices and a multimodal approach to authoring? In this case, they invited eight children and their parents from Ling's Chinese class to join a virtual book club that met once a week to participate in multimodal authoring surrounding read-alouds of texts connected to Chinese culture and language.

Digital Tools and methods to Enhance Learning: The Digitools Project

The use of distance education using digital tools in higher education has increased over the last decade, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has resulted in schools shutting down all across the world. This paper aims to present a brief summary of the Digitools Project and a multicultural analysis of the use of e-learning during Covid-19 in six countries. The methodology used was a survey by questionnaire involving teachers, librarians and students. The analysis of the questionnaire results allowed us to identify which dimensions to assess the sustainability of eLearning namely the organizational, socio-cultural and technological context. It also made it possible to assess the perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, intention to use, actual use and perceived satisfaction. Furthermore, personal, technological and organizational dimensions are also valued for e-learning usage. After reviewing the state of the art, there was a need to define a strategic training plan for the acquisition of basic and advanced skills for eLearning's implementation and usage. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

The inheritance of local wisdom for maintaining peace in multicultural society

PurposeThe research aims to investigate the value of local wisdom, analyse local wisdom for the harmony of a multicultural society and discover forms of inheritance of local wisdom for maintaining peace.Design/methodology/approachQualitative research was used in this research. The primary data were obtained through observation, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. Secondary data were obtained through reports from agencies, such as Social Services and Central Bureau of Statistics, literature studies and news from the internet. The data validity technique used was source triangulation. The data were analysed with stages of data reduction, data presentation and conclusion.FindingsThe results showed that the local wisdom sedekah bumi, selamatan malam 1 suro, sadranan and kuda lumping contain values related to religion, cooperation, harmony, togetherness, kinship and cohesiveness;the implementation of local wisdom can strengthen social harmony;and the inheritance of local wisdom takes place sustainably from families and communities to the younger generation.Research limitations/implicationsThe research was conducted during the peak of COVID-19 cases in Central Java, Indonesia. Therefore, the data could not be obtained maximally.Practical implicationsThis research contributes widely not only to the village studied but also to other communities with similar conditions.Social implicationsThe inheritance of local wisdom can help maintain peace, unify societies and offer solution to social conflicts by implementing traditions containing humanity and peaceful values.Originality/valueThis research offers a new insight concerning the inheritance of local wisdom that can function as a tool to achieve a peaceful society and prevent social disasters from occurring.

Exploring self-compassion, empathy, and intrinsic spirituality as predictors of cultural humility

Each year in the United States (U.S), one in five adults experience mental illness and one in six youth ages 6-17 experience a mental disorder (NAMI, 2020). While mental illness can affect individuals at similar rates, minority populations suffer from existent disparities in mental healthcare that have been exacerbated by the impact of COVID-19. Help-seeking behaviors of racial and ethnic minorities in the US have historically been influenced by the lack of trust in the medical system. When experiences of prejudice and discrimination are present in the counseling experience, they lead to damaging outcomes for minorities including misdiagnosis, receipt of less preferred forms of treatment, increased rate of premature termination, and overall dissatisfaction with service delivery in minority clients (Ridley et al., 2010;Rutgers University, 2019). Counselors who do not address biases, assumptions, and their own epistemological views risk operating within the oppressive framework of the dominant culture (Katz, 2014;Owen, 2017;Owen et al., 2018;Sue et al., 1992). Despite the growing support of cultural humility as complementary or even an alternative to cultural competence in counselor multicultural pedagogy, little has been examined about the ways in which this perspective can be enhanced in counselor education programs. Therefore, a standard multiple regression was utilized to examine the impact of intrinsic spirituality, common humanity, and affective empathy on cultural humility in counseling students (N=111). The participants in this study were mostly White (61%), female (79%), and from the southeast region (75%) of the United States. With regard to clinical sequence, most participants (41%) had not yet taken practicum or internship, while only a small percentage (2%) had completed all clinical training sequences. Results indicated that after controlling for all other variables, common humanity resulted in an increase in cultural humility. Common humanity contributed significantly to the prediction of cultural humility accounting for 16% of the variance, whereas affective empathy and spirituality did not. Implications, limitations, and recommendations for future research are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Development of 21st century skills through virtual exchange

This study investigates what skills university teacher candidates from the United States developed from their participation in a virtual exchange with Turkey that aided in their ability to cope with a critical situation such as the COVID-19 epidemic. To trace the impact of the crisis on teacher candidates' perceptions as well as the evidence of development of these skills, the qualitative data, reflection questionnaires and video recordings, of interactions were analyzed. The findings include commentary on virtual collaboration, virtual interaction, social impact, and social responsibility that occurred during the six-week exchange. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Teaching multicultural psychology as a cultural competence intervention: An empirical evaluation of course components

Previous research has shown that a semester-long multicultural psychology course can effectively increase students' cultural competence-related attitudes when students complete the class in-person and online. Cultural competence refers to the knowledge, awareness, and skills required to appreciate, recognize, and effectively work with members of other cultural groups. This dissertation examined several components of a multicultural psychology course: ethical grading, skill development, and intergroup contact. The first paper discussed techniques used to minimize grading bias and examined whether cultural competence shifts impacted grading. Students' cultural competence scores did not relate to or predict their grades in the course, which supported the notion instructors can grade fairly and objectively regardless of students' attitudes and values. The second paper highlighted the importance of social justice competence in addition to cultural competence, as well as the importance of targeting skill development in addition to knowledge and awareness. This study investigated the impact of adding a skills-focused Difficult Dialogues group assignment to the course on students' shifts in cultural competence-related attitudes and social justice orientation and also discussed of implementation considerations for instructors. Results suggested that the Difficult Dialogues project had a particular impact on improving students' social justice behavioral intentions. The third paper focused on the impact of intergroup contact with diverse others. The multicultural psychology course typically requires direct contact by attending at least three cultural events every semester. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this requirement was shifted to indirect contact activities. This study examined differential shifts on students' cultural competence-related attitudes in sections where students were required to engage in direct intergroup contact versus students who were allowed to engage in indirect intergroup contact due to taking the course during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results suggest that indirect contact contributed to positive shifts in cultural competence equally as well as direct intergroup contact. These studies advance the evidence-based teaching of multicultural psychology by empirically examining specific course components. The manuscripts provide useful information for educators, administrators, advocates, and policymakers about the impact of multicultural education, the efficacy of cultural competence training, and feasibility of ethical implementation in the classroom. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Exploring the Pandemic through Language Learning and Multicultural Studies

This piece offers a reflection on how language learning and multicultural studies during the pandemic have highlighted the potential to help communities draw parallels with, and face wider issues concerning, minorities within a challenged society. Through storytelling, a novel approach to teaching and learning helps students find their voice and become active agents of change. A review of teaching and learning methods may bring about improvements both in academia and individual circumstances to help bridge the gap between loneliness and the need to be part of a wider social community. This article reiterates the importance of language learning, cultural understanding, and identity as useful employability skills for the new global graduates to support, rebuild, and unite communities especially in challenging times. [For the complete volume, "Languages at Work, Competent Multilinguals and the Pedagogical Challenges of COVID-19," see ED612070.]

Teaching multicultural psychology as a cultural competence intervention: An empirical evaluation of course components

Previous research has shown that a semester-long multicultural psychology course can effectively increase students' cultural competence-related attitudes when students complete the class in-person and online. Cultural competence refers to the knowledge, awareness, and skills required to appreciate, recognize, and effectively work with members of other cultural groups. This dissertation examined several components of a multicultural psychology course: ethical grading, skill development, and intergroup contact. The first paper discussed techniques used to minimize grading bias and examined whether cultural competence shifts impacted grading. Students' cultural competence scores did not relate to or predict their grades in the course, which supported the notion instructors can grade fairly and objectively regardless of students' attitudes and values. The second paper highlighted the importance of social justice competence in addition to cultural competence, as well as the importance of targeting skill development in addition to knowledge and awareness. This study investigated the impact of adding a skills-focused Difficult Dialogues group assignment to the course on students' shifts in cultural competence-related attitudes and social justice orientation and also discussed of implementation considerations for instructors. Results suggested that the Difficult Dialogues project had a particular impact on improving students' social justice behavioral intentions. The third paper focused on the impact of intergroup contact with diverse others. The multicultural psychology course typically requires direct contact by attending at least three cultural events every semester. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this requirement was shifted to indirect contact activities. This study examined differential shifts on students' cultural competence-related attitudes in sections where students were required to engage in direct intergroup contact versus students who were allowed to engage in indirect intergroup contact due to taking the course during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results suggest that indirect contact contributed to positive shifts in cultural competence equally as well as direct intergroup contact. These studies advance the evidence-based teaching of multicultural psychology by empirically examining specific course components. The manuscripts provide useful information for educators, administrators, advocates, and policymakers about the impact of multicultural education, the efficacy of cultural competence training, and feasibility of ethical implementation in the classroom. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Getting to the CoRe of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL)

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, there was a worldwide pivot of education to online communication and the utilization of diverse digital technologies to enhance global learning and foster cultural understanding. Within higher education, educators faced unprecedented challenges in the conversion of face-to-face interactions into online, virtual classrooms, with many educators unprepared and untrained to do so. Yet, the introduction of online digital technologies for pedagogical interactions expanded the internationalization of previously limited curriculum prospects, to create global interconnectedness with the potential to invoke Students' awareness and appreciation of cultural differences in communication, leadership, and conflict. The development of international knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and the linkage between the two is key for the internationalization of the curriculum. With the growth of new digital communication, learning opportunities such as Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), aims to foster the development of intercultural competencies (ICC) in our students for future career advancement in an expanding global community. Despite the acknowledgment that faculty are underprepared and lack pedagogical knowledge to translate their lived experiences into their curriculum, there remains a tenable lack of available tools for educators to facilitate students actively participating in objective, equitable and inclusive intercultural communication. Herein, is proposed the novel application of a conceptual tool, a "content representation" or CoRe matrix, which explicitly separates a particular topic into divergent, yet linked dimensions of the knowledge and skills attributed to its content, teaching, and learning. It was hypothesized the CoRe tool could be applied to enhance an educator's PCK of ICC, providing the valuable link between international and pedagogical knowledge, for effective internationalization of the curriculum. The novel ICC CoRe matrix successfully addressed the 4 dimensions of ICC demonstrating the robust nature of the application of the CoRe matrix in the development of an educator's ICC PCK in the COIL classroom. With the exponential increase in digital technologies creating dynamic worldwide networks in education and the workplace, the development of conceptual tools such as the ICC CoRe matrix has the potential to develop and integrate an educator's pedagogical knowledge with ICC, to support the development of effective, objective and inclusive student participation in global twenty-first-century classrooms and beyond.

Culturally Competent Policy Practice in Minority Communities during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Contextual and Structural Perspective

center dot The engagement of social workers in policy practice during the pandemic is necessary to promote beneficial policies for minority communities. center dot Structural and contextual perspectives are required to promote the effective engagement of social workers from different ethnic groups in policy arenas in cross-cultural situations. center dot Culturally competent policy practice may advance the theory and guide productive interventions. Minority communities have borne a disproportionate burden of health, social and economic consequences during the pandemic. By engaging in policy-shaping processes, social workers can contribute to the development of beneficial policies for minority communities. When working in cross-cultural environments with majorities and minorities, social workers must develop cultural competence to be effective in policy practice. Despite the importance associated with cultural competence in policy practice (CCPP), little empirical evidence exists regarding what is required of social workers in order to engage in culturally competent policy change during the pandemic. In the present study, we address this lacuna through the theoretical framework of culturally competent policy practice. Drawing on twenty-one in-depth interviews, which were conducted at two time points during the pandemic with social workers who work with ultra-Orthodox minority communities in Israel, we demonstrate that CCPP involves the combination of two perspectives-contextual and structural. These include identifying and analysing social problems from a local and global perspective, reshaping the problem through self-awareness and critical awareness of power relations, and applying cultural competence skills that reflect the unique characteristics of the communities. This article discusses the strengths and limitations of CCPP, especially when implemented in changing social and political situations.

Migrants, Retail Properties and Historic Centre. Urban and Economic Resilience in Palermo (Italy)

Migratory flows arriving in the countries of the European Union over the recent years have generated significant urban, social and economic transformations, especially in metropolitan areas. Although with different intensity, the increase of new cultures and ethnic groups living in Italy has led to changes in both social value system and urban economic dynamism, generating consequences also on the real estate market. In order to analyze urban dynamics linked to migration flows, this study focuses on the retail properties used for inner-city shops owned/managed by immigrants. In particular, the city of Palermo (Italy) is chosen as a case study due to its multicultural stratification that is particularly complex in the historic centre. This study highlights also the resilience of foreign business activities after the Covid-19 pandemic emergency and their contribution to the production of social wealth. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.