{"id":1673,"date":"2020-10-07T14:28:38","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T14:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-publicspeaking\/?post_type=chapter&p=1673"},"modified":"2021-06-24T21:22:50","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T21:22:50","slug":"cultural-competence","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-publicspeaking\/chapter\/cultural-competence\/","title":{"raw":"Cultural Competence","rendered":"Cultural Competence"},"content":{"raw":"
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Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\nDiscuss strategies for developing cultural competence and cultural intelligence.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nIt is important to remember that the ability to communicate effectively with multicultural audiences or audiences from other cultures is a skill like any other: it can be learned, practiced, and improved. The capacity to communicate across and within cultural difference is known as\u00a0cultural competence<\/strong>, cross-cultural competence<\/strong>, or\u00a0intercultural competence.\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n\r\nCultural competence is defined differently in a variety of fields:\r\n
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  • In education: \"What is cultural competence? Put most simply, it is the ability to successfully teach students who come from cultures other than your own.\"[footnote]Moule,\u00a0Jean.\u00a0Cultural Competence: A Primer for Educators<\/em>.\u00a0United States,\u00a0Cengage Learning,\u00a02012. 5.[\/footnote]<\/li>\r\n \t
  • In healthcare: \"The ongoing capacity of healthcare systems, organizations, and professionals to provide for diverse patient populations high-quality care that is safe, patient and family centered, evidence based, and equitable.\"[footnote]National Quality Forum.\u00a0Endorsing a Framework and Preferred Practices for Measuring and Reporting Culturally Competent Care Quality.<\/span>\u00a0Washington DC: National Quality Forum; 2008. 2008[\/footnote]<\/li>\r\n \t
  • In child care: \"Cultural competence is a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations.\"[footnote]Isaacs, Mareasa R., and Marva P. Benjamin. Towards a Culturally Competent System of Care<\/em>. em of Care, Volume I, Georgetown University Child Development Center, 1989[\/footnote]<\/li>\r\n \t
  • For library and information science professionals: \"Cultural competence, a term used in the literature to describe the ability of professionals to understanding the needs of diverse populations, is a highly developed ability to understand and respect cultural differences and to address issues of disparity among diverse populations competently.\"[footnote]The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy , Vol. 79, No. 2 (April 2009), pp. 175\u2013204[\/footnote]<\/li>\r\n \t
  • In international education: \u201cIntercultural competence is the ability to develop targeted knowledge, skills and attitudes that lead to visible behaviour and communication that are both effective and appropriate in intercultural interactions.\u201d[footnote]Deardorff, Darla K. \"Identification and Assessment of Intercultural Competence as a Student Outcome of Internationalization.\" Journal of Studies in International Education<\/em> 10.3 (2006): 241\u2013266.[\/footnote]<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nAll these definitions share a focus on being able to exchange ideas or information effectively within a multicultural and diverse environment. The implications of these definitions for public speaking may be self-evident: if one's purpose is to get across a message (and receive feedback about that message), then cultural competence is a prerequisite, or necessary condition, for communicating this message effectively.\r\n\r\nAlthough the word \"competence\" might make it sound like cultural competence is something one can achieve and possess, it's actually an ongoing process. Cultural competence is a bit like physical fitness: it requires practice and exercise throughout one's education, career, and lifetime.\r\n\r\nDarla Deardorff's 2004 model of intercultural competence shows how this knowledge and experience is a cyclical process.[footnote]Deardorff, Darla K. \"Identification and Assessment of Intercultural Competence as a Student Outcome of Internationalization.\" Journal of Studies in International Education 10.3 (2006): 241\u2013266.[\/footnote] An attitude of openness and respect leads to deeper cultural knowledge, which leads to greater empathy and flexibility, which leads to more appropriate behavior in an intercultural context, which leads to discovery and curiosity, which leads to greater cultural awareness and self-awareness, which leads to greater adaptability . . . and so on.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
    Attitudes<\/strong>:\r\n
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    • Respect (valuing other cultures)<\/li>\r\n \t
    • Openness (withholding judgment)<\/li>\r\n \t
    • Curiosity & discovery (tolerating ambiguity)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n
    		\"arrow<\/td>\r\nKnowledge & Comprehension:<\/strong>\r\n
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    • Cultural self-awareness<\/li>\r\n \t
    • Deep cultural knowledge<\/li>\r\n \t
    • Sociolinguistic awareness (awareness of the connection between language and society)\r\n
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      • Skills<\/strong>: To listen, observe, evaluate; To analyze, interpret, relate<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
    \"arrow<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n\"Arrow<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
    External Outcome:<\/strong>\r\n
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    • Effective and appropriate communication & behavior in an intercultural situation<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n
    		\"arrow<\/td>\r\nInternal Outcome:<\/strong>\r\n
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    • Informed Frame of Reference Shift:\r\n
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      • Adaptability<\/li>\r\n \t
      • Flexibility<\/li>\r\n \t
      • Empathy<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n
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        TO watch: Daniel Socha<\/h3>\r\nIn this video, Master's student Daniel Socha talks about cultivating an \"introspective approach\" to culture, which calls us to \"continually question our assumptions.\"\r\n\r\n