Creating cultural competence is essential on college campuses, in our communities, and in the workplace. Cultural competence, as defined by the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), is the capability to shift cultural perspective and adapt—or bridge—behavior to commonality and difference. The IDI is an assessment-driven approach to developing individual intercultural competence and to build cultural competence through adaptation of behavior to cultural differences and commonalities. These five videos portray what defines cultural competence, according to college students’ diverse perspectives. The videos are organized along the IDI spectrum, which ranges from a monocultural to intercultural perspective: Denial, Polarization, Minimization, Acceptance, and Adaptation. The monocultural mindset uses cultural differences and commonalities based on an individual’s own cultural perspectives and values and often uses stereotypes as a way to identify cultural differences. The intercultural mindset is more able to make sense of commonalities and differences of culture based on their own cultural practices and values and those of the other’s culture. They are more likely to use cultural generalizations that recognize cultural differences and support more complex perceptions and experiences based on difference and commonality.

These videos can be used for diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings, in classrooms that focus on social justice topics, on college campuses that are working to become culturally competent, and in a variety of community contexts.  Using this resource in your course or workshop?  Please let us know!

 

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Creating Cultural Competence Copyright © 2021 by Jacquelyn Wiersma-Mosley and Margaret Miller Butcher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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