VIDEO 5: Becoming Culturally Competent

University students discuss what it means to become culturally competent. They provide specific strategies that anyone can use to advance along the continuum.

Based on the IDI framework, three major steps are needed to grow in cultural competence:

(1) learning about your own self-identity and culture,

(2) learning about cultures that are different from your own, and

(3) having experiences where you can navigate cultural differences and similarities.

A deeper cultural self-understanding helps one to make sense of and respond to differences in cultural perspectives based on their own culturally learned perspectives, while a deeper cultural other-understanding helps individuals make sense of and respond to differences in culture as they are presented by other cultural groups.