GCAP 633 Assignment: Cultural Interview
The Cultural Interview paper will be based on an information interview held with an adult from a cultural background
that is different from your own. In order to effectively, sensitively, and respectfully conduct this interview, you
must meet with this individual face-to-face. Please note: This is not a counselling interview or intervention. Your
purpose in the interview is simply to gather information about the individual's world-view, value systems, cultural
experience and beliefs, experience of cultural identity, and so on.
The purpose of the paper is to facilitate your understanding of how the theory and processes related to cultureinfused counselling might be applied in practice. You will implement the three core competencies from the cultureinfused counselling (CIC) model, presented in the course, in your preparation for, your engagement in, and your
critical reflection on the culture interview.
Select an adult to interview. Cultural informants are rich sources of information and insights. We are defining culture
very broadly here to include gender, sexual orientation, ability, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, or religion. You
are strongly encouraged to select an individual from a cultural group that you are not very familiar with or that is
outside of your comfort zone. However, if you are aware of a personal bias or discriminatory attitude that you cannot
yet fully set aside and that may impact the cultural sensitivity of your interaction with the individual being interviewed,
please choose a different person. You must select an individual who is considered a non-vulnerable adult,
defined as meeting the following criteria:
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individuals must be 18 years and older, and must be legally competent to provide consent; and
those individuals must not be under the direct supervision or care and attention of the student
researcher; and
those individuals must not be dependent upon the student researcher’s employer or organization
for whom the researcher volunteers for provision of services; and
those individuals must not be incarcerated or otherwise legally confined.
Set ethical boundaries for the interview. Discuss the nature of the course assignment with the person you plan to
interview and have that person complete the Consent Form prior to the interview. You are required to fax or email a
copy of the completed consent form to your course instructor before submitting your paper for grading. If your
instructor cannot provide a confidential fax line for this purpose, then you will be required to submit a scanned copy of
the form by email. Please note that fax transmissions are less reliable, so please send a follow up email to ensure
that your fax has been received. If you do not submit your consent form by the due date of the assignment, the
entire assignment will be considered late, and the applicable grade deduction will be accumulated until the
consent form is received. You will receive a zero on this assignment without receipt of the consent form. You are also
required to show the completed assignment to the participant before you hand it in. Please ensure that no identifying
information is contained in your course submission. Specifically, do not use the person's real name or any other
information that could allows others to identify him/her. You will receive a 5% deduction on your paper if you fail
to respect this critical ethical requirement.
Once you have identified an appropriate interviewee, carefully follow the steps below to complete the assignment.
Writing & APA Lesson 2 Commentary 2 p. 1
Assignment Description
Scholarly Writing Focus
Section A: Preparing for the Interview
Review the scholarly writing links from
Assignment 1. You are expected to demonstrate
mastery of those skills in all course assignments.
1. Increase your cultural awareness. Prepare for the interview by
GCAP 550 Lesson 3, in particular, provides
reviewing the first two core competencies in the CIC model (see
detailed information about how to write critically
Lesson 2):
o Awareness of your own cultural identities. Critically reflect on and build effective arguments to support the
your own cultural identities, revisiting Exercise 2: Examining thesis of your paper. Remember, your paper
should flow from one logical argument to another.
Personal Cultural Identity and identifying both points of
potential connection and disconnection with the interviewee.
Remember, these are just tentative hypotheses at this point; For each of the main points in your argument, you
however, they provide you with an opportunity to apply the
will cluster your sub-points into logical groupings
CIC competencies to explore relative privilege, potential
to form your paragraphs. To refine your writing
biases, cultural assumptions, areas of discomfort, etc. This is further, pay attention to GCAP 550 Lesson 2 and
the same process that prepares you to work with your clients. Lesson 3, specifically:
Make notes of your self-reflections, insights, questions, etc.
o Awareness of the cultural identities of others. Critically reflect
Developing strong paragraphs
on your current understanding of the cultural identity(ies) of
the individual you plan to interview. Review the literature for
1. Transitional devices (pronouns /
insights about issues, experiences, cultural norms, etc. that
transitional words)
might apply to your interviewee. Be sure to review Lesson 4
2. Conciseness and clarity
to remind yourself of the complexity, idiosyncrocy, and fluidity
of identity, so that you hold any ideas you gather tentatively.
Selecting verb tense
If there are relevant chapters in the course text, please also
review these. Remember, if this were a client, you would not
Using verbs that reflect the nature of your
be depending on her/him to be your sole source of cultural
information source
understanding; you are responsible for your own awareness
of the cultural identities of others. Make notes of the cultural
Read through your paper to see if the flow of your
constructs, multicultural counselling principles, contextual
arguments is clear. Then review it again, but only
and systemic factors, cultural norms, and others key
read the first and last sentences of each
observations that may inform your dialogue.
paragraph. If the flow of arguments is lost, you
2. Plan your engagement. In the CIC model, cultural identities are
explored and become meaningful in the context of the working alliance may need to review the following:
between counsellor and client. Although this is an information
Drafting an introduction
interview, not a counselling interview or intervention, the same basic
Drafting a conclusion
principles related to establishing a trusting and respectful relationship
Structuring skills
apply. Review Lesson 3 to think through how to best develop a
Creating headings
working alliance with your interviewee.
3. Apply these three core competencies (maximum 3 double-spaced
1. Using headings to group key points
pages) to critically analyze pertinent observations about your own
2. Formatting headings
cultural identities and those of the interviewee, areas of potential
connection and disconnection, assumptions or biases you are working
You may also want to refine your sentences to
through, tentative hypotheses about cultural differences, and a plan
for how you will create safety, respect, and mutuality in your interview. support clarity and meaning. Review the following:
Section B: Conducting and Analyzing the Interview
4. Conduct the interview. Remember the purpose of this activity is to
gather information about the individual's world-view, value systems,
Writing & APA Lesson 2 Commentary 2 p. 2
Sentence structure
1. Basic components of sentences
2. Sentence fragments (incomplete
cultural experience and beliefs, experience of cultural identity, and so
on. Approach your interviewee with an attitude of openness, curiosity,
and appreciation of difference. Remember, s/he is the expert on
her/his cultural identities and experiences. You may find it helpful to
develop a few questions based on your reflection and literature review
to start off the interview process. You are encouraged to record the
interview to help you recall the dialogue; however, you must receive
explicit permission for this from the interviewee.
5. Critically analyze the interview data. (maximum 10 double-spaced
pages). The largest portion of your paper is your critical reflection on
the information you glean from the interview in light of the course
materials and other professional literature. Do not provide a transcript
of your interview. Do not simply provide a sequential narrative of what
the individual said. Step back and think about what you learned from
the dialogue about the relevance and experience of cultural
identity(ies) for this person. You must critically analyze and integrate
both the interview and literature review information under your key
points.
o Develop a thesis statement for this section of the paper - see
the examples below. Notice that each thesis is presented as
an arguable statement.
 George's experiences as a gay man are influenced
significantly by his identity as a Metis, supporting the
argument for the complexity and interactivity of
multiple non-dominant identities.
 It is clear from my interactions with Rebecca that
there are some situations in which her disability has
profound effects and others where it is not a salient
element of her identity.
o Organize this section of your paper according to a set of key
arguments in support of that thesis statement. Note: You
must highlight your thesis statement and key arguments
– either in bold or in a different colour, so they are
obvious to the reader. Your next challenge is to support
each argument in a systematic way, by drawing on both the
multicultural counselling literature and the data you gathered
from your interview. Integrate in excerpts from your dialogue
with the interviewee to support your arguments. No more
than half of the content in this section can be the words of the
interviewee. You might state for example:
 The conceptualization of sexual identity within the
aboriginal community is less rigid and diversity more
fully embraced than in the dominant culture (author,
date). George noted: Growing up my aunt was
considered a powerful medicine woman. She lived
on her own, and I never really associated gender
with her in the way I did with others. It wasn't until
my adulthood that I encountered the term 'two
spirited.'
 Rebecca felt marginalized by her disability,
Writing & APA Lesson 2 Commentary 2 p. 3
sentences)
3. Agreement between subject and verb
4. Agreement between noun and
pronoun
5. Appropriate placement of modifiers
6. Subordinate elements
7. Parallel constructions
Review the GCAP Graduate Writing Standards
to ensure that you select appropriate and
sufficient scholarly sources for your paper.
Pay very careful attention also to Intellectual
Honesty Expectations of the program and the
Common Intellectual Honesty Pitfalls. You may
want to review the information on integrating
citations into your paper:
1. Integrating citations
2. Integrating quotations
o Citing specific sections of a
source
3. Citing multiple sources
4. Sources repeated in same paragraph
5. Secondary sources
Remember: You are responsible for properly
formatting your paper, including your reference
list. You may want to review the following key
links:
1. Classifying information sources Decision tree for APA referencing
2. Print-based materials
o Non-periodical
 Entire book,
brochure, manual,
report
 Chapter, article,
report in larger work
3. Electronic materials
o Non-periodical
 Entire book,
brochure, manual,
report
 GCAP course
materials
 Chapter, article,
report in larger work
o Periodical
o
particularly in contexts in which people did not know
 Journal, magazine,
her well - I sometimes feel like a disappear from
newsletter
view, like I become an inanimate fixture in the room.
o Newsgroups, forums, mailing
People talk about me, but not with me. It is like they
lists
don't know how to relate so they just pretend I'm not
 GCAP discussion
forums
there. Author (date) talks about this sense of
invisibility and frames it in terms of cultural
blindness...
As you work through this paper, make use of the
Please review these Excerpts from Student Papers to give following checklists to ensure that you have
you ideas about how to organize this section of the paper.
mastered all of the scholarly writing criteria.
Section C: Reflecting on the Interview
Draft checklist
6. Synthesize your learning. (maximum 2 double-spaced pages). The
final section of the paper must contain a synthesis of your learning.
Reflect back on your cultural reflections on self and other and highlight
any important new learning about yourself or potential clients with
cultural identy(ies) different from your own. Come up with 2-3
examples of how your practice with clients or your professional self
might change, based on what you have learned from this assignment.
Finally, identify 1-2 areas where you feel you could still benefit from
further development of your multicultural competencies (knowledge,
attitudes, or skills).
Revision checklist
Final edit
1. Editing checklist
2. Peer review
Your complete paper must be in APA format and can be no more than 15 pages, double-spaced, excluding title page
and references.
Grading Criteria
The evaluation components for the Assignment 2: Cultural Interview are listed below. Refer to the Overall Grading
Taxonomy to review the expectations associated with each level of learning targeted in this assignment.
Grading Criteria
Weight
30
Marks
Scholarly Writing & APA Style - See APA Style Grading Criteria
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Your instructor will focus particularly on the elements outlines under the "Scholarly Writing Focus" 4 marks
in Column 2 of the assignment outline.
Personal Cultural Identity(ies), Cultural Identity(ies) of Interviewee, and Culturally-Sensitive
Working Alliance
Writing & APA Lesson 2 Commentary 2 p. 4
8 marks
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Critical reflection on personal cutlural identity(ies)
Critical reflection on cultural identity(ies) of the interviewee, in light of current literature
Openness to self-reflection and challenging of personal biases or assumptions
Evaluation and articulation of implications of personal cultural awareness to engagement with
interviewee
Thoughtful and appropriate principles for engagement with interviewee
Integration and synthesis of course materials
Integration and synthesis of both multicultural counselling and population-specific literature.
Analysis of Cultural Interview
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Clear, succinct, and arguable thesis statement
Logical flow of arguments to support thesis statement
Respectful and culturally-sensitive presentation of the cultural expressions and experiences of
the interviewee
Thoughtful and respectful integration of excerpts from the interview
Critical analysis and articulation of the central multicultural theoretical constructs or processes
relevant to the interviewee
Synthesis and integration of literature to support understanding to the cultural expressions and
experiences of the interviewee
15
marks
Synthesis of Learning
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Critical reflection on personal learning related to awareness of your personal culture, worldview,
biases, and/or assumptions
Critical reflection on your cultural awareness of others from different cultural backgrounds
Clear articulation of relevant professional practice considerations
Self-reflection on areas for continued competency development
Penalties will apply for failure to adhere to the following GCAP Writing Standards:
Intellectual Honesty
Scholarly Foundation in Writing
Writing & APA Lesson 2 Commentary 2 p. 5
3 marks