Programs & Services for
School Communities in Cultural Transition

Increasing numbers of culturally diverse students and their families are arriving at school communities via many different pathways. Bridging Cultures offers a range of professional training programs to school staff members who are working with these culturally diverse new school community members. These can be customized for half or full-day programs.

An Introduction to Culture and Its Implications for School Communities
This session has been developed to provide awareness to school staff members about the key concepts related to the topic of culture and current cultural diversity trends and concepts.

Creating Responsive Scmunitiesmunities for Culturally Diverse Students & Families
Living outside one’s “home” country or moving between countries requires people to simultaneously manage the demands of adaptation, acculturation, and achievement in a “foreign” culture. It is important to understand the stresses that these demands can impose on culturally diverse students and their family members and to identify ways within the school community to help them master these three critical tasks of cultural transition

The Nuts & Bolts of Building Cultural Awareness & Tolerance in the Multicultural School Setting
The impact of the Internet, business globalization, cultural diversity within most countries, and the ongoing threats of terrorism have created a pressing need for building cross-cultural tolerance amongst all members of a school community. This workshop offers some targeted ways in which a school system can address this need.

Teaching Amongst Cultures
Teaching within one’s own culture can be challenging enough today given the increasing demands of knowledge and outcome expectations. Doing so with a growing diverse student population presents both challenges and wonderful opportunities for teachers. Drawing from developments in the fields of multicultural education and cross-cultural research, Bridging Cultures helps teachers gain insights into the impact of culture on their students’ learning characteristics, academic motivation, and instructional needs.

Addressing the Special Educational & Emotional Needs of Culturally Diverse Students & Families
Culturally diverse students can demonstrate learning, emotional, and behavioral characteristics that may lead to their referral for special education or mental health services in a school setting. It is important that support staff specialists take into account cultural values, educational expectations, and behavioral standards of the families from different countries.

Social Skills Training from a Cross-Cultural Perspective
The culturally diverse school setting has the potential of providing rich social learning opportunities for its students. However, it can also create challenges as to how children from different cultural backgrounds understand and interact with each other in order to build friendships and handle disagreements or conflicts. This training focuses on how children from different cultures gain social knowledge and skills in intercultural settings.