Bridging the Gap – Prioritizing Cultural Competency in Not-For-Profit Organizational Strategy for Global Teacher Training

PERCS – Global is a Canadian not-for-profit organization that seeks to provide educational training to teachers in Uganda on preventing the recruitment of child soldiers. The organization recently paused operations to focus on improving the development and delivery of its programs. As the organization’s collaboration with Ugandan teachers weakened due to growing physical and cultural distance, the development of training material became less informed by local insights. This gap was exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic, when continued development occurred with reduced Ugandan involvement and minimal on-the-ground feedback. The absence of contextualized input led to training content that risked cultural irrelevance and diminished effectiveness. Through reflective analysis, the problem of practice identifies the lack of cultural competency in the organization as a key issue. To address this, and ensure equity, diversity, and inclusion are present in all programming, the proposed solution involves incorporating professional development training in cultural competency for the Canadian members of the organization. The success of the organizational change requires careful planning along with authentic and transformational leadership to foster trust and collaboration across cultures. Throughout, Kotter’s 8-step framework is applied to guide the organizational change process, providing structure for both leading and implementing the initiative successfully. The Dissertation-in-Practice concludes with a discussion of next steps and considerations for long-term sustainability.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor dc:publisher

The University of Western Ontario

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Oostvogels, Matthew J.

• not-for-profit organization
• authentic leadership
• transformational leadership
• professional development
• cultural competency
• organizational change

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/38703

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/38703