The Planner

1. Framework Recommended Areas for Research Multicultural Competence A framework for multiculturally competent planning can aid planners in identifying program stakeholders, understanding the “structural political-economic setting”, addressing ethical challenges, reshaping power relations, and nurturing “a substantively democratic planning process” (Forester, 1989, pp. 5-6). “While planners have so far addressed the problem of planning with multiple constituencies-interest groups-with similar value systems, we are yet to confront the much more difficult problem of planning with multicultural groups that have different values from those of the dominant culture” (Burayidi, 2000, p. 9). • Cultural competency levels of adult education , higher education, and T&D program planners. • Cognitive complexity as it relates to the development of multicultural competence in program planners. • Impact of planner’s cultural identity in multiculturally competent program planning. • Effective training methods for developing culturally competent program planners. • Effect of ethnocentrism and unwarranted assumptions on program planners’ perceptions of and responses to planning practice. • Facilitators of and obstacles to successful multiculturally competent program planning. The Planner • Who are you? • What is your race and cultural identity? • How does your race and ethnic identify affect the lens with which you view this planning project? • How does your race and cultural identity impact your power in the planning process? • What is your level of multicultural competence? • What additional competencies might you need to be effective in this planning process? • How might your race, cultural identify, and level of multicultural competency impact the communicative action you need to take to achieve your planning goals? • What allies might you need to assist you? John Forester Forester is a Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at Cornell. He is renowned scholar, author, and international lecturer and visiting professor. Forester is the creator of a critical social theory of planning practice. References The Stakeholders • Burayidi, M. A. (2000). Urban planning in a multicultural society. Westport, CT: Praeger Press. • Forester, J. (1989). Planning in the face of power. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. • Forester, J. (1999). The deliberative practitioner: Encouraging participatory planning processes. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. • Forester, J. (2000). Multicultural planning indeed: Lessons from the mediation practice of Shirley Solomon and Larry Sherman. In M. A. Burayidi (Ed.), Urban planning in a multicultural society, (pp. 147-158). Westport, CT: Praeger Press. • Pope-Davis, D. B., Colman, H. L. K., Liu, W. M., & Toporek, R. L. (Eds.). (2003). Handbook of multicultural competence for counseling and psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. • Who are your stakeholders? • Participants • Organization and organizational decision makers • Instructors • Funders • Community • What are their races and ethnicities? • How might their races and ethnicities affect the lenses with which they view this project and planning process? • How do their races and cultural identity impact their power in the planning process? • What is their level of cultural competency? What additional competencies might they need to participate effectively in your planning process? • How do their races, cultural identities, and cultural competencies impact your communication with them and the communicative action that you take with them and on their behalf? Planning in the Face of Power Practitioners and educators who plan adult education programs, training and development initiatives, and higher education programs work with and plan on the behalf of many people who are different from themselves. These planners work “in a world of intensely conflicting interests and great inequities of status and resources.” They plan “in the face of power” (Forester, 1989, p. 3). Multiculturally Competent Program Planning • Planning with, and on behalf of, others with dissimilar cultures and backgrounds • (Pope-Davis, Colman, Liu, & Toporek, 2003) using methods and processes that recognize, embrace, and value diverse ways of learning and planning. “For planners, the practical imperative is no longer whether planning ought to be culturally sensitive, but how it can be so?” (Forester, 2000, p. 147).