Introduction

Becoming culturally competent as a term and concept can seem to imply that this is an attainable outcome, i.e. that, at some point, an individual can be considered ‘culturally competent’. However, in reality, the ability to understand the nuance of every culture everywhere, we can say with some confidence, is an impossibility. So why use ‘becoming’? Because saying that you want to ‘become’ something suggests an aspiration for learning, growth and change. It is a word that is about consciously evolving. It is not static. So we encourage you to embrace this aspiration  – it’s a life-long challenge, but we hope you will agree, it is one well worth embracing.

Each and every member of our Manchester Met community plays a critical role in fostering a positive, inclusive environment. We invite you to think on how you are able to positively impact our community through your journey. This might lead to you making some big decisions or actions, small conscious changes in your thinking, or listen more intentionally to someone else’s story.

Whatever the size of your next steps, we encourage you to enter into this resource being honest with yourself about areas of potential growth and learning, and to do this in a spirit of curiosity, compassion, courage and openness.

The four stages of competence

The four stages of competence is a learning model that describes the various psychological stages we go through when learning a new skill.

Whether cultural competence is new to you or not, keeping it in conscious thinking takes practice!
 
Like learning anything, we learn in a cycle that never ends. This is an ongoing process.

1. We usually start by not even realising that we don’t know something – we behave out of genuine ignorance.
2. Next, we realise that we have something to learn.
3. We then build our knowledge, skills and understanding.
4. After a while, some of this becomes second nature and we can do these things without thinking about it.

This learning cycle is continuous; there are always new things to learn and we will nearly certainly sometimes make mistakes. We may or may not realise this instantly and therefore find ourselves back at the beginning of the cycle, this part of the learning and growth. Recognising this takes humility if we get it wrong and courage to learn and choose to continue a journey to strive to be consciously competent.

Beginning your cultural competency journey

As you work through this resource we will start by thinking about ourselves, then the cultures that impact us as well as inviting the opportunity to think and learn about others. Chamberlain (2005) suggests that culture is:

“The values, norms and traditions that affect how individuals of a particular group perceive, think, interact, behave and make judgments about their world”.

We invite you as you go through this pack to think holistically about yourself as a member of the Manchester Met community. This resource is not here to suggest you need to ‘dilute’ yourself or your cultural heritage, but is here to encourage to think more broadly about the impact it has on you, the role you play in this community and explore how you can positivity grow through your journey in cultural competency.