Cultural Competency
Working Definitions
The following is a way to allow for a common understanding for how to define cultural
or intercultural competency. It also provides a foundation for how to think about various
diversities such as race, gender, class, and sexual orientation, disabilities, etc. Examining
a growing body of research that attempts to more accurately understand the language we
use and its connection to the lived experiences of diverse peoples arrived at these
descriptions. It is important to note that these terms are described as how they are often
utilized and experienced in the United States.
Culture - as a macro level concept, is the way that people agree to live and behave within
in a given society. This includes the accepted and valued beliefs, traditions, policies,
practices, behaviors, and rules of that society. These acceptances are based on contexts
such as religion, geography, language, and natural resources.
Ethnicity – An intersection of ancestry, color, culture, and nationality. This is usually
reflected by such factors as religious practices, food choices, language/dialect, and music
expressions.
Race - It is important to define race as a social construct that means skin color. In some
cases, groups are identified by ethnicity (i.e. Asian American). There is no scientific
evidence or support for placing human beings into different racial categories.
Diversity – recognizing the ways in which all individual persons can have characteristics
that are unique and distinguishable even within same cultural, ethnic, and racial groups.
This is consistent with the concept of intersectionality found in Critical Race Theory
(CRT).
Social Justice – The fair, administration of policies and laws and expectation that
irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, possessions, race, religion, etc., people are to be
treated equally and without prejudice.
Privilege - An invisible package of assets and advantages which can be counted on but
remain oblivious to groups who have such advantages. Examples include dominant
cultural groups such as heterosexual males, Whites, able bodied, etc.
Example: In the United States, people can have the ability to see racism as something
which puts people of color at a disadvantage, but not to see one of its corollary aspects,
White privilege.
Cultural Competency - identifying and understanding the nuances of global and
domestic macro level (culture), and micro level (race, gender, sexual orientation, and
class) processes for the purpose of raising consciousness; and, the impact of intersections
between these two levels. Cultural competency practice should understand the role of the
intersection between the dominant culture (White) and all marginalized groups in order to
reduce disparity. Cultural differences that occur are most often at the micro level, i.e.
race, ethnicity, class, and gender. James Banks' five dimensions of Multiculturalism is a
foundational framework to foster this. They are: (1) content integration, (2) knowledge
construction, (3) prejudice reduction, (4) Equity pedagogy, and (5) empowering school
culture and social structure. Along with Banks' 5 dimensions of multiculturalism, CRT is
an applied theoretical foundation to consider for both analysis and practice.
References
Banks, J. M. (2006). Multicultural education: Goals and dimensions. Retrieved from
http://education.washington.edu/cme/view.htm.
Blumenbach, J. F. 1795 On the natural variety of mankind (3rd ed.) in The
anthropological treatises of Johann Friederich Blumenbach. Thomas Bendyshe, ed.
and tr. (London, 1865), pp. 146–276.
Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research and practice. New
York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2012). Critical race theory: An introduction. 3rd Edition.
New York, NY: New York University Press.
Noguera, P. (2008). The trouble with black boys: And other reflections on race, equity,
and the future of public education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Singleton, G. E., & Linton, C. (2006). Facilitator's guide, courageous conversations
about race: A field guide for achieving equity in schools. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Corwin
Smedley, A., & Smedley, B. D. (2005). Race as biology is fiction, racism as a social
problem is real: Anthropological and historical perspectives on the social construction
of race. American Psychologist, 60(1), 16-26.
Solomon, P., Portelli, J., Daniel, B., & Campbell, A. (2005). The Discourse of Denial:
How White Teacher Candidates Construct Race, Racism and "White Privilege". Race,
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Sue, D. W., Capodilupo, C. M., Torino, G. C., Bucceri, J. M., Holder, A. M. B., Nadal,
K. L., & Esquilin, M. (2007). Racial microaggressions in everyday life: Implications
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.62.4.271
Tattersall, I., and DeSalle, R. (2011). Race? Debunking a scientific myth. Texas A&M
University Press: College Station, TX.
Townsley, E. (2007). The Social Construction of Social Facts: Using the U.S. Census to
examine race as a scientific and moral category. Teaching Sociology, 35(3), 223-238.