Preparing teachers and leaders to become culturally competent has become a global concern and a priority. To date, there has been little research conducted among school leaders regarding how new diversity knowledge is transferred to schools. Therefore, the purpose of the present qualitative study is to explore the extent to which future educational leaders enrolled in a graduate course regarding diversity are able to transfer the newly acquired knowledge to their professional lives and to understand what hinders and enhances their transfer of knowledge. Using the multidimensional model of learning transfer as a theoretical framework and analyzing the findings, I suggest that participants of this present study were able to use new diversity knowledge in their personal and professional lives. Further analysis identified enhancers and inhibitors to the transfer of such diversity knowledge. Based on the present study’s findings, I provide recommendations for practice and research related to facilitating and sustaining the transfer of diversity knowledge among aspiring school leaders. TEACHING DIVERSITY FOR ADAPTATION AND CHANGE 3 Teaching Diversity for Adaptation and Change: A Case Study The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), developed by the United Nations in 2015, aim at transforming the world by achieving quality education for all students at all levels of study regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, age, language, abilities, or religion (United Nations, 2016). Due to recent economic hardships and changes in the sociopolitical contexts of certain countries, there has been an increase in human migrations. This new demographic make-over has resulted in more diversity in communities, schools, and universities. As a result of this increase in diversity, preparing aspiring teachers and educational leaders to be culturally competent should be a priority. Teaching diversity courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels is an essential step towards developing culturally competent teachers and leaders, possibly making a substantial contribution towards achieving the SDGs by 2030. If future teachers and leaders transfer the newly acquired diversity knowledge to their schools and universities, over time they may alter their students’ mindsets, reactions, and actions. As new generations of students benefit from a more inclusive education, they may also model and (formally or informally) teach cultural competency and respect to others. The transfer of learning is the primary objective of teaching yet this transfer is the most challenging goal to attain (Foley & Kaiser, 2013; Furman & Sibthorp, 2013; Hung, 2013). Every year, billions of dollars are spent on training in the United States and only 10% of such training results in transfer of knowledge, skills, or behaviors in the workplace or at home (Baldwin & Ford, 1988; Broad & Newstrom, 1992). Studies from the private sector indicate that only 10% to 13% of learned skills are transferred, translating to a loss of $0.87 to $0.90 per dollar spent on training (Curry, Caplan, & Knuppel, 1994; Hess, 2013). These seminal studies address the lack of attention placed on learning transfer. Educational results indicate that it may not be sufficient TEACHING DIVERSITY FOR ADAPTATION AND CHANGE 4 to simply offer training programs. Programs are often not adapted to the participants’ needs and do not take into consideration the local context and culture (Cafarella, 2002). Understanding the role that culture plays in positively or negatively affecting the transfer of learning is paramount to enhancing the implementation of new knowledge yet culture has been absent in the literature regarding transfer learning. Researchers in educational leadership have established that school leaders at all levels play a key role in improving student achievement (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004). Further, researchers have demonstrated that educating school leadership teams is fundamental to improving learning and transferring knowledge (Grissom & Harrington, 2010; Leithwood et al., 2004). To this end, limited published studies have directly addressed how, if at all, aspiring educational leaders enrolled in a graduate level diversity course are able to transfer the newly acquired knowledge to their lives or workplaces. Using the multidimensional model of learning transfer (MMLT) as a theoretical framework in the present study, I examined how graduate students, aiming to become educational leaders and enrolled in a graduate level diversity course called Leadership in Diverse Communities, effectively transfer knowledge to their lives and workplaces. Through the present study, I offer insights regarding how culture influences learning transfer and what enhances and hinders the transfer of learning of newly acquired diversity knowledge after students complete the 15-week course. Currently, there are a limited number of recently published research studies regarding the efficacy of adult learning transfer in the area of diversity among educational leaders. Through the present study, I add to the learning transfer literature and offer practical recommendations for practitioners and scholars. TEACHING DIVERSITY FOR ADAPTATION AND CHANGE 5 Operational Definitions of Learning Transfer and Diversity Learning transfer is defined as “the effective and continuing application by learners—to their performance of jobs or other individual, organizational, or community responsibilities—of knowledge and skills gained in the learning activities” (Broad, 1997, p. 2). The literature also refers to learning transfer as training transfer. In the present study, I used learning transfer since learning does not just occur in a training context and can occur months after attending a professional development event. In the present study, diversity refers to the inclusion of people with various social identities: race, age, abilities, gender, socio-economic status, religion, education level, etc.
In the present article, we examine the experiences of women who use opioids and have lost children to governing agencies or family members with a focus on access to resources. We conducted 28 qualitative interviews with mothers who misused opioids and lost custody of their children. Their narratives are analyzed within a social capital framework. Mothers with both negative and positive social capital, whose children were removed, desired to regain their maternal role. However, mothers with negative social capital had increased difficulty navigating the judicial system and accessing needed services, were less likely to remain in treatment, more likely to use drugs, and less likely to regain custody of their children than women with positive social capital. We suggest that medical, social, and law enforcement agencies do more to link mothers who misuse opioids with positive social capital in order to increase their participation and retention in treatment and help keep families intact.
In this article, we outline the results of a narrative exploration of beliefs and attitudes towards research ethics among graduate students in two South-Central African countries, Zambia and Malawi. The participants were mid-career professionals in Africa, studying graduate business programs delivered in-country, but in partnership with a British University. By understanding the cultural underpinnings of African ethical philosophy, we aim to reconcile research practices in the region with the ethical compliance requirements and processes explicit in Western graduate research. We conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 11 students to ascertain their views on ethics generally, the influences that contribute to their ethical perspective, and in particular the relationship between these and the processes and procedures taught in their course. Participants indicated several factors were important to their beliefs and attitudes regarding research ethics including close social groups which impacted ethical beliefs, traditional historical ethics re-enforced through storytelling, religion, location (urban or rural), and beliefs about professionalism.
