National Adult Literacy Database

The project was a collaboration of Alberta Employment & Immigration, Wetaskiwin Community Literacy Program, the City of Wetaskiwin and the Wetaskiwin Public Library. The following four workshops were hosted in Wetaskiwin on Mondays from 12-3 p.m. at the Wetaskiwin Community Literacy Office.

• Workshop 1: Above and Below the Waterline, April 11, 25 participants
  http://interculturalcommunicationswetaskiwin.blogspot.com/  
• Workshop 2: Building Blocks of Canadian Culture, May 9, 21 participants,
  http://workshop2interculturalcommunications.blogspot.com/,
• Workshop 3: Strategies and Tools To Use when Working with Newcomers, June 6, 19 participants
  http://interculturalcommunicationsworkshop3j.blogspot.com/
• Workshop 4: Communicating with First Nations People, Monday, June 13, 35 participants
  http://interculturalcommunication4firstnatio.blogspot.com/

Final Workshop 5: More strategies and tools for working with newcomers, Thursday, September 8, 12-3 p.m.

Participants were from the following areas:  Wetaskiwin, Ponoka, Camrose, Red Deer, Leduc, Lac La Biche, Westerose, Hobbema, and Edmonton.

Feedback

What were the topics you found most useful and interesting?

Their responses:

• Cultural differences, specifically how a culture may interpret something
• Communication styles and how they cause problems in the workplace
• Definitions:  permanent residents, immigrants, temporary foreign workers, etc.
• Cultural diversity: the iceberg example
• Diversity, various beliefs
• The historical overview was helpful and Bruce did a great job of being fair in his presentation – didn’t portray aboriginals as victims entirely and was fair and thorough with the historical events.
• Where the tribes are the same and where they are different
• Snippets about native beliefs
• Topics about evolution, ecological and environmental circumstances – the influence of natives on European settlers and the influence of Europeans on Canada
• The historical beginnings of 'policies'; the names of significant leaders of the native communities
• Learning about barriers faced by First Nations people

Future learning opportunities requested:

• The next process in helping businesses to welcome and understand native culture into the workforce.
• More about how to communicate effectively with today’s First Nations people
• Cultural differences that affect workplace behaviour
• Treaty information
• Health characteristics of First Nations and modern living habits
• More about native spirituality, native healing, medicine
• Efforts being made to heal families, family systems, residential schools experience, drugs/alcohol abuse recovery
• More about native cultures and customs
• How to improve relations with First Nations
• Multiculturalism in the workplace
• Cohesive multicultural workplaces
• Built-in cultural attitude of the Mexican populace
• How to deal with different communication styles and cultures

Ideas from the workshops that participants found most useful to explore with their jobs:

• Outsiders’ opinions on Canadians
• Understanding what it means to be Canadian
• Sharing relevant identity characteristics
• Learning how to be a welcoming workplace
• How to handle employee issues with new Canadians
• Coming with pre-programmed culturally learned responses
• What you can’t see?
• More in-depth awareness of communication styles and understanding of others
• Volunteer activity
• Learning where the other person comes from and utilizing this knowledge to improve teaching skills
• Self-awareness
• How to try different communication styles
• Understanding cultural differences
• Diversity, acceptance

This article was submitted by Manisha Khetarpal of the Wetaskiwin Public Library.

For more information about Essential Skills Integration, contact: Manisha Khetarpal, Manager of Library Services, 780-361-4447, manishacommunications@gmail.com.

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