Cultural Studies/Knowing Who You Are Resources

The 'Knowing Who You Are' curriculum helps professionals explore race and ethnicity, preparing them to support the healthy development of their constituent's racial and ethnic identity.

Development of a healthy racial and ethnic identity is important in helping youth establish consistency in their lives with regard to how they view themselves. A healthy identity can be an important anchor from which positive outcomes are possible. For youth in foster care, this aspect of identity is often overlooked.

For child welfare advocates to support youth in this work, they must have an understanding of their own racial and ethnic identity, investigate their assumptions and biases related to race and ethnicity and examine personal comfort levels around these issues. The Knowing Who You Are project is designed to address these areas in addition to helping advocates develop practical ways to integrate racial and ethnic identity work into day-to-day practice for all youth, regardless of their race and ethnicity. This includes recommending that youth develop pride in their racial and ethnic heritage, establish skills around multicultural competence and prepare for racism and discrimination.

Links to additional teaching resources:

Novels with Native American Heroes https://www.npr.org/2017/04/02/522223987/with-this-publisher-native-american-superheroes-fly-high

Teaching Tolerance (Printable Posters) https://www.tolerance.org/classroom-resources/one-world-posters