Cultural Diversity and Social Skill Instruction

All behavior is culturally based. Children who come from and identify with culturally diverse groups are likely to engage in behaviors that are at variance with the culture of the school. The success of these students is predicated on their abilities to traverse these environments with minimal dissonance. The purpose of this article is to identify ways in which cultural discontinuities naturally occur in the schools for these students and ways in which school personnel can bring about more satisfactory adjustments by directly teaching requisite skills.