The current demographic changes in the U.S. have resulted in a national culture gap, which contributes to the achievement and opportunity disparities that persistently plague students of color. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 86% of all PreK-12 grade teachers are European Americans. Yet, the student population in urban settings continues to be overwhelming economically disadvantaged students of color. Plaguing the nation’s schools are concerns about identifying teachers capable of successfully teaching in diverse classrooms, as stakeholders continue to speculate about the efficacy of White teachers to teach students of color due to the White teachers’ lack of understanding about and sensitivity toward students of color. Consequently, educators struggle to effectively serve their culturally dissimilar students. Despite the technical fixes of school reforms over the past three decades, however, the achievement and opportunity gaps remain. Hence, an adaptive approach to closing the opportunity and achievement gaps necessitates challenging our nation’s beliefs, values, and assumptions through a series of professional learning opportunities, as engaging in a series of intensive professional learning within a 12-month period improves student achievement by as much as 21 percentile points. The purpose of this study was to develop the Cultural Competence Professional Learning Module (CCPLM, 2016), which is grounded in Adult Learning Theory, Critical Race Theory, and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and is designed to foster Cultural Competence in NYC DoE public school teachers. The researcher used the Cultural Competence Needs Assessment Survey (2016) and the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (2000) to ascertain NYC DoE schools administrators’ level of cultural competence and their beliefs about their teachers’ cultural competence. Of the school administrators who completed the surveys and were culturally competent, 15 provided feedback on the CCPLM’s content and design in a focus group. Concurrently, four national experts on professional learning and diversity in schools also reviewed and provided feedback on the module. The results from the study support the need for a professional learning module that fosters NYC educators’ cultural competence. Delimitations and limitations of the study are discussed.

2 Abstract This thesis submitted focuses on coaching as a style of leading people. The thesis analyzes the fundamental principles and tools of professional coaching which are subsequently interpreted from the perspective of their possible use in managerial practice with all benefits and potential difficulties. Due to its specificity, I deal with the role of the manager-coach as well. Given the focus of the thesis, I first dealt with the definition of coaching as such without any detailed specification, and with its possible use. I used the gained information for defining the managerial coaching in the context of leading people. In the second chapter I concentrated on coach and manager-coach as a person, their characteristics and competence which are necessary for coaching. In the third and fourth chapter I mainly dealt with coaching tools and their use in managerial practice. Finally, the thesis compares the results of an international research with the author's questionnaire survey, from the viewpoint of the use of coaching in organizations in the Czech Republic and world scale. Key words: coaching, leading people, managerial coaching, self-development, coaching techniques, potential.

The manager developement process is the anchor theme of the organisations and their HR departments. The quality manager is the key factor for the effective function of employees, teams within and the organisation as a whole, and facilitates the functioning process. This thesis deals with the problematics of manager developement, with a special focus on the training and other developing activities. The empirical part is orientated on three target groups participating on the manager developement. The qualitative part of the research was being realised through semi- structured interviews with lectors and HR managers. The quantitative part captures the interviews with the managers themselves. The manager skills are divided into four areas-Communication Skills, Presentation Skills, Management of People and Self-Management. In the requirement of quantitative research the Questionaire of the Developement of Manager Skills was constructed. The three hypotheses were being tested, first by Pearson correlation coefficient, the following two by dependent t-test for paired samples with a significance level of 0,05. Across the whole spectrum of skills, there is a noticeable contradiction between the opinion of lectors, HR managers and managers. The managers emphasize more the influence of working experience for...

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Using interpretive qualitative research methods, this dissertation study examines how a telecollaboration in a social networking site affects learners’ intercultural competence development. In particular, it explores the changes in learners’ understanding of the concept of culture, as well as their understanding of their own and target cultures. Additionally, this study investigates what role the medium of the exchange plays in the project. Finally, it analyzes three individual learners’ experiences in an online intercultural exchange. Two intact classes of college-level language learners—U.S. students learning Spanish and Colombian students learning English—participated in an eight-week telecollaboration using Facebook. Each week students shared information about their own culture and reacted to the posts about the target culture made by the students in the partner class. This study analyzed 14 U.S. students’ experiences and learning, based on their pre- and post-telecollaboration questionnaires, reflexive portfolios, and pre- and post-telecollaboration one-on-one interviews. Data analysis demonstrated that the participants experienced a notable development in their intercultural competence. In particular, participants showed a more detailed understanding of the concept of culture, as well as the reasons for cultural learning and awareness. The activity of explaining their own culture to foreigners led the participants to an ongoing analysis of their own culture and, therefore, facilitated development in their understanding of the home culture. Specifically, participants were able to take a critical stance in their analysis and evaluate their own culture from the position of an outsider. Finally, participants gained knowledge about Colombian culture and developed an ability to analyze cultural products and practices, as well as infer information about cultural perspectives from that analysis. In general, the telecollaboration enabled participants to develop critical cultural awareness and change their worldviews from more ethnocentric to more ethnorelative. In regard to the use of Facebook, this popular social networking site proved to be uniquely suitable for a telecollaboration. It gave the participants an opportunity to create a personal learning environment that was accessible whenever and wherever they needed it. It also facilitated a bridging between participants’ learning and leisure online activities. The three case studies demonstrated that while any type of learner can benefit from telecollaboration, their experiences and the degree of intercultural competence development are individual. In addition, the development of intercultural competence appeared to be non-linear, which demonstrates the difficulty of its assessment. Based on the findings, the researcher concludes that telecollaboration facilitates the development of intercultural competence and, thus, is an effective way of addressing the challenge of culture instruction in foreign language courses. Additionally, the unique properties of social networking sites make them an easily accessible platform for telecollaboration projects.

The changing demographics of the United States directly impacts the populations that music therapists serve. The American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) provides a list of competencies regarding race, culture, and diversity, but how these are addressed in the classroom is not standardized. The purpose of this study was to examine music therapists’ perceptions of their training in multicultural competence. The researcher emailed 7,539 board-certified music therapists, 631 of whom completed the survey. Results indicated that 55.6% of music therapists think that multicultural competence is important, and the majority said that they felt prepared to demonstrate multicultural competence after completion of an undergraduate/equivalency music therapy program. Chi square analyses showed no significant associations between ratings of importance and gender or race/ethnicity. Results also indicated that classroom instruction was the most common way the competencies were addressed in undergraduate/equivalency programs. Qualitative analysis of how participants thought they could be better prepared revealed four themes: music skills, curricular integration, experience, and classroom activities.

The primary purpose of this longitudinal, quasi-experimental study was to investigate the effects of a bipartite, standardized case conceptualization training among participants in comparison to those who were exposed to both the training and deliberate practice coaching. The secondary purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of the training and aspects of deliberate practice, along with participants’ attitudes toward evidence-based practice (EBP). A total of 84 counselor trainees were recruited from two South Florida universities. Participants in both the experimental group (n = 35) and comparison group (n = 49) received two, three-hour training lectures, which explained the integrative case conceptualization model developed by Dr. Len Sperry in 1989. Over a period of eight weeks, the lectures were separated by approximately four weeks in order to assess whether the training effects persist over time. As measured by the Views About Case Conceptualization (VACC) instrument, the first training lecture effectively reduced case conceptualization myths for both groups by approximately 4 points (out of 25), t (83) = -8.53, p < .001. Repeated measures MANOVA showed that the training had a significant impact on the entire sample. As measured by the Case Conceptualization Evaluation Form (CCEF) 2.0, the comparison group’s overall mean score improvement was approximately 40 points (out of 100) and the experimental group’s overall mean score improvement was approximately 63 points (out of 100), F (4.256, 348.974) = 32.102, p < .001. The results reveal that the training and coaching had a significant effect on counselor trainees’ ability to write effective case conceptualizations with a partial eta-squared effect size of .281. Using both the Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale (EBPAS) and Moulaert Questionnaire, this study also examined the influence of attitudes toward EBP and aspects of deliberate practice on trainees' case conceptualization competence. Paired samples t-tests and correlation analysis revealed that participants became more “open” to EBP, t (83) = -5.280, p < .001. However, it was determined that coaching did not act as a mediating or moderating variable. Overall, the findings support that case conceptualization training and deliberate practice coaching increase counselor competence, and that the effects persist over time. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The purpose of the study was to examine cultural competence among oncology health care providers. Specifically, the study assessed how career type, presence of previous diversity training, and education affected overall cultural competence of oncology health care providers. The study used a quantitative survey design with self-administered questionnaires. A total of 36 voluntary oncology health care providers completed the cultural competence assessment survey. Participants were asked of their cultural awareness/sensitivity, cultural behaviors, previous experiences of diversity trainings, and some demographics questions. Descriptive (e.g. mean, frequency distributions) and inferential (e.g. t-test, one-way analysis of variance) statistics were used to analyze the data. Findings of the study showed that the levels of cultural competence among oncology health care providers were low to moderate. Oncology health care providers who were social workers and registered nurses tended to report more frequent culturally competent behaviors, compared to other career types of health care providers. The study also found that those who had specific previous diversity training tended to report higher levels of cultural competence compared to those who did not have those diversity trainings. Findings of the study suggest that there be a need for improvement in the cultural competency practice among oncology health care providers. The results of this study could serve as a reference in the initial evaluation of exploring cultural competency health care practice in the specialization of oncology.

The following research proposal was meant to identify concerns and desired resources for transracial foster families based on the perspective of social workers. This study utilized a qualitative design and included face-to-face interviews with social workers currently working at Ark Homes Foster Family Agency. Interviews included nine social workers who had clients who were transracial foster families. Data analysis included audio recordings and written documentation. Transcription of all interviews followed after data collection was received. Findings from this study showed that social workers working with transracial foster families felt culturally competent to provide information to their clients. This study also found that the majority of social workers did not feel a need for their agency to provide additional trainings in cultural competence and that bringing the topic up to their supervisor on a need-be basis was suitable. Policy implementation surrounding social workers and transracial foster families could include foster care placement stability. If policy was implemented that required foster parents to support their foster child’s racial identity on a weekly basis, then that could increase the bond between foster child and foster parent. Policy implementation in this way could minimize the disagreements between the foster child and foster parent and have an increased likelihood of placement stability.

The Masters in Social Work (MSW) program at California State University of San Bernardino utilizes a substantial portion of lecture hours bringing attention to areas in which racial disparities exist, as well as the negative impact that these racial disparities have on certain cultures and communities. This project focuses on the disparities involving African-American families in the public child welfare system and how cultural competence trainings may impact this overrepresentation. This research project consists of the exploration of past research relevant to this project, which pertains to cultural competence, the overrepresentation of African-American, and trainings on cultural competence. In addition, a 5-point Likert-scale survey focused on the need and effectiveness of cultural competency trainings from a student’s perspective, was completed by CSUSB MSW students. The data was then analyzed using SPSS statistics software employing tests that included frequencies, ANOVA, and a t-test. This project hypothesized that perspectives on cultural competence and cultural competence trainings differed along racial lines, and that there was no significant difference in response based on year in MSW program. Only the latter was support according to the data. This could also be interpreted to mean that students are not receiving much curriculum on cultural competence, which the curriculum is not meaningful enough to change their perceptions, or that students enter the program with fairly favorable perceptions of the importance of cultural competency.