Intercultural Competency

One of the things I enjoy most about my job is the diverse team I have been able to assemble.  This week’s assignment asks me to consider the ways I communicate differently with different groups of people and those from cultures different than my own.  The reflection has given me an opportunity to realize that I experience greater difficulty communicating with the group of colleagues, my peers, who share age, race, religion, gender and educational status, than communication with the team of early childhood caregivers/educators.  I believe the difference is we have created a “third culture” to provide an environment that is mutually beneficial to the members and to the efforts to reach our goals.  Beebe, Beebe, & Redmond (2011) emphasize “creating a third culture acknowledges the different cultural contexts and interactions participants have experienced and seeks to develop a new context for future interactions” (p. 107). As I consider the coworkers that have come and gone over the past ten years, it would be fair to say the ones that chose to leave or were asked to leave were not able to adapt to the rules and expectation for respectful interaction unique to the culture we have created and the relationships which have been formed.  I believe the focus on a shared philosophy also brings the work group together. 

The Struggles and the Strategies: The peer group would be quick to define themselves as culturally aware.  However, Beebe, Beebe, & Redmond (2011) contend it takes more than sensitivity to develop intercultural competency it requires appropriate behavior.  As an example the community the program serves includes a Russian/Ukrainian population and to be representative of the children I have teachers that are immigrants of the former Soviet Union.  One of the first strategies we under took to improve our communication was getting a world map and looking at the locations of our birth homes.  We found that using Google maps to examine the vegetation and terrain, the location of cities and areas used for vacations helped us recognize ways in which we were similar.  A common cultural context we created at the center was a garden.  The families value gardening and appreciated the children experiencing gardening.  I am delighted when I see the children pick and eat a cherry tomato or a green onion from the garden boxes.  Another strategy was to learn familiar phrases to express ideas or provide guidance.  I wanted the English Language learners to see me struggle with Russian, the way they were struggling with English—they were helping me and were the experts.  One particular event impressed on me the importance of the effort to learn Russian.  The college employs several Russian immigrant facilities engineers, one of them went out of his way to assist with a maintenance issue.  I wanted him to know how much I appreciated his attention to our situation, so I asked one of my teachers to teach me to tell him in Russian of my gratitude.  It took me three days to learn the phrases to express my thoughts.  But I will not forget how deeply it touched him to be thanked in his home language.  My peers, not staff of the program, often comment on the non-standard English they hear when they visit; they ask why I have staff with noticeable learning disabilities working with children; they are uncomfortable with staff that have chosen same sex partners and others with body piercings; they question making space for a staff to practice her religion during holy days.  I do not see this as harmful or poor quality; I provide an environment where children learn to tolerate ambiguity by interacting with individuals different than themselves. Children in the program develop authentic relationships with others very different from themselves and will go out into the community with greater understanding the groups of people with whom they share the city. 

Reference

Beebe, S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Redmond, J. V. (2011). Interpersonal communication: Relating to others (6^th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.