Culture -- Race, Class, Gender & More:
Citizenship in a Multicultural Society

What We Offer      Creative Change's programs equip educators with the knowledge, skills, and awareness to make curriculum and instruction more culturally-responsive, and to teach effectively about race, gender, and related topics. Our approach is rigorous, effective, and research-based.

1. Culture, Identity, and Power: Impacts on Equity in Schooling details

2. Closing the Achievement Gap Through Culturally-Responsive Pedagogy details

3. Teaching about Culture: Race, Class, Gender, and More details

Details on Our Focus Areas

Focus Area 1: Culture, Identity, and Power: Impacts on Equity in Schooling
Recommended as an introductory program on cultural issues.

This program area will enable teachers and staff to:

• Identify biases and their impacts on teaching practice.
• Understand how culture, power, and institutional discrimination operate in schools and classrooms.
• Evaluate different paradigms for multicultural education.
• Assess curriculum and instruction through a rubric of higher-order thinking, democracy, and justice.
• Identify goals for interrupting discrimination and creating an equitable learning environment.

Program Elements

• Needs assessment.
• Minimum three days of professional development focused on experiential learning, reflection, and community-building.
• Support to teachers as individuals or teams. (Support provided on-site when possible, or through attentive phone- and e-mail communication.)
• Evaluation of teacher learning.
• Access to our library of instructional resources, assessment tools, and project ideas.

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Focus Area 2: Closing the Achievement Gap Through Culturally-Responsive Pedagogy

This program area will enable teachers and staff to:

• Identify and increase the use of practices that can help close the achievement gap.
• Identify links between democratic education and culturally-responsive pedagogy.
• Integrate citizenship, responsibility, and social justice into the core subject areas.
• Design units that build from students' own experiences toward deep understanding and meaningful civic involvement.
• Teach critical thinking and democratic values.

Program elements:

• Needs assessment.
• Minimum three days professional development.
• Evaluation evaluating units and courses through a rubric of higher-order thinking, democracy, and justice.
• Support to teachers as individuals or teams as they create "makeovers" for units and courses. (Support provided on-site when possible, or through attentive phone- and e-mail communication.)
• Access to our library of instructional resources, assessment tools, and project ideas.

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Focus Area 3: Teaching about Culture--Race, Class, Gender, and More

     This program area prepares teachers to deliver effective instruction on race, class, gender, culture, and related issues. Teachers will learn to:

• Use model lessons on culture, including race, class, gender, and ethnicity. Details
• Create "makeovers" for existing units or courses that integrate these issues through a lens of citizenship, responsibility, and social justice.
• Design instruction that starts from students' experiences and builds toward deep understanding.
• Engage students in meaningful civic action in the school and community.

Note: For this focus area, we can work directly with students and involve teachers in the facilitation process, providing staff with hands-on experience as part of their professional development.

Program Elements:

• Professional development that models effective classroom instruction.
• Follow-up support to help teachers integrate the targeted lessons into the curriculum.
• Evaluation to determine students' progress in knowledge, attitudes, and skills around equity, democracy, and anti-discrimination.
• Planning assistance and support to teachers as they create "makeovers" for units and courses.

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Model Lessons on Race, Class, Gender, and Ethnicity

      Creative Change has developed model lessons that address discimrination and equity on these topics at the personal, local, and global levels. Lessons provide a mix of simulations, role plays, reflection, case studies, discussions, and other experiential activities that help students

• explore the impacts of their beliefs and actions
• analyze the causes and impacts of discrimination, and
• develop positive strategies to dismantle discrimination in their schools and communities.

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Our Approach

     Creative Change Educational Solutions offers professional development, consulting, and classroom resources on cultural issues affecting K-12 schools. We believe that multiculturalism is not just about "appreciating diversity", but an approach to education built around these questions:

• How can schools create policies and practices that will serve the needs of all students?
• How can educators challenge, engage, and inspire students to create a more just and democratic society?
• What will it take to enable students to succeed in a multicultural society?
• How can we teach about race, class, gender, and other cultural factors to help achieve these goals?
• What knowledge, skills, and attitudes do educators need to achieve these outcomes?

More About Our Approach to Multicultural Education

     Creative Change's multicultural work is research-based and effective. We know that cultural issues are difficult and challenging and require long-term commitment and systemic change. We believe programs that promote boot-strapping or colorblindess do not address the structural inequalities at the root of 'isms.'
     With this in mind, we shun one-time workshops, motivational speakers, and "tipi and taco" approaches to diversity. And, while we recognize that systemic privileges must be dismantled, we believe that guilt trips and shock treatments are ineffective.
     Instead, our programs are grounded in a critical understanding of how cultural and power operate in schools and society, and what is truly needed to create equity and justice in both arenas.
    Creative Change's facilitators are seasoned professionals with advanced degrees, teaching experience in university- and k-12 settings, and years of experience consulting with Fortune 500 companies, the United Nations, and other major organizations in the public and private sectors.

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