Competency

Evaluate principles of ethics and leadership.

Scenario

You are a mentor teacher, working with co-teachers at All Kids Childcare and Education. Your program has started a new initiative to help teachers better incorporate and celebrate diversity. You are excited to showcase the strategies a few of the teachers are already using.

However, as the training begins, one teacher comments, “Diversity is not a priority in my classroom. Almost all of the children are from the same ethnic background.” You look around to see several other teachers nod in agreement.

Instructions

First, reflect on your own leadership style as it pertains to this scenario in a reflection paper written in a Word document.

• Describe the leadership style that fits with your personality and how you can use your leadership style to determine your steps for opening a broader conversation regarding diversity. Use outside resources to make connections and offer at least one example to illustrate your ideas.
• Articulate the correlation between your leadership style, developmentally appropriate practice, intentional teaching, and an appreciation of the inherent benefits of diversity. Use outside resources to make connections and offer at least one example to illustrate your ideas.
• How can you effectively combine these elements in a way that enables you to listen and appreciate diverse perspectives, yet remain focused on the task of leading teachers through diversity training? Use outside resources to make connections and offer at least one clear example to support your ideas.

Next, leverage your articulated leadership style in the reflection above to create a mini-mentoring session. At least 10 questions for teachers should be included. These questions should assist teachers in reflecting on the cultural competence of their planned activities and the learning environment. Additionally, include any behaviors or actions you will use as the mentor, as well as a full description of the purpose of a cultural competence checklist. Include your mini-mentoring session as part of your reflection above. 

Finally, assist teachers in creating a cultural competence checklist using your questions from above as a guide. Reflect on what components the checklist should encompass, and create a cultural competence checklist that teachers can use to evaluate the cultural competence of their planned activities and the environment in which they will conduct those activities. The checklist should be completed in Word and contain at least 10 indicators of cultural competence as well as a way for teachers to rate the progress of this indicator. Offer clear directions for how to use the selected rating system. 

• Examples: Pictures/posters portraying families of multiple structures, ethnicities, and abilities are displayed. Ample multicultural play manipulatives are offered in the dramatic play center.
• Note: A rating system for the indicators can include but are not limited to yes/no check boxes, space for educators to leave specific comments, a rating scale, or another method.

Submit your leadership style reflection as well as your cultural competence checklist.