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As the United States becomes a land of the diverse, conversations are shifting from "how do we excel in spite of our differences" to "how we come together and thrive because of our differences." The K to 12 educational spaces are also shifting the focus from helping develop skills in academic areas to the best ways to help children develop their sense of agency and sense of identity. In order to propel such cultural transformations, we have to address the relentless and commonplace occurrences of unfavorable, negative, or even traumatic experiences associated with the insidious racial tension and racialized marginalization experienced by minorities.
On this episode, author, professor at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky and, Dr. DeDe Wohlfarth, discusses the idea of cultivating cultural humility against the backdrop of systemic and structural racism and the work that must be put in by the dominant group to create racially harmonized experiences for all. As we think about raising and educating children to master their Executive Function and demonstrate self-sufficiency, we need to prioritize thinking about racial inequalities and perspective shifts so that empathic support is extended to the marginalized individuals whose experiences of injustices may be hidden.
About Dr. DeDe Wohlfarth
Dr. DeDe Wohlfarth earned her bachelor’s degree from Earlham College, master’s degree from Ball State University, and doctorate degree in clinical psychology from Spalding University. DeDe is a full professor at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. She is also a clinical psychologist in Indiana and Kentucky who specializes in treating children and families who are affected by intergenerational poverty, abuse and neglect, and trauma.
Her focus on cultural humility (Tervalon & Murray-Garcia, 1998) intensified over the last decade as she saw the many ways racism, sexism, and heterosexism were traumatizing people. She has since published several articles on diversity, trauma, and cultural humility, and presents regularly on the topic. Despite all this, DeDe knows she makes mistakes every day on her own diversity journey and tries to learn from them.
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About Host, Sucheta Kamath
Sucheta Kamath, is an award-winning speech-language pathologist, a TEDx speaker, a celebrated community leader, and the founder and CEO of ExQ®. As an EdTech entrepreneur, Sucheta has designed ExQ's personalized digital learning curriculum/tool that empowers middle and high school students to develop self-awareness and strategic thinking skills through the mastery of Executive Function and social-emotional competence.
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Full PreFrontal: Exposing the Mysteries of Executive Function