PERSONAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN

PERSONAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN

For my work plan, I will examine the challenges I may face while dealing with specific clientele types. As such, I have utilized my own experiences to exemplify some concepts that seem enlightening throughout the course.

Self-assessment of beginning cultural competence

When I started the course, I possessed an individual level competency level on culture, which greatly affected my ability to communicate and interact with other people effectively. As such, I was not able to aware of my world of view relative to developments in modernity.  I used to have a different perspective on problems facing people in the modern world, which greatly hampered my interaction skills and competence. At the beginning of the course, I articulated the fact that I needed to develop cultural proficiency to increase my awareness and practice towards tolerance. It was evident that before starting my course, I did not possess critical principles such as ancestral knowledge required to improve my competence levels. Therefore, there was a need to identify and challenge my presumptions on culture, beliefs, and values. Hence, improving my presumptions helped me develop high respect for diversity and relationships with all societal members.

Embracing cultural differences helped shape my views on my culture and that of others. Hence, I articulated the need to improve my self-awareness regarding my own values to eliminate biases I possessed towards other people. At first, I experienced confrontation with other people while trying to embrace self-awareness relative to current cultural practices in society (Mercer, 2018). However, my strong approach to cultural differences has helped me comprehend my traditions and practices, as well as other people. Besides, experiences while researching on cultural diversities helped shape my views on culture. The research drew a deep insight into the history of other people’s traditions to comprehend factors leading to societal differences (Mercer, 2018). Also, experiences while integrating with other people have averted personal views on the culture and values of other people.

What I have learned in the course

While participating in the course, I have learned to validate all cultures to promote inclusivity in society. Hence, I have been able to incorporate physiological, social constructs to ensure that single cultural practices are equivalent to one another. Also, I have learned how to explain cultural differences academically through unbiased means. As such, I am capable of practicing cultural awareness and sensitivity professionally. On the other hand, the need for professional communication on culture challenged my preconceptions. Initially, I could not apprehend the need for professional communication in order to minimize cultural biases, which greatly hampered inclusivity.  I thought biases were part of addressing cultural differences without taking care not to hurt other individuals. Likewise, interacting with colleagues from other cultural backgrounds challenged my preconception of the need for equal representation.

Moreover, embracing new ideas piqued my curiosity and the urge to learn more about cultural differences. The curiosity was castigated by my continuous feeling to ask questions in order to learn more without fear of intimidation (Hamilton, 2018). As such, I was always open to new ideas that brought positive changes to safeguard some of the security concerns in society. My curiosity has helped apprehend respect to every member of the society without biases relative to stipulations on cultural diversity. Furthermore, the question on some of the traditions practiced in my family aroused my mind hence understood the merits to carry further explorations and investigations. I needed to understand the implication of each cultural practice carried out in my family in regard to my development. Also, the question of what religious beliefs are important to my life sparked the curiosity to develop an insight into my spiritual norms and practices (Hamilton, 2018).

What does this mean for my practices?

What I learned in regards to family and culture relate to my previous work experiences. While undertaking a societal role in family inclusivity measures, I learned that culture must promote family togetherness. As such, my past work experience relates to what I have learned because culture must be used to spearhead meaningful interactions. Hence, the interactions must be used to promote equity among all societal groups without bias. Moreover, the work experience has helped me understand the need to address social structures that must be apprehended to promote cultural diversities.

I would like to learn from the elderly and marginalized societal groups in society. Besides, I would like to learn about the culture of non-native individuals in my country to help me provide better social services. Learning the culture of non-native individuals would help develop strategic approaches to foster inclusivity despite societal differences. Hence, in my social work, I will be able to achieve societal diversity despite differences in age, gender, and racial backgrounds. The elderly societal group would help understand the history and culture of a particular group. The elderly have a wide range of knowledge regarding their cultural practices as compared to the millennials.

However, it would be difficult to work with the illiterate population because they do not have the required knowledge to comprehend cultural practices. The illiterate does not understand the need to achieve cultural diversity in order to avert biases. Hence, I feel the need to overcome the prospect of engaging illiterate persons as they pose serious drawbacks to excellence. As such, I need to offer training on the importance of societal inclusivity to help shun away from utilizing biases. Hence, I stand to improve my competence levels in articulating cultural concerns needed for social developments.

What more do I need to know?

I want to learn more about engaging with culturally diverse families to improve my social services delivery skills. Hence, I plan on developing culturally competent strategies to support families from different cultures and languages. Hence, I want to learn the role played by parents in achieving inclusivity within diverse families. Moreover, research and reading serve as some of the most effective means to acquire knowledge of families and culture. A wide range of resources is available to develop a deep insight into the traditions of distinct cultural groups. As such, research would help me adopt the best communication strategy in order to avoid biases while articulating cultural differences. Also, culturally teaching resources would help acquire knowledge on cultures and families in an effective manner. For instance, “Ed Change” would be utilized because it provides a wide range of books and articles on multicultural education (Brayboy et al., 2012). The teaching resource provides rich cultural background on families and cultural issues. The above stipulations align with cultural competence as the American Indian and Alaska natives in the US.

Action steps

Firstly, to increase my cultural competence, I will recognize that culture extends beyond skin color. Hence, I will apprehend that all people, regardless of being African American, must be regarded as equal. As such, there is no need to describe people on the basis of their skin color. Secondly, I will understand individual characteristics based on their cultural backgrounds to avoid discriminating against people based on their race or ethnicity backgrounds. Developing a competent insight into cultural backgrounds help articulate individual challenges relative to the problems they face due to cultural differences (Brayboy et al., 2012). Thirdly, I need to determine the need to foster cultural effectiveness. Thus, I will be able to understand the relationship between family and culture to foster compliance with different societal groups. Finally, I will carry out culturally sensitized evaluations to diagnose problems caused by cultural disorders.

References

Brayboy, B. M. J., Fann, A. J., Castagno, A. E., & Solyom, J. A. (2012). Postsecondary education for American Indian and Alaska Natives: Higher education for nation-building and self-determination: ASHE Higher Education Report 37: 5. John Wiley & Sons.

Hamilton, D. (2018). Three Ways to Create a Culture of Curiosity | ReWork. Retrieved 6 February 2020, from https://www.cornerstoneondemand.com/rework/how-create-culture-curiosity-your-company

Mercer, A. (2018). The Importance of Cultural Awareness in Teaching. Retrieved 6 February 2020, from https://www.ace.edu/blog/post/2018/10/11/the-importance-of-cultural-awareness-in-teaching