Nurturing Cultural Competence
Nurturing Cultural Competence
To nurture cultural competence means to build the ability to comprehend, esteem, and successfully communicate with people who are from different cultural backgrounds. It is a necessary condition for the implementation of the inclusive environment, alteration of communication, and enhancement of the collaboration in multicultural settings.
What are the key components of cultural competence?
Cultural competence has three key elements which are self-awareness of one's own cultural prejudges, the ability to learn new cultural practices and worldviews, and communication and collaboration skills. For instance, the healthcare professional who is familiar with culturally situated beliefs about diseases in different communities would be able to give a more effective and courteous treatment.
How can organizations promote cultural competence among their employees?
Organizations can enhance their cultural competence through various methods such as training events, workshops, and programs that primarily focus on the learning of different cultures for employees. For example, a particular corporate entity can push through diversity training that is not just voluntary but required wherein role-playing cases are part of the training to let employees practice communicating and resolving disagreements inclusively.
Why is cultural competence important in education?
Cultural competence in education is significantly important due to the major benefit of understanding and recognizing the power that the various cultural backgrounds of students have in the creation of more effective teaching strategies and informing teacher decisions. Like, a teacher who is conscious of culture could enrich the learning program by embedding perspectives from different communities in the syllabus thus making leaning more contextual and relatable for all the students.
What are some practical steps individuals can take to improve their cultural competence?
Receiving a formal education and continually reading journals, along with interdisciplinary conversations with people from different disciplines and cultures are some of the various means through which one can increase one's cultural competence. For instance, taking part in local community organizations that support different backgrounds or attending cultural events would be opportunities to have conversations with real people about the various experiences that will help a person develop consciousness of cultural diversity.