Cultural Humility as a Path to Equity in Higher Education

Achieving equity in higher education involves more than just closing achievement gaps and mitigating the impact of historic oppression and underrepresentation. In this chapter, the author presents a framework for cultural humility as a pathway to equity for institutions of education, as well as an approach for the professional development of cultural humility practitioners. The cultural humility framework comprises four core principles as well as five transformational skills (i.e., dialogue, inquiry, self-reflection, conflict transformation, and identity negotiation). The chapter concludes with a discussion about how to implement this framework at both the classroom and institutional levels, as well as the implications of such training for achieving greater equity in higher education.

A Model for the Development of Anti-Racist Culturally Humble Educational Practitioners

Although diversity training has become an institutional norm for businesses, schools, and organizations, the full extent of its impact remains unclear. This chapter reports on research aimed as more fully understanding the transformational journeys of diversity practitioners and discovering how they deepen their sense of cultural humility. Following a review of the evolution of diversity training, the chapter presents a theoretical framework featuring five interrelated transformational processes: dialogue, inquiry, self-reflection, conflict transformation, and identity negotiation. The chapter concludes with a discussion about how these processes can be applied to enhance the development of cultural humility and consequently better achieve the desired outcomes of diversity training. It argues for a multi-year model for the training of diversity practitioners and others committed to personal development and social change as well as a lifelong approach that supports the process of moving more deeply into a culturally humble way of being.

Identity negotiation of Chinese international students in Canada: A study on cosmopolitan post-graduation settlement

This study focuses on analyzing the acculturation of Chinese international students in Canada, emphasizing students' post-graduation settlement in China, Canada, or in other countries. Chinese international students commonly experience a multilayered acculturative adjustment when they are challenged by a new culture. In this process, they develop an identity negotiation that impacts their settlement into a new country. This study mobilizes four notions of acculturation (e.g., assimilation, integration, marginalization, and separation), to evaluate Chinese international students’ identity negotiation after university. This research uses 17 semi-structured interviews to understand how participants' identities were negotiated through their acculturative adjustment. First, the findings highlight the importance of career factors and family values in participants' settlement decisions. Second, the balance between Chinese identity and Canadian identity has some impact on student’s migration plans.

Negotiating Identity through the Architecture and Interior Decoration of Elite Households in Ptolemaic Egypt

In Ptolemaic Egypt (ca. 332–30 BC), numerous physical spaces served as loci of identity negotiation for elite individuals inhabiting a setting where imported Greek traditions interacted with local Egyptian ones. Such negotiations, or maneuverings, often took place through visual culture. This essay explores a sample of the Greek architectural elements and surface decorations used in wealthy Ptolemaic homes and what they communicate about the residents’ sense of identity. The decorative choices made for a home conveyed information about the social status and cultural allegiances of its owner(s). Some comparisons are possible between Ptolemaic homes in Alexandria, the Delta, and the Fayyum and those from other Hellenistic sites in the eastern Mediterranean such as Priene and Delos. Elites in Alexandria and the Egyptian chora incorporated Greek traditions into their homes and adapted them in increasingly novel ways, creating architecture and surface decoration that was uniquely Ptolemaic. These households were visually in dialogue both with broader Hellenistic trends and with their Egyptian context.

Vital Service Captivity: Coping Strategies and Identity Negotiation

Nursing homes are the quintessential example of vital service captivity. Consumers need vital services when they can no longer fulfil their basic needs on their own and their only choice is to delegate them to the market (e.g. care services for long-term and chronic illnesses, eating assistance at mealtimes). The service is referred to as ‘captive’ because older people are generally unwilling to use it, and when they have to, their options are limited. For elderly consumers, there is ‘no exit possible’, and as such they must integrate the service into their sense of self. The paper aims to (1) identify strategies for coping with vital service captivity and (2) present the identity negotiation mechanisms that lead people to choose one strategy over another. The study was conducted over a 6-month period in three nursing homes. Data collection includes semi-structured interviews, focus groups, participant observations, and micro-interviews with consumers – elderly residents and their families – and nursing home staff. Its main contribution is to highlight that coping with vital service captivity is a differential process. Consumers implement multiple coping strategies simultaneously, and these strategies are linked to three areas: routinization, socialization, and assimilation of a new social status. Moreover, implementing coping strategies means striking a balance between ‘disengagement’ and ‘engagement’ that not only takes into account former life trajectory, future prospects, and social comparisons, but also any changes in physical or cognitive skills and family support. Understanding these coping strategies and identity negotiation mechanisms highlights some unintended consequences on residents’ well-being, such as the importance of standardizing how the service is organized because it provides a stable framework, or the importance given to the well-being of all stakeholders (other consumers, staff) as a result of the community living situation.

Factors influencing professional identity development and negotiation of public librarians in Aotearoa New Zealand

<p>The definition and fit of the librarian and library in society have been called into question amidst rapid professional and social change. This professional and social change has similarly called into question the professional identity of the librarian. Professional identity is the product of the impact the organizational and/or professional life has had on one’s understanding of self within its context (Whyte, 1956/2002), influencing discourse and behaviour (Sundin & Hedman, 2009). The influence of professional identity on perception and behaviour underscores the importance of the co-constructed relationship between librarian and those served. Therefore, professional identity is key in discussions concerning the place of the librarian in a 21st century society and beyond. To examine professional identity of public librarians in Aotearoa New Zealand, this research adopted a multimethod approach. In Phase 1, a questionnaire was designed operationalising elements of a conceptual model and for participant selection. In Phase 2, follow-up interviews were conducted with 40 participants. Semi- structured interviews allowed participants to elaborate on responses and reflect on their professional identities. The multimethod model adopted emphasises qualitative data, which was analysed with an inductive approach. This thesis begins with an introduction chapter, outlining the motivation, questions, and methodology which guided this research. This thesis also includes four original articles. The first article reviews the relevant literature on librarian professional identity. Previous literature presents as disparate, with foci on specific aspects of this professional identity. The first paper therefore takes a holistic approach to examine this identity, resulting in a conceptual model of the formation and development of librarian professional identity. This model guides subsequent examinations of the data collected. The second article outlines the development of a novel methodological approach. This approach resulted from the combination of methods adopted in this research. It establishes a link between critical incidents impacting professional identity and world- and self-perception grounded through this identity, as expressed by metaphors. The third article presents qualitative results from the interviews conducted. Findings demonstrate that dominant influences on practitioners’ individual perceptions of their professional identity development and to their professional behaviour feature in identity development over time, demonstrated by behaviour. Critical incidents prompt a specific identity negotiation process, identified as the Critical Incident Negotiation Process. This article also offers three theoretical propositions relating to the dominant influences on practitioners’ perception, behaviour, and the above-mentioned negotiation process. The fourth article further presents qualitative results from interviews. Findings demonstrate that librarian professional identity negotiations are grounded in perceptions of profession through meaning ascribed to the profession and through its manifestations (e.g., professional associations, etc.), respectively; and perceptions of practice as related to organisational/institutional contexts. This article also introduces the Relational States of Librarian Professional Identity (the relational states), which indicate variations of individual affiliation with the profession. This article also offers a theoretical process identified as the Professional Identity Negotiation Framework and six theoretical propositions relating to librarian professional identity, its negotiations, and relational states. The thesis concludes with a chapter outlining conclusions and contributions of the four articles in library and information science theory, methodology, and practice.</p>

Factors influencing professional identity development and negotiation of public librarians in Aotearoa New Zealand

<p>The definition and fit of the librarian and library in society have been called into question amidst rapid professional and social change. This professional and social change has similarly called into question the professional identity of the librarian. Professional identity is the product of the impact the organizational and/or professional life has had on one’s understanding of self within its context (Whyte, 1956/2002), influencing discourse and behaviour (Sundin & Hedman, 2009). The influence of professional identity on perception and behaviour underscores the importance of the co-constructed relationship between librarian and those served. Therefore, professional identity is key in discussions concerning the place of the librarian in a 21st century society and beyond. To examine professional identity of public librarians in Aotearoa New Zealand, this research adopted a multimethod approach. In Phase 1, a questionnaire was designed operationalising elements of a conceptual model and for participant selection. In Phase 2, follow-up interviews were conducted with 40 participants. Semi- structured interviews allowed participants to elaborate on responses and reflect on their professional identities. The multimethod model adopted emphasises qualitative data, which was analysed with an inductive approach. This thesis begins with an introduction chapter, outlining the motivation, questions, and methodology which guided this research. This thesis also includes four original articles. The first article reviews the relevant literature on librarian professional identity. Previous literature presents as disparate, with foci on specific aspects of this professional identity. The first paper therefore takes a holistic approach to examine this identity, resulting in a conceptual model of the formation and development of librarian professional identity. This model guides subsequent examinations of the data collected. The second article outlines the development of a novel methodological approach. This approach resulted from the combination of methods adopted in this research. It establishes a link between critical incidents impacting professional identity and world- and self-perception grounded through this identity, as expressed by metaphors. The third article presents qualitative results from the interviews conducted. Findings demonstrate that dominant influences on practitioners’ individual perceptions of their professional identity development and to their professional behaviour feature in identity development over time, demonstrated by behaviour. Critical incidents prompt a specific identity negotiation process, identified as the Critical Incident Negotiation Process. This article also offers three theoretical propositions relating to the dominant influences on practitioners’ perception, behaviour, and the above-mentioned negotiation process. The fourth article further presents qualitative results from interviews. Findings demonstrate that librarian professional identity negotiations are grounded in perceptions of profession through meaning ascribed to the profession and through its manifestations (e.g., professional associations, etc.), respectively; and perceptions of practice as related to organisational/institutional contexts. This article also introduces the Relational States of Librarian Professional Identity (the relational states), which indicate variations of individual affiliation with the profession. This article also offers a theoretical process identified as the Professional Identity Negotiation Framework and six theoretical propositions relating to librarian professional identity, its negotiations, and relational states. The thesis concludes with a chapter outlining conclusions and contributions of the four articles in library and information science theory, methodology, and practice.</p>

Multilingual Practices and Identity Negotiation among Multilingual Heritage Language Learners in New Zealand

<p>While heritage languages (HLs) have been receiving much research attention, there is still a scarcity of studies conducted on local HL communities. However, researchers in New Zealand have been actively engaged with various community languages for over four decades, providing rich insights into the dynamics of language maintenance and language shift within these communities. Although New Zealand sociolinguistic scholarship has covered a wide range of languages and ethnicities, there is no known study on the Indian Hindi community, whose HL is the fourth most spoken language in the country (Statistics New Zealand, 2013). Additionally, previous research has traditionally examined the functional aspects of language use and language attitudes in determining whether language can be preserved, viewing HL communities often as homogeneously formed. In contrast, current trends in the field of sociolinguistics aim to examine the connections between individuals and their languages (i.e. identity), taking multilingualism as a norm and focusing on dynamism in intraspeaker and interspeaker language use. This thesis addresses these issues by exploring how the realities that heritage language learners (HLLs) live connect to identity negotiation and development in social interaction. In particular, this thesis focuses on a group of learners of Hindi as a heritage language in New Zealand – a group that is under-explored. Grasping the relationship between the HLLs’ experiences and how they develop and negotiate heritage-related identities necessitates a micro-level analysis of language use by casting an eye on language practices in the language maintenance school and the home, for they constitute two key spaces of exposure to the HLs and cultures. Moreover, examining how HLLs draw upon indexicality to conceptualise their languages provides rich insights into their identity negotiation and development. The primary data for the analyses is mobilised in three dimensions adopting an ethnographic approach. The first dimension includes limited-participant observations for one school term, making a total of 20 hours of observation out of which 12 hours were recorded. The observations look at language practices in a multi-site Hindi School (HS) where families of Indian descent from various linguistic, ethnic, cultural and national backgrounds come together forming a constellation of communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998b) to stay connected with their Indian heritage. I also conducted semi-structured interviews with eight parents and stakeholders in the HS to enrich the analysis and check my interpretations of the observed and recorded practices. The second dimension embraces recordings of home interaction within three families with the aim of exploring language practices in the home. A total of eight hours of recorded data were collected in different conversational encounters (e.g. in the car, at the dining table and playtime). The families participating in this research have unique characteristics in terms of their heterogeneous configuration. The first family exemplifies a transnational adoptive family which is a unique family structure that has not been researched in New Zealand. The other two families reflect multicultural New Zealand Indian families where the parents do not speak the same HL. Finally, the data in the third dimension comes from the learners through linguistic reflection drawings (Krumm & Jenkins, 2001; Seals, 2017b). Twenty HLLs participated in the drawing activity which aims at examining how they process meaning-making through the use of language-colour association and views the linguistic repertoire as embodied (Bucholtz & Hall, 2016; Krumm & Jenkins, 2001). By employing the concept of communities of practice during in-depth discourse analysis, the HS data suggests that the shared practices within the school contribute to the construction of the learners’ multilingual and national/cultural identities, emphasising the Indian identity as an overarching one (i.e. Indianness), rather than privileging other regional, national or religious identities. Additionally, the analysis of the home data suggests that no matter how committed community members are, the HL is not always actively used at home. Rather, the three families in this study take part in a wide range of language practices that index their Indian identities. They introduce aspects of the Indian culture, which is mostly indexed via music, food and cultural lexical items in their discourse (Friesen, 2008; Shah, 2013). While HL literacy skills (e.g. numeracy and the reading of literary texts) were elicited, English linguistic features that are often associated with Indian English were used to construct Indian identity. However, at times multiple memberships became problematic because it contradicted other socially constructed identities, depending on the membership that is activated in the interaction settings. The analysis offers insights into the complexities of discursive identity negotiation within the home and the intricate relationship between identity negotiation and multiple memberships. Finally, the analysis of the HLLs’ linguistic reflection drawings through an indexical lens (Ochs, 1993) reveals that the participants use their languages as direct indices to display forms of capital (Bourdieu, 1986), which in turn are discursively used to index national and cultural identities. Likewise, some participants used their multilingual identities as a resource to negotiate national and/or cultural identities. Overall, this thesis sheds light on the complexities of identity negotiation and development in heterogeneous communities where community members have multiple heritage languages. As this research is the first to present non-traditional language school and family configurations in the New Zealand context, it will hopefully enrich the understanding of the dynamics of heritage language education and identity negotiation in such superdiverse settings.</p>

Multilingual Practices and Identity Negotiation among Multilingual Heritage Language Learners in New Zealand

<p>While heritage languages (HLs) have been receiving much research attention, there is still a scarcity of studies conducted on local HL communities. However, researchers in New Zealand have been actively engaged with various community languages for over four decades, providing rich insights into the dynamics of language maintenance and language shift within these communities. Although New Zealand sociolinguistic scholarship has covered a wide range of languages and ethnicities, there is no known study on the Indian Hindi community, whose HL is the fourth most spoken language in the country (Statistics New Zealand, 2013). Additionally, previous research has traditionally examined the functional aspects of language use and language attitudes in determining whether language can be preserved, viewing HL communities often as homogeneously formed. In contrast, current trends in the field of sociolinguistics aim to examine the connections between individuals and their languages (i.e. identity), taking multilingualism as a norm and focusing on dynamism in intraspeaker and interspeaker language use. This thesis addresses these issues by exploring how the realities that heritage language learners (HLLs) live connect to identity negotiation and development in social interaction. In particular, this thesis focuses on a group of learners of Hindi as a heritage language in New Zealand – a group that is under-explored. Grasping the relationship between the HLLs’ experiences and how they develop and negotiate heritage-related identities necessitates a micro-level analysis of language use by casting an eye on language practices in the language maintenance school and the home, for they constitute two key spaces of exposure to the HLs and cultures. Moreover, examining how HLLs draw upon indexicality to conceptualise their languages provides rich insights into their identity negotiation and development. The primary data for the analyses is mobilised in three dimensions adopting an ethnographic approach. The first dimension includes limited-participant observations for one school term, making a total of 20 hours of observation out of which 12 hours were recorded. The observations look at language practices in a multi-site Hindi School (HS) where families of Indian descent from various linguistic, ethnic, cultural and national backgrounds come together forming a constellation of communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998b) to stay connected with their Indian heritage. I also conducted semi-structured interviews with eight parents and stakeholders in the HS to enrich the analysis and check my interpretations of the observed and recorded practices. The second dimension embraces recordings of home interaction within three families with the aim of exploring language practices in the home. A total of eight hours of recorded data were collected in different conversational encounters (e.g. in the car, at the dining table and playtime). The families participating in this research have unique characteristics in terms of their heterogeneous configuration. The first family exemplifies a transnational adoptive family which is a unique family structure that has not been researched in New Zealand. The other two families reflect multicultural New Zealand Indian families where the parents do not speak the same HL. Finally, the data in the third dimension comes from the learners through linguistic reflection drawings (Krumm & Jenkins, 2001; Seals, 2017b). Twenty HLLs participated in the drawing activity which aims at examining how they process meaning-making through the use of language-colour association and views the linguistic repertoire as embodied (Bucholtz & Hall, 2016; Krumm & Jenkins, 2001). By employing the concept of communities of practice during in-depth discourse analysis, the HS data suggests that the shared practices within the school contribute to the construction of the learners’ multilingual and national/cultural identities, emphasising the Indian identity as an overarching one (i.e. Indianness), rather than privileging other regional, national or religious identities. Additionally, the analysis of the home data suggests that no matter how committed community members are, the HL is not always actively used at home. Rather, the three families in this study take part in a wide range of language practices that index their Indian identities. They introduce aspects of the Indian culture, which is mostly indexed via music, food and cultural lexical items in their discourse (Friesen, 2008; Shah, 2013). While HL literacy skills (e.g. numeracy and the reading of literary texts) were elicited, English linguistic features that are often associated with Indian English were used to construct Indian identity. However, at times multiple memberships became problematic because it contradicted other socially constructed identities, depending on the membership that is activated in the interaction settings. The analysis offers insights into the complexities of discursive identity negotiation within the home and the intricate relationship between identity negotiation and multiple memberships. Finally, the analysis of the HLLs’ linguistic reflection drawings through an indexical lens (Ochs, 1993) reveals that the participants use their languages as direct indices to display forms of capital (Bourdieu, 1986), which in turn are discursively used to index national and cultural identities. Likewise, some participants used their multilingual identities as a resource to negotiate national and/or cultural identities. Overall, this thesis sheds light on the complexities of identity negotiation and development in heterogeneous communities where community members have multiple heritage languages. As this research is the first to present non-traditional language school and family configurations in the New Zealand context, it will hopefully enrich the understanding of the dynamics of heritage language education and identity negotiation in such superdiverse settings.</p>