Multicultural Competency
What is Multicultural Competence?
The first step in creating a (multi)culturally competent campus is to determine what skills students, faculty, and staff must posses to function effectively in, and contribute to, sustaining a diverse community as well as how to best teach these skills.
(Multi)culturally competent individuals have knowledge, awareness, and skills that enable them to interact successfully and respectfully with people of different backgrounds, viewpoints, and values. (Multi)Culturally competent individuals demonstrate a good understanding of the power structure in society, while acknowledging commonalities across cultures. They support social justice and move beyond tolerance to a more profound understanding of diversity. Cultural competence is never a fully attained state, but continues to develop throughout an individual’s lifetime.
(Adapted from: The University of Arizona’s Campus Life Diversity Group. 2004)
For our purposes, in Residence Life, multicultural competency has been defined as “the awareness, knowledge, and skills necessary to work effectively and ethically across cultural differences.”
Multicultural Awareness: Awareness of how peoples' attitudes, beliefs, values, assumptions, and self-awareness affect the ways they interact with those who are culturally different from themselves.
Multicultural Knowledge: Having an informed understanding of cultures that are different from ones' own culture, including knowledge of their histories, traditions, values, practices, etc.
Multicultural Skills: Skills that individuals use to engage in effective and meaningful interactions with those who are from different cultural backgrounds than their own.
Source: Pope, R. and Reynolds, A. (1997). "Student Affairs Core Competencies: Integrating Multicultural Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills." Journal of College Student Development, 38, 266-277.
Multicultural Competency Self-Assessment Tool
The MCSA is designed to guide Residence Life staff members through a reflection of the many ways they have developed, and continue to develop, multicultural competency. This self-assessment is not intended to ever be finished; rather, the MCSA provides staff with an opportunity to track their personal and professional growth.
The elMundo Multicultural Competency Self-Assessment is the brainchild of the Hall Director Training Committee and elMundo Diversity Initiatives. Our intent in designing this assessment is three-fold:- To provide professional staff an opportunity to critically reflect on their experience developing multicultural competence,
- To facilitate the creation of a personal multicultural competency professional development plan, and
- To assist in the planning of professional staff training.
For more information about the self-assessment tool, please contact Brian Shimamoto, Assistant Director for Multicultural Education and Advocacy at elMundo@arizona.edu
