CULTURAL AWARENESS IN CONTEMPORARY MENTAL HEALTH PRACTICE

The aim: To analyze cultural conditionality of mental health care practice; to explore the relationship between cultural awareness of mental health practitioners, their professional experience and professional status. Materials and methods: It was hypothesized that cultural competence is expected to emerge with professional experience of mental health practitioners. The Sociocultural Awareness Questionnaire was administered to mental health care practitioners – counselors, clinicians, and therapists – (N=62), aged 27 to 65, with professional work experience from 1 to 25 years. The majority of the respondents were from Kyiv (Ukraine). Results: There is no significant correlation between the duration of the period of professional activity of mental health care practitioners and their ideas concerning cultural awareness (r = -0.084, p = 0.515). In the same way there is no statistically significant differences (U = 397.500, p = 0.866) in cultural awareness between two groups of Mental Health care practitioners based on a professional status criterion. Conclusions: No professional experience, nor status are the basis for the sociocultural awareness of mental health practitioners. The assumption that cultural competence is expected to emerge with experience has not been confirmed during the pilot study.

The Influence of Students’ Sociocultural Background on the IELTS Speaking Test Preparation Process

The article is aimed at highlighting the sociocultural factors a teacher/IELTS instructor should consider preparing Russian students for the IELTS exam. The main focus of the study was on four speech functions most frequently used in the IELTS Speaking Test: explaining and paraphrasing, expressing personal opinion, providing personal information, and summarizing. The study aims to question the assumption that the problems arising in the use of these speech functions are provoked by the students’ low language level and to investigate if there are any sociocultural issues connected with the use of the above-mentioned speech functions influencing students’ performance during the IELTS Speaking Test. The study was conducted among first-year students at the Higher School of Economics (HSE) in the Faculty of Computer Science. To see the problem from a different perspective, the study involved not only the first-year students who seem to struggle with the speech functions but also their English teachers who can provide trustworthy first-hand information on the problems the students frequently face. The results of the study demonstrate that the cause of problems students encounter using the speech functions should not be attributed only to their language knowledge, as do the majority of interviewed teachers. The way students tend to explain, paraphrase, summarize, express their opinion and provide personal information is culturally defined which influences students’ ability to perform these functions effectively. To help Russian students avoid sociocultural problems preparing for the IELTS Speaking Test, a teacher/IELTS instructor should aim to increase students’ sociocultural awareness of the pitfalls in the use of the essential speech functions and sociocultural competence in a foreign language.

Constructing Sociocultural Awareness from the EFL Classroom

This article reports an action research project carried out with a group of 24 undergraduate students in a private university in Ibagué, Colombia. The study aimed to characterize the development of university students’ sociocultural skills, to analyze their perceptions and to examine the teacher’s procedures and possible implications required to implement the Raising Cultural Consciousness Macrostrategy taken from the Postmethod Pedagogy. To reach these objectives a series of interconnected tasks were designed and implemented in three different stages. To collect the data, five data collection methods were used: the students’ artifacts, teacher’s field notes, questionnaires, video recordings and a focus group. The findings revealed that these university students became gradually aware of the importance of having the opportunity to develop tasks that allowed them to connect the English classroom with the local and global context. Furthermore, students suggested that this type of pedagogy should be an explicit component of the curricula of their professional programs. A review of the literature also showed that in our local context this kind of sociocultural study with a postmethod orientation is scarce, thus this study intends to bridge this gap in the Colombian ELT field

Gamification as tool to raise sociocultural awareness

Σε αυτό το άρθρο θα χρησιμοποιήσουμε την παιχνιδοποίηση ως εργαλείο με στόχο την ενίσχυση της αφοσίωσης του χρήστη, ενισχύοντας την κοινωνική αλλά και την πολιτισμική του συνείδηση. Θα υπογραμμίσουμε το γεγονός ότι ο τομέας των παιχνιδιών για μάθηση είναι πλέον ώριμος και ότι μέσα από το παιχνίδι έννοιες, όπως: «ταυτότητα» και παιχνίδι μπορούν να συνυπάρξουν. Προς αυτή την κατεύθυνση, ένα βασικό ερώτημα είναι το εξής: πώς μπορούν οι άνθρωποι να μάθουν καλύτερα ψηφιακά; Σήμερα, τα ψηφιακά παιχνίδια έχουν αναδυθεί από το φόντο στο προσκήνιο των πολιτισμών μας και διαδραματίζουν βασικό ρόλο. Προκειμένου να δοθεί απάντηση σε αυτά τα ερωτήματα, θα παρουσιαστούν εδώ μερικά παραδείγματα, δηλαδή παιχνίδια από τον ιστότοπο των Ηνωμένων Εθνών που προσφέρουν διαπολιτισμικές εμπειρίες και αποσκοπούν στην ανάπτυξη κοινωνικής και πολιτιστικής συνείδησης.

Empowering Chicana/o and Latina/o High School Students: A Guide for School Counselors

A qualitative research study was conducted with 15 school counselors to identify the strategies they used to empower Chicana/o and Latina/o high school students. The findings of this study revealed that participants facilitated student empowerment by developing personal relationships with students, involving alumni, building sociocultural awareness, and encouraging social action. Based on these findings, school counselors who seek to empower students are called to develop positive relationships, identify role models, and encourage community engagement.

Youth Participatory Action Research Groups as School Counseling Interventions

Youth participatory action research (YPAR) projects offer young people the opportunity to increase their sociocultural awareness, critical thinking abilities, and sense of agency within a collaborative group experience. Thus far, however, such projects have been primarily the province of educators and social psychologists, and not substantively explored as a basis for school counseling interventions. This article suggests the initiation of such exploration within the framework of existing ecological and social justice models for school counseling practice, and presents an overview of a year-long, school-based YPAR project to exemplify this idea.