The Boston Public Schools Committee has the responsibility of governing the entities in the entire District. The televised public forum primarily conducted the meeting to discuss the budgetary framework for the public schools in the District by collecting the divergent views of the community members. Essentially, the forum was an in-depth interactive setting whose agenda, in addition to identifying the priority areas from the community perspective, was to establish a framework for the budget priority areas for the Boston public schools community. Through conceptualizing the views of the community, the Boston District Public Schools Committee deliberated on the various key areas that the budgetary allocations should focus on in the context of the current research work conducted on the education sector and the Superintendent of schools report.
A careful analysis of the meeting reveals various leadership styles therein that integrated several elements of Democratic, Affiliative and Participatory approaches in the facilitation spectrum of the coordination of the meeting. More importantly, the session was structured in a manner that the role of each participant was clear. The facilitators applied a wide variety of the skills including effective communication styles, enthusiasm, active listening and consensus building; all founded on a positive attitude throughout the process. In the context of the meeting the facilitators, using these skills mainly focused on the objectivity of the speakers towards the agenda of the meeting which was to submit their proposals regarding the areas they think were essential towards improving the service delivery spectrum of the public education sector.
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For each of the speaker, the Committee emphasized on the need to focus on the way that each of the proposed areas of budgetary allocation would help to improve the overall state of education in the Boston. In doing so, there were several specific behavioral patterns exhibited by the facilitators that helped to build a sense of cohesion. First, the chairman of the Committee was friendly and compassionately encouraged the attendees to make presentations that captured their personal views on the matter. Also, through adopting a transparent and honest approach in the whole process without any forms of segregation and alienation i9t helped to build a sense of trust and thereby enhanced the cohesiveness of the activity because all the attendees felt strongly connected to a common agenda with no forms of prejudice or discriminatory practices. In essence, the facilitator was very fair and neutral throughout the process with no actual types discriminations that made the whole process transparent and very objective in a manner that ensured all the members remained objective to the primary goal of the meeting.
A quick snapshot of the meeting revealed that there a high multicultural representation in the meeting with the racial composition including African Americans, Asian American and Spanish Americans. These were the dominant groups in the meeting represented in the meeting as the majority of minority groups that benefit from the Boston Public Education system. The divergence of the meeting by extension represented the overall composition of the various racial and ethnic groups that live in the larger Boston area. Regarding gender, the meeting incorporated the male, female and the LGBT community that use the Public education system services. In a nutshell, the composition of the meeting was very diverse in a manner that reflected the multicultural dimensions of the community, including race, ethnic groups and gender.
Interestingly, the meeting also captured the views of the students in the manner to capture their perceptual views on the ways that they think the Committee may contribute towards improving their welfare and education system. It was awe-inspiring some of the suggestions that the students proposed including the safety precaution measures that protect the welfare of children of the illegal immigrants. Students speaking out on these issues were emotionally moving and just showed the extent of the participation of this meeting. Foreign African groups were also represented such as the Somali residents living in Boston and, like other participants, made well-founded contributions that not helped to reveal the role of law enforcement within the broader framework of the education system. Different social movements such as Black Lives Matter advocacy also made their submissions on the various policy changes that may help towards increased safety of students from unfair police brutality. The cross-cultural diversity of the meeting was evident with the inclusion of interpreters of the meeting, such as the Spanish translator to ensure that the attendees also understood the discussions of the meeting. Indeed, the whole group meeting in its composition was designed in a manner that ensured the multicultural dimension of the attendee’s diversity formed an integral part of the entire activity. In the group setting the facilitators of the group, the meeting adopted an accommodative approach to resolve the conflicts when they emerged. Through ensuring that all the attendees respected the thoughts of each other, disputes were resolved amicably. This approach differs from my preferred style because I adopt a problem-solving technique that focuses on contextualizing the issues that lead to the conflict and formulating a plan to address each of them. At the end of the meeting, the primary goal was accomplished with the group identifying the various priority areas to fund towards improving the education system of Boston District.
Summary
The Boston Public Schools Meeting Committee group meeting is an example of how a multicultural setting should interact and conduct itself. The value of respect, integrity and collaboration founded on the principles of compassionate interactions are vital towards achieving cultural competency. The learning experience was magnificent and ultimately unlocked a new dimension of the role of cultural accommodation towards harmonious co-existence. In the end, not only was it a group activity about discussing the budget allocation but also a way that different cultures within the Boston communities developed social ties through sharing the problems they each face within the spectrum of the education system.
