Cultural and Linguistic Sensitivity

Cultural & linguistic diversity training

• Secondary Transition and Cultural Diversity is a free online training module from the Transition Coalition. It covers factors or characteristics that specifically affect families from culturally diverse or minority backgrounds, that change how you manage home-school communication. Study Guide (PDF, 10 pages, 2015)
• Cultural and Linguistic Competence webinar (1/2 hour long) developed by the NH Children’s Behavioral Health Collaborative. Covers engagement and communication, limited English proficiency and low literacy skills, social justice and best practices. Also reviews the demographics of today’s New Hampshire.
• Toward a Conception of Culturally Responsive Practices in Transition Planning is a 1-hour 25-minute recorded webinar from November 2020, from NTACT:C. You may want to fast forward through the early housekeeping and polling activities. The presenters:
  • Discuss the importance and necessity of planning transition from a cultural lens with a focus on equity;
  • Explain how asset-based frameworks improve post-school outcomes; and
  • Highlight key principles and best practices for addressing and mitigating disparities in transition planning for students with disabilities.
• Cultural Sensitivity: Respect for People’s Strength, Culture and Knowledge is a set of PowerPoint slides from New York State that gives a good overview of cultural sensitivity.
• Cultural Differences – An Introduction is a 4:09-minute video comparing common cultural differences between people, with acted out examples.

Resources for working with culturally diverse families

• Transition Planning Tips for Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Youth with Disabilities (PDF, 2 pages, 2017) from the PACER Center in Minnesota.
• Transition guides downloadable in nine languages, from Open Doors for Multicultural Families. You have to put them in a shopping cart and “checkout,” but the downloads are free.
• Suggestions for first contacts with diverse families, Getting Off to a Good Start: Positive Interactions with Diverse Families (PDF, 2 pages, 2015), from the PACER Center.
• National research-based practice guides and tools for engaging families from diverse cultures. A compilation of family engagement resources, particularly those which address the interests and needs of educators. The publications are arranged in order of the date of publication. From the PACER Center in Minnesota.
• New Hampshire Refugee Resettlement: A Community Integration Framework (PDF, 21 pages, 2012) examines refugee resettlement programs in New Hampshire and explores best practices that can be beneficial to refugees and their host communities.

Research on cultural and linguistic diversity

• Cultural and Linguistic Diversity: Implications for Transition Personnel is a detailed and evidence-based discussion of cultural and linguistic diversity (CLD) and implications for transition personnel. Somewhat heavy-going but worth the effort, from the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition. Shrink your page width for easier reading.
• A Collaborative Interagency, Interdisciplinary Approach to Transition from Adolescence to Adulthood (PDF, 74 pages, 2013) from the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD), helps promote a transition process for youth with disabilities from adolescence to young adulthood. It centers on four core concepts:
  • Self-determination should be the foundation for transition planning.
  • Transition should be viewed through a cultural lens.
  • Interagency collaboration is essential to effective transition.
  • Transition planning should include all the perspectives, disciplines, and organizations that will impact the transitioning student.
• World Culture Encyclopedia gives overviews of history and culture of the countries of the world. Somewhat crowd-sourced with comments from people from the cultures.

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