Leadership and Organizational Structure

Achieving diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in an institution requires a strong and lasting commitment from organizational leaders. Given the magnitude of the challenges, that commitment must be organizationally embedded such that changes in leadership do not lead to changes in commitment or to backsliding as new initiatives emerge and potentially gain favor. Leadership is essential to establishing the overall vision of a new institutional culture as well as accurate and responsive communication of that vision. It is also necessary to build committed teams with relevant expertise. The organizational structure must reflect the involvement of experts but also be broadly inclusive of the community in question and establish mechanisms for learning, communication, and open discussion. This chapter describes the role of leadership in institutional transformation as well as elements of team assembly and design, along with the critical role of communication.

Fostering Culturally Inclusive Family and School Collaboration Within the African American “Community”

Public schools are vested with the responsibility of meeting the needs of all students. However, the literature continues to evolve demonstrating patterns of disparities within predominately African American school communities and challenges with school and home partnerships. Students who have been identified with special education needs are at an even greater risk of failure because of ineffective services that are often the result of parents or caretakers who lack the capital, knowledge, and skills to advocate for them for many complex reasons. In order to meet the needs of this historically marginalized group within the field of special education, schools must adopt a posture of culturally responsive inclusivity and family collaboration within the African American school community. This collaboration entails (1) culturally responsive collaboration, (2) culturally responsive teaching, (3) strong family partnerships, (4) culturally responsive communication, and (5) family-centered school-based services for diverse families and culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students.

Representation Failure

Democracy has failure built into its DNA. The ideals of which it is composed are almost all aspirational, meaning that they cannot be met fully, partly because their full pursuit would conflict with other ideals in the package we mean when we ask what ought to be entailed when the people rule. The obligation involved in pursuing these ideals is therefore not to meet them, but to strive toward them, recognizing the impossibility of their full attainment and making the best accommodations one can to the conflicts with other ideals that arise in the process of that striving. In this process, pursuing the most direct path to the ideal may allow one to capture less of what is important about its meaning than letting the ideal inform democratic practices indirectly. Representation, for example, is on its face antithetical to the democratic ideal of giving a law to oneself. Yet without adopting direct democracy it is possible to capture the shards, threads, and intimations of the ideal of autonomy in certain practices of representation in the elected, administrative, and societal realms. Those practices include “recursive representation,” or mutually responsive, communication between constituent and representative, itself an aspirational ideal.

SOCIAL COMMUNICATION OF ADDEWATANG PUTTA SERENG RITUAL IN BONE REGENCY

The diversity that exists in Indonesia should be one of the reasons why communication is important to be studied, and depth analysed. Diversity will produce harmony when it managed by good communication and understanding. This study analysed social life in the Addewatang Putta Sereng ritual practised by a community in Bone Regency as a form of diversity. Focusing on communication behaviour in the Addewatang Putta Sereng ritual, this study would first (1) analysed religious messages, and subsequently (2) identify social communication in the Addewatang Putta Sereng ritual. This research used a qualitative method by using the ethnographic communication approach. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, observations, and documentation, then analysed using ethnographic data analysis. The results of this study indicated that the implementation of the Addewatang Putta Sereng ritual is a symbol of the belief (ateppekeng) and gratitude (asukkurukeng) of Ujung people towards the figure of Putta Sereng and God Almighty. Social communication in the Addewatang Putta Sereng ritual forms harmonious communication patterns, consisting of resistance and responsive communication practised by community groups that are resistant and conservative to the Addewatang Putta Sereng ritual.

Exploring the incidence of culturally responsive communication in Australian healthcare: the first rapid review on this concept

Background Increasing diversity in Australia requires healthcare practitioners to consider the cultural, linguistic, religious, sexual and racial/ethnic characteristics of service users as integral components of healthcare delivery. This highlights the need for culturally appropriate communication and care. Indeed the Australian Government in various policies mandates culturally responsive communication. Therefore this paper aims to provide a brief overview of Australian healthcare literature exploring the components; prevalence and effects of this style of communication in healthcare. Methods A rapid review was conducted using the knowledge to action evidence summary approach. Articles included in the review were those reporting on the components, prevalence and outcomes of culturally responsive communication in Australian healthcare, published in English between 2008 and 2018. Articles were reviewed using reliable critical appraisal procedures. Results Twenty- six articles were included in the final review (23 qualitative studies; 2 systematic reviews; 1 mixed methods study). The literature indicates knowledge of the positive effects of culturally responsive communication in healthcare. It also highlights the disparity between the perceptions of healthcare practitioners and services users over the existence and components of culturally responsive communication in healthcare. The review identified a limited use of this style of communication, but rather a focus on barriers to culturally appropriate care, lacking an awareness of the importance of culturally responsive communication in this care. Conclusion While literature suggests the importance and positive effects of culturally responsive communication, evidence suggests inconsistent implementation of this style of communication within Australian healthcare settings. This has implications for the outcomes of healthcare for the diverse population in Australia.

Fostering Culturally Inclusive Family and School Collaboration Within the African American “Community”

Public schools are vested with the responsibility of meeting the needs of all students. However, the literature continues to evolve demonstrating patterns of disparities within predominately African American school communities and challenges with school and home partnerships. Students who have been identified with special education needs are at an even greater risk of failure because of ineffective services that are often the result of parents or caretakers who lack the capital, knowledge, and skills to advocate for them for many complex reasons. In order to meet the needs of this historically marginalized group within the field of special education, schools must adopt a posture of culturally responsive inclusivity and family collaboration within the African American school community. This collaboration entails (1) culturally responsive collaboration, (2) culturally responsive teaching, (3) strong family partnerships, (4) culturally responsive communication, and (5) family-centered school-based services for diverse families and culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students.