North Seattle Community College
Embracing a Complex Future
Cultural Interview 2: Due February 14, 2011 (Bring two extra copies to class)
Social Rank Category
Age
Disability
Religion (relates to religious
culture)
Ethnicity
Social Class
Sexual Orientation
Indigenous Background
National Origin
Gender
Agent Rank
Adults (18-64)
Able-persons
Cultural Christians, Agnostics
and Atheists
Euro-Americans
Owning and Middle Class
(more than enough and
enough)
Heterosexuals
Non-Native
US Born
Male
Target Rank
Children, adolescents, elders
Persons with disabilities
Jews, Muslims, and all other
non- Christian religions
People of Color
Poor and Working Class (less
than enough)
Gay men, Lesbians, Bisexuals
Native (First Nation)
Immigrants and Refugees
Female, Transgendered, and
Intersexed
For this interview, you have two choices.
Using the ADRESSING model below (developed by Pamela A. Hays and expanded upon by
Leticia Nieto), you can choose to complete this interview in two different ways:
Exercise 1: Personal Awareness Interview
For this exercise, you will choose one social membership area where you currently hold Agent
status and want to practice Personal Awareness skills. For example, if you are between the age
of 18-64, you could use Age. If you currently have no disability, you could use Disability. If you
were born in the United States, you could use National Origin.
Your task: to find a person in our class or someone you know pretty well who holds Target
social membership in that category, interview them, and report on your communication
experience. For example, if you are working with Age, you could interview a youth or elder. If
working with Disability, you could interview a person who currently has a disability. If working
with National Origin, you could interview a person who was born outside of the US.
You need to be sure that your interviewee is clear about the nature of this assignment, is willing
to talk to you about their experience in this area of their life, and is aware that you need to tape
your interview. You could ask a classmate, a family member, someone you work with, or
another person in your life. You will need to do an interview with them, using the central
question “What is it like for you as …?”
The purpose for this exercise is to practice applying and integrating the listening skills, in
particular empathy (in Nieto’s model, it is called “awareness”). Your job is to listen deeply
to the other person, to give them a chance to feel fully heard, and to learn about what their reality
is like. Review the list of listening/communication skills (listed below) before the interview and
practice applying as many as seem helpful.
As you listen, practice staying present in your awareness of what the other person is describing
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as their reality. Avoid sending messages like “something just like that happened to me once,”
which signals similarity. That is not the goal of this exercise. To practice empathy, you may feel
some discomfort – this can be a signal that you are staying fully present to the other person and
their experiences. It is okay to acknowledge those feelings, but stay with the process and don’t
shift the focus to yourself. Keep focus on the other person, their voice, and their reality.
Stay with this process for at least 30 minutes (1/2 hour). When you have finished listening,
thank the person for sharing their truth with you.
Exercise 2: Empowerment Interview: If you hold membership in three or more of the Target
groups, you may choose to do Exercise 2.
For this exercise, you will choose one Rank channel, where you currently hold Target social
membership and want to practice empowerment skills.
Your task: to find a person who also holds the same Target social membership, interview them,
and report on your communication experience. For example, if you have a Disability, you could
use Disability. If you were born outside of the U.S., you could use National Origin. If you are a
member of a religious culture that is not Christendom (such as Judaism, Islam, or Buddhism),
you could use Religious Culture. The specific reason the person is a member of the Target group
might be different from you. They could have a disability that is different from the one you
have, or be a member of a religious culture that is different from yours, or come from a different
country than you do. Nonetheless, you share membership in the Target group.
Choose a time and place to meet that you will both be comfortable and have some privacy.
Your task is to interview the other person, using the central question “what is it like for you as
a…” Your job is to listen to the other person, to give them a chance to feel fully heard, and to
learn about what their reality is like. After twenty minutes or so focused on listening, you can
choose to share your own experience if it seems right to do so.
Avoid minimizing the impacts that this Target membership has on you or on your friend. Don’t
try to figure out who is more oppressed. Acknowledge the reality of their experience and your
own. See if common themes, concerns, or problems emerge from your discussion. This exercise
could make you feel angry, or sad, or charged with energy. Acknowledge any feelings that arise
as part of the process.
Review the list of listening/communication skills before the interview and practice as many as
seem helpful.
Stay with this process for at least 30 minutes (1/2 hour). When you have finished, thank the
person for sharing their truth with you.
To Hand In (Both for Exercise #1 and Exercise #2)
The format of your cultural interview is the same as the previous interview with three specific
areas of development and analysis:
1. Description (context). Describe fully for your reader the context of your cultural interview.
Did you complete Exercise #1 or #2? What are your agent/target or target/target memberships?
Who did you interview? When and where did the interview take place? Why did you select this
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particular person?
2. Analysis (Citing both listening and anti-oppression skills)
Using the listening skills from the class lectures/handouts, analyze what occurred in your
listening experience making sure to cite specific concepts and skills involved. You must also
reference the different skills sets referenced by Nieto in your Course Reader to evidence
your knowledge of the different anti-oppression skills and which ones you experienced
during your interview. It is really helpful if you can reference them in specific parts of your
transcript using the “Comment” tool. (For example, comment: here’s where I moved back into
distancing myself.)
3. Application and Reflection. Reflect on what you learned from this listening/sharing
experience. Are you changed from this experience? If so, how? Be specific. What was hard for
you? What did you do well? What would you do differently?
Your interview must be word-processed, double-spaced, and fully developed. Your paper should
include three headings: 1) context; 2) application and reflection, and 3) analysis. Different from
your first interview, this paper should also include a well-developed transcript. (If your
interview was especially long, you can select a portion of your interview to transcribe.) Like
your first cultural interview, we will apply a rubric to evaluate your paper (see end of this
assignment) using a 16 point scale. 14-16 pts 90-100=3.5-4.0 or A; 13-15 points, 80-89=3.4-2.5
or B (13-15); 10-12 pts, 70-79= 2.4-1.5 or C
Listening/Communication Skills
Use this list to remind you of strategies for listening and to write your interview.
 Creating a safe experience/environment so the other person can be fully authentic
 Being aware of the other person's feelings (expressed and hinted at)
 Paying attention to the other's person's nonverbal communication (what are they saying to
me nonverbally that is important for me to notice?)
 Using strategic questions to seek deeper meaning (open versus closed questions)
 Using paraphrasing (so what I heard you say) and encouraging skills (nods, supportive
sounds)
 Practicing being fully present through maintaining a centered presence (calm presence,
open mind and heart)
 Cultivating empathy (do I seek to understand or am I just doing this exercise to get the
assignment done?)
 Maintaining self awareness and a quiet mind (watching for "red flag" words and being able
to let go of my own agenda or beliefs)
 Establishing resonance (dropping into my own vulnerability and humanity) through
empathetic listening
Nieto Anti-Oppression Skills: Refer to your course reader to cite in your paper.
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Assessment Rubric for Cultural Interview 2
Element
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Assignment:
Completion
Follows completely the
assignment instructions
creating a holistic, well
crafted (with both
evidence and reflection),
and grammatically correct
writing on the complex
intersection of culture and
communication from a
personal perspective.
Skills:
Empathy
Interprets intercultural
experience from the
perspectives of own and
more than one worldview
and demonstrates ability
to act in a supportive
manner that recognizes
the feelings of another
person.
Knowledge:
Cultural Self
Awareness
Articulates insights into
own cultural rules and
biases (e.g. aware of how
one’s experiences have
shaped these rules, and
how to recognize and
respond to cultural biases,
resulting in a shift in selfdescription.)
Skills:
Verbal and
nonverbal
communicati
on
Articulates a complex
understanding of cultural
differences in verbal and
nonverbal communication
and is able to skillfully
negotiate a shared
understanding based on
those differences.
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Provides the
reader with a well
crafted
assignment that
follows the
assignment format
and develops for
the reader a clear
sense of what the
writer did and
learned through
this assignment
about culture and
communication
Recognizes
intellectual and
emotional
dimensions of
more than one
worldview and
sometimes uses
more than one
worldview in
interactions.
Recognizes new
perspectives about
own cultural rules
and biases (e.g.
not looking for
sameness;
comfortable with
the complexities
that new
perspectives
offer.)
Somewhat follows
the instructions of
the assignment
showing the reader a
beginning
understanding of
difference,
complexity,
sensitivity and
curiosity
The assignment
demonstrates a
rudimentary level
of completion and
complexity
Identifies
components of other
cultural perspectives
but responds in all
situations with own
worldview.
Views the
experience of
others but does so
through own
cultural
worldview.
Identifies own
cultural rules and
biases (e.g. with a
strong preference for
those rules shared
with own cultural
group and seeks the
same in others.)
Recognizes and
participates in
cultural
differences in
verbal and
nonverbal
communication
and begins to
negotiate a shared
understanding
based on those
differences.
Identifies some
cultural differences
in verbal and
nonverbal
communication and
is aware that
misunderstandings
can occur based on
those differences but
is still unable to
negotiate a shared
understanding.
Shows minimal
awareness of own
cultural rules and
biases (even those
shared with own
cultural group(s))
(e.g.
uncomfortable
with identifying
possible cultural
differences with
others.)
Has a minimal
level of
understanding of
cultural
differences in
verbal and
nonverbal
communication; is
unable to negotiate
a shared
understanding.
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