Understanding our Changing Audiences to Better Meet Their Needs

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Understanding our Changing Audiences to Better
Meet Their Needs

• Kathy Lechman
• OSU Extension
• Office of Human Resources

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Sharing Experiences

• What is the diversity of the clientele that you
  work with?
• Share a time when you worked with a group
  different from yourself.
• What do you wish you had known about the group
  before you engaged with the group?

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How Do We Reach Out?

• Return to Extensions beginnings by
• Spending time with prospective audiences
• Go to where the people are
• Getting to know them
• Learning how they learn
• Understanding what they value

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Reaching Out Continued

• Build Cultural Competence
• Attend cultural events
• Read newspapers and listen to radio
• Learn about the history of the group
• Shop in community grocery stores or ethnic
  markets
• Develop relationships with leaders in the
  community

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Group History

• Learn about the groups history
• What is important to them
• What have relations been like with governmental
  authorities
• Recognize that there is diversity among groups
  who share a common label like Hispanic/Latino

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Ethnocentric

• Do not view other cultures in an ethnocentric
  manner
• The belief that one culture, usually ones own
  is, superior to another, based on ones own
  beliefs and values

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Culturally Relative Lens

• Who determines what the norm is?
• Nuclear family versus extended family structure
• Ethnocentrism
• Do not equate different with pathological or
  dysfunctional

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• Feelings of cultural isolation often cause adult
  motivation to learn to deteriorate (Wlodkowski
  1999 p.90)
• Do your best to develop a comfortable atmosphere
• Build relationships
• Keep in mind cultural relevance
• Understand cultural history

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Traits that correlate with failed cross cultural
interactions

• Low tolerance to ambiguity or high uncertainty
  avoidance
• Overly task-oriented or high need for individual
  achievement
• Overly closed-minded and inflexible
• Gary Weaver

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Objective and Subjective

• Can we really be objective?
• Objective-literature, art, history, political
  structure, social systems
• Subjective-understanding values, beliefs,
  patterns of thinking and behaving, communication
  styles
• Understanding both is important to relating to
  people from a different culture

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Collectivist/Individualistic

• Success and well being tied to group
• Latin Americans
• Africans
• Asians
• Pacific Islanders
• People in generational poverty
• Less emotionally expressive
• Conflict avoidance
• Third party interventions
• Face saving techniques
• Harmony

• Individual success and achievement
• Europeans
• North Americans
• Australians
• More confrontational
• More distant
• Expression of emotions

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• High Contact
• Usually from warmer climates
• Closeness
• Touch
• Arab, Middle Eastern, Eastern European, Russian,
  and most of Latin America, African Americans

• Low Contact
• Usually from cooler climates
• Northern Europe
• Most Asian countries
• Traditional American Indians

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• High Context
• Messages are not explicit
• Outsiders may not understand
• China, Japan, Korea, Brazil, Argentina, and other
  Latin American Countries

• Low Context
• Messages tend to be very explicit
• Australia, Poland, United States, Canada,
  Germany, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and
  the Netherlands

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Culture and Communication

• Learn the language of the people
• There are cultural differences in communication
• Use of gestures
• Volume of speech
• Directness of questions and answers
• Eye contact
• Written versus verbal
• Stella Ting Toomey. 1999 Communicating Across
  Cultures

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African American

• Spontaneous/energetic
• Conceptual thinkers
• People oriented
• Emotional expressiveness-feelings tied to
  thoughts
• Collectivist
• Oral tradition

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Hispanic/Latino

• Respect for authority
• Formal design and structure
• Group learning
• Males-authority centered
• Females-peer centered
• Collectivist

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Asian

• Hierarchy-wants the teacher to be the authority
• Individual learners
• Receive knowledge vs. interpreting
• More thinking oriented vs. feeling
• Visual learners
• Do not like to guess or blurt out answers
• Like written material

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• Society relies on a culture that has unwritten
  rules and guidelines http//courses.ed.asu.edu/ma
  rgolis/spf301/definitions_of_culture.html

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Hidden Rules

• Unspoken cues and habits of a group
• Payne, DiVol, Deussi Smith p.50

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Conscious Acts of Reflection

• Acknowledging and examining our own biases and
  prejudices that lead to stereotyping and being
  uncomfortable with people who are different than
  us.
• Identifying and recognizing how the stereotypes
  and prejudices we have came to be.

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• Identify and acknowledge our assumptions and
  stereotypes
• Avoid being ethnocentric
• Make sure policies and procedures are inclusive
• Make sure fair and accurate language is used
• Make sure visuals depict diversity
• Diverse reading material in waiting rooms
• Location-where are programs held

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• Do not place value judgments on people who do
  things differently than we are accustomed to
• Learn about the deeper aspects of culture
• Go to where the people are
• Church
• Social events
• Community festivals
• Step outside of your personal comfort zone
• Visit museums

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• Attend ethnic heritage festivals
• Even if you are the only ones who are different
• Talk about differences
• Avoid I dont see color the reality is that we
  are different shades and it is okay.

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• Continue to learn
• Stretch yourself personally and professionally
• Ask questions
• Engage in discussions

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Conclusion

• Regardless of the ethnicity, ability, age, or
  class, of the participants, demonstrating respect
  is very important
• Reach out at the very first meeting
• Materials and content should reflect the
  diversity of those present
• There is no one correct way and much of this is
  trial and error

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Resources

• Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in
  the Cafeteria. Beverly Daniel Tatum
• Somebodies and Nobodies Overcoming the Abuse of
  Rank. Robert Fuller
• Leading in Black and White Working Across the
  Racial Divide in Corporate America. Ancella B.
  Livers and Keith A. Caver
• Communicating Across Cultures. Stella
  Ting-Toomey.
• OSU Diversity Resources web page
  http//hr.ag.ohio-state.edu/diversity_development.
  html

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• Castania and Schauber. (2001) Facing Issues of
  Diversity Rebirthing the Extension Service.
  Journal of Extension V 39(6).
• Skogrand, L. (2004). A Process for Learning About
  and Creating Programs for Culturally Diverse
  Audiences. The Forum, 9(1).
• University of Florida. Marketing Programs to
  Diverse Audiences.Fycsdiversity.ifas.ufl.edu/dive
  rsity20website/unit3attachments.pdf

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• http//members.tripod.com/greatamericanhistory/gr
  02011.htm
• http//courses.ed.asu.edu/margolis/spf301/definiti
  ons_of_culture.html
• http//www.edchange.org/multicultural/language/quo
  tes_alpha.htmlabzug