The Results of Our Youth-Led Professional Development Study
At Diversity Talks, our aim is to increase cultural competency. We do this by providing professional development workshops grounded in diversity, equity, and inclusion and led by highly trained youth facilitators.
We’re often asked how we know that youth-led professional development makes an impact. Are young people truly capable of changing adult mindsets?
Our latest study presents the findings of research measuring shifts in educators’ cultural competence as a result of Diversity Talks’ youth-led workshops.
What is Cultural Competence?
Cultural competence refers to the attitudes, practices, and policies that enable an individual or organization to work effectively in cross-cultural situations.
Students in educational environments that do not reflect or uplift their identities are not likely to see school as a place where they belong and can be successful. Therefore it is important for school districts to track cultural competence levels and invest in training to ensure that their staff is equipped to serve a culturally diverse student body.
Our newly-released report presents the results of a study measuring shifts in educators’ cultural competence as a result of their participation in Diversity Talks’ youth-led workshops.
Download the full report here: diversitytalkspd.com/research
How do we measure our impact?
Diversity Talks has designed and implemented a comprehensive program evaluation framework that includes several instruments which can track the impact of the workshops. These instruments track the attitudes and perceptions of school personnel at the individual level before and after attending the workshop series. The PERM Cultural Competence Framework is based on four dimensions; Power, Empathy, Relationships, Mindset.
Who we studied
Diversity Talks offered a total of 7 youth-led workshops between October 2021 and April 2022 to a suburban school district in the Northeastern United States. The district serves more than 2,500 students of all ages, from pre-K to 12.
Although the local community has over 21% non-white population, including 9% Hispanic/Latinx and 7% Black, the district’s faculty is 96% white, 1% Hispanic/Latinx, and 1% Black.
This study included a treatment group consisting of school personnel who took the PERM Cultural Competence Assessment prior to the start of the cultural competence workshops and again after the workshop series ended. The control group also took the PERM Assessment prior to and after the workshop series, but did not attend the workshops.
The Results
Our findings indicate statistically significant increases in cultural competence for those who attended our youth-led workshops.:
46% of participants shifted to a higher level of cultural competence following the workshops in the Mindset dimension of the PERM
88% reported behavior shifts as a result of attending our workshops
87% likely or very likely to recommend our youth-led workshops to others
“Overall I thought it was a fun and interactive way to approach different identities.” — Participant
Prior to the workshop series, the majority of PERM scores fell in the Cultural Blindness or Pre-competent range, indicating a need for cultural competence training. There were significant increases in cultural competence after participating in Diversity Talks youth-led workshops, with certain demographic groups scoring higher after the workshops than others.
Youth-Led Professional Development Partnership Opportunities
Diversity Talks offers year-long whole school/district partnership opportunities to provide an intensive fellowship experience for youth leaders, deep learning for staff and educators, and analysis, such as this report, to further the cultural competence of the educational community.
If you’re interested in a more in-depth look at what Diversity Talks youth-led programming can provide, the full report can be accessed here: The Effects Of Diversity Talks Youth-Led Professional Development On Educators’ Level Of Cultural Competence