Bridging Cultures Between Home and School Institute

Who Should Participate

School and district leadership, classroom teachers, counseling staff, paraprofessionals, and school support staff who work across cultures. Parents and community members may also wish to participate.

Goals of the Institute

Bridging Cultures is dedicated to helping policymakers, administrators, teachers, and support staff design and implement programs that effectively address the needs of underserved cultural, linguistic, and racial groups in order to improve educational outcomes for these groups. The ideas and approaches disseminated at the institute reflect the findings of the Bridging Cultures research project, a multi-year collaboration between classroom teachers and professional researchers.

Format of the Institute

The one-day institute is interactive and designed to connect with participants’ personal experiences. In addition to learning a conceptual framework that helps illuminate important cultural differences, participants will have opportunities to work in small groups, reflect, and explore applications to their own educational settings.

What You Learn

Participants learn strategies to

• Support meaningful education experiences that tap the funds of knowledge of students and families
• Carry out standards-based curricula in ways that are culturally and linguistically appropriate
• Approach assessment in ways that take cultural and linguistic differences into consideration
• Use effective and culturally appropriate classroom management strategies
• Support meaningful parent involvement in children’s education

Who Facilitates Your Learning

The Bridging Cultures workshop team is led by WestEd staff member and professional developer Noelle Caskey with support from the Bridging Cultures Project research team. Project contributors include researchers and university faculty Marlene Zepeda, Carrie Rothstein-Fisch, and Patricia Greenfield, and teachers Amada Perez, Giancarlo Mercado, Marie Altchech, and Catherine Daley.

What Resources Support Your Learning

Participants receive a variety of readings drawn from Bridging Cultures publications and other sources. Participants can also purchase Bridging Cultures publications at a 20% discount:

• Bridging Cultures between Home and School: A Guide for Teachers
• Readings for Bridging Cultures
• Bridging Cultures Teacher Education Module
• Bridging Cultures in Early Care and Education: A Training Module

What the Research Says

There is no universally correct approach to child-rearing and schooling, yet many of our institutions proceed as if that is the case. Students benefit when home-culture practices are understood and when families and teachers work together.

What Participants Report

"I know I've probably read things that had that title [multicultural education], and I had a really superficial understanding of what they meant. But it did not alter my way of being in the classroom — and this did — I do what I do because of my culture. And this is the first time that I really had an understanding of that."

Cost

The basic cost for a one-day institute is $2,500 at your site. Institutes can also be arranged at WestEd's San Francisco or Oakland offices for a minimum of 25 participants.

Contact Information

Noelle Caskey
415.615.3178
ncaskey@wested.org