- "Cultural competence, also known as intercultural competence, is a range of cognitive, affective, behavioural, and linguistic skills that lead to effective and appropriate communication with people of other cultures."
The ability to understand, appreciate, and work effectively with clients from diverse cultural backgrounds, and to avoid imposing one's own cultural values on those clients.
Cultural awareness: This topic includes understanding one’s own culture and beliefs and how these shape perceptions and interactions with other cultures.
Intersectionality: This concept recognizes that individuals hold multiple cultural identities simultaneously, such as gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation. Intersectionality emphasizes the interconnectedness of various cultural identities and the impact they have on experiences.
Prejudice and Discrimination: Prejudice is an attitude that involves unfair and unfounded judgments about people or groups based on stereotypes. Discrimination refers to behaviors that limit or deny someone equal access to resources or opportunities.
Cultural humility: Cultural humility is a lifelong process of self-reflection and self-critique, where one acknowledges and examines their own cultural biases and limitations while respecting and accommodating others' diverse cultural beliefs and practices.
Stereotyping and generalizing: Stereotyping is a generalization about an entire group of people based on a set of characteristics. It can lead to discrimination and the perpetuation of negative cultural stereotypes.
Microaggression: Microaggressions are subtle, often unconscious actions or statements that convey discriminatory messages or insults to individuals based on their culture, ethnicity, or other attributes.
Cultural competence: Cultural competence is the ability to understand, appreciate, and effectively interact with people from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Intercultural communication: Intercultural communication is the exchange of ideas and information between people from different cultural backgrounds. It includes nonverbal communication, such as body language, as well as language and other verbal forms of communication.
Ethnocentrism: Ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s own cultural group is superior to another. It can create barriers to understanding and accepting other cultures and limit respect for cultural differences.
Cultural responsiveness: Cultural responsiveness involves the recognition of the diversity within cultures and the need to adapt service delivery methods to meet the needs of diverse populations.
Awareness: The ability to recognize our own biases, assumptions, values, and beliefs that may influence our perspective of other cultures.
Knowledge: The understanding of different cultural norms, beliefs, practices, and communication styles as well as the impact of social, historical, and political factors that shape these cultures.
Skill-building: The ability to adapt our communication, behavior, and practice to effectively work with individuals from diverse cultures, including the implementation of culturally appropriate interventions.
Attitude: A positive attitude towards cultural differences and a willingness to learn from people who come from different backgrounds.
Action: The ability to initiate and engage in conversations that facilitate understanding across cultures and advocate for cultural competence in social work practice.
Critical reflection: The capacity for introspection and analysis of our own cultural biases, how they may affect our practice, and how we can continue to learn and grow.
Advocacy: The ability to challenge and dismantle systems and policies that marginalize or discriminate against individuals from different cultures while promoting policies that support social justice and equity.
- "Intercultural or cross-cultural education are terms used for the training to achieve cultural competence."
- "Effective intercultural communication relates to behaviors that culminate with the accomplishment of the desired goals of the interaction and all parties involved in the situation."
- "Appropriate intercultural communication includes behaviors that suit the expectations of a specific culture, the characteristics of the situation, and the level of the relationship between the parties involved in the situation."