Cultural competency is the ongoing ability and mindset to engage respectfully and effectively with people from different cultural backgrounds. It goes beyond merely learning facts about cultures. It involves awareness, self-reflection, and adapting one’s approach to fit diverse social and cultural contexts.
Key Elements of Cultural Competency #
- Self-Awareness & Reflexivity: A culturally competent individual reflects on their own cultural assumptions and biases. This self-awareness is essential for genuine understanding and respectful interaction.
- Cultural Knowledge & Context: Beyond personal reflection, understanding the cultural beliefs, communication styles, and worldviews of others is crucial. This insight enables meaningful engagement in culturally appropriate ways.
- Methodological Adaptation: In evaluation, culturally competent evaluators choose methods and processes that account for cultural contexts. This includes using culturally appropriate data collection and interpretation techniques.
Why It Matters #
- Ethical Practice: Respecting cultural diversity is not just considerate—it’s an ethical requirement. Cultural blindness in research or evaluation can lead to misinterpretation, harm, or exclusion of communities.
- Validity and Relevance: Ignoring cultural context can weaken findings. When evaluators engage with different cultural frameworks, their conclusions become more accurate and relevant to the communities involved.
Challenges to Cultural Competency #
- It is never fully mastered.
- Cultural competency isn’t a one-time achievement. It’s a continuous journey that requires humility, learning, and openness to change.
- It is context-dependent.
- Being competent in one setting doesn’t guarantee effectiveness in another. Cultural contexts vary widely, even within groups, which means approaches must be tailored and flexible.
Cultural competency isn’t just a skill—it’s an attitude of openness, reflection, and adaptability that enables meaningful, respectful engagement across cultural divides. Whether in evaluation, education, healthcare, or development, it serves as a foundation for fairness, relevance, and deep understanding.
List of recommended resources #
For a broad overview #
What is Cultural Competence and How to Develop It?
This article by Penn State provides a brief introduction to cultural competence and its components. The article gives a basic understanding of culture, cultural intelligence, and culture competence and then discusses how to develop an attitude supporting cultural competence.
You’re Doing It Wrong: The evolution of cultural competence
This Ted Talk by Dr. Raquel Martin, a research scientist, assistant professor and clinical psychologist, talks about the history of cultural competence and how cultural competency training nowadays has lost the original vision of the concept. Dr. Martin addresses this issue and provides methods to remedy it.
For in-depth understanding #
Cultural Competence: The Intrinsic Strategic Advantage
This book by Waddah S. Ghanem Al Hashmi introduces business leaders to cultural competence – a key differentiator contributing to competitive advantage and financial sustainability. The book addresses concepts of organizational cultural competence as an internal differentiator and source of competitive advantage.
Cultural Competence and the Higher Education Sector
This book, edited by Jack Frawley, Gabrielle Russell, and Juanita Sherwood, explores cultural competence in the higher education sector from inter-disciplinary and mutli-disciplinary perspectives. The authors address cultural competence in terms of leadership and the role of the higher education sector in cultural competence policy and practice.
Case study #
Exploring Behavioral Competencies for Effective Medical Practice in Nigeria
This study, conducted by Uche Obi, Adanna Chukwuma, Ifunanya Agu, and Chinyere Mbachu, identifies behavioral competencies considered relevant for effective medical practice in Nigeria, by medical students and doctors, and compared with other contexts. It paves the way for future studies to be conducted for exploring the generalizability of these competencies across cultures in Nigeria.
Practicing Cultural Competence and Cultural Humility in the Care of Diverse Patients
This research paper by Dorothy E Stubbe talks about merging cultural competence with cultural humility based on the 2002 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare. Stubbe also provides some tips for practicing cultural competence and cultural humility.
References #
Standards and Indicators for Cultural Competence in Social Work Practice
