1. Four Skills of Cultural Diversity Competence
Chapter 2, Skill One:
Understanding Culture as Multilevel

2. Skill 1: Understand culture as multilevel (contd.)
Definition of Culture: Human Ways of Life
Culture Includes:
Ways of thinking and perceiving
- Such as values, beliefs and norms
-A group’s meaning system
-Relates to language use
Ways of doing
-Such as behaviors, lifeways, customs and material objects

3. Skill 1: Understand culture as multilevel (contd.)
The ways of thinking, perceiving and doing of any specific group:
Are learned, shared and generally transmitted to their children’s generation
Influence the thinking and actions of individual members

4. Skill 1: Understand culture as multilevel (contd.)
Culture has two broad components
Culture is subjective and objective:
it is invisible (norms, values,
beliefs, assumptions)
it is visible (patterned behaviors,
customs)

5. Skill 1: Understand culture as multilevel (contd.)
Culture’s second broad component
Culture is multilevel and dynamic
Culture exists at the
Micro level -personal and interpersonal levels
Meso level – group, mid-level agencies/organizations
Macro level-the institution , whole society level
Culture is dynamic because it is continuously shaped and reshaped by policy decisions (at the meso and macro levels) and by our daily decisions (at the micro level)

6. Skill 1: Understand culture as multilevel (contd
Skill 1: Understand culture as multilevel (contd.) Aspects of Culture: the following categories are designed as a thinking tool for cultural observation and understanding:
1. History
2. Social Status Factors
3. Social Group Interaction Patterns:
Intra-group & Inter-group
4. Value Orientations
5. Language and Communication:
Verbal & Non-verbal
6. Family Life Processes
7. Healing Beliefs and Practices
8. Religion
9. Art and Expressive Forms
10. Diet/Food
11.Recreation
12.Clothes

7. Aspects of Culture: the following categories are designed as a thinking tool for cultural observation and understanding:
Worksheet # 3, page 29
Purpose: To practice identifying and thinking about Aspects of Culture
Film Analysis

8. Skill 1: Level One
Culture at the personal level
As individuals grow up, each develops a personal identity, a personal system of meanings which underlie behavior

9. Skill 1: Level One
Culture at the personal level
One's personal identity is formed through interacting within one's social group (for example, interacting within one's family, neighborhood, school, work).

10. Skill 1:Level One Culture at the personal level, contd.
Personal identity changes during one’s lifetime
Ethnicity is one influence on personal identity.
Other influences include age, race, gender, ableness, physical appearance, religion, sexual orientation, and social economic position

11. Skill 1: Level One ASPECTS OF PERSONAL CULTURE: EXAMPLES
One's personal culture or meaning system is comprised of various aspects, with some aspects being more conscious than others- To name a few:
Verbal Communication
-voice loudness and inflection
-degree of directness
-topics perceived as appropriate for conversation
Nonverbal Communication
-one's orientation to space and time
-facial expressions
-eye contact
-use of silence
Values
Family Life Processes: Decision-Making Style, Work Habits and Behaviors
Religion: Spiritual Beliefs and Practices
Food and Eating Habits
Dress and Appearance

12. Skill 1: Level One Personal Culture Change and Sociocultural Awareness
Different stages of sociocultural awareness surface in the identity change process
Stage 1 Conformity (blindsight)
Stage 2 Resistance (no, it can’t be)
Stage 3 Redefinition (self-reflection and practice competencies)
Stage 4 New Identity (yes, it can be and this is what I can do)
Stage 5 Diversity Competence (this is the way it is and this is how to deal with it)

13. Skill 1: Level One : Culture at the personal level (contd.)
Worksheet # 4, pages 33-34
Experiencing Personal Culture
Purpose: to provide an experience of your personal culture

14. Skill 1: Level One : Culture at the personal level (contd.)
Worksheet # 5, pages 35-37
Identifying the Aspects of Personal Culture, Part 2
Purpose: to provide an experience of your personal culture

15. Skill 1: Level Two Ethnic & Racial Group
The term ethnic or culture group refers to the cultural heritage a group shares that relates to the Aspects of Culture: language, values, family life processes, religion, etc. and their associated beliefs and customs.
The beliefs and customs associated with each Aspect are generally learned from one generation to the next.

16. Skill 1: Level Two Ethnic & Racial Group
The term racial group is also relevant. As a result of historical social developments among groups in the United States, “race” is a 500 year old belief that ascribes differential status to groups of people within the society based on surface physical differences (skin color, eye shape)
Although race is defined, perceived, and believed to be a biological classification of human groups based on heredity and genetic differences, it has no scientific base
Humans are the most homogenous species
There is only one race of humans and it is the human race

17. Skill 1: Level Two Ethnic & Racial Group
Worksheet # 6, pages 39-41
Aspects of culture as applied to an ethnic group
Purpose: to demonstrate an ethnic/culture group’s aspects of culture

18. Skill 1: Level Three Mainstream (National) Culture of the USA
The United States society is composed of a mainstream or national culture and many subcultures, such as Irish American, Mexican American, African American, Korean American, Navaho American, Thai American, Samoan American, Filipino American, Luiseno American
Mainstream culture, originally based on the core culture of England, is commonly referred to as "dominant" because it is institutionalized in all major organizations and institutions (see Aspects on pages )

19. Mainstream (National) Culture of the USA
Skill 1: Level Three
Mainstream (National) Culture of the USA
Since the United States is multicultural, all of us are to some extant members of ethnic groups although we may not personally identify with our membership.

20. Skill 1: Level Three Mainstream (National) Culture of the USA
Worksheet # 7, pages 43-44
Purpose: to demonstrate an aspect of U.S. Mainstream culture in relation to time orientation (a value and a nonverbal form of communication)

21. Monochronic and Polychronic Time

22. Skill 1: Level Three Mainstream (National) Culture of the USA
Worksheet # 8, pages 45-47
Purpose: to demonstrate aspects of U.S. Mainstream culture.

23. Skill 1: Level Four Organization Culture
Organization culture refers to the policies, procedures, programs, and processes that organizations employ.
Within each of these organizational policies, procedures, programs and processes we find deeply embedded Aspects of Culture and their beliefs, assumptions, and customary ways of behaving and doing

24. Skill 1: Level Four Worksheet # 9, pages 49-51
Aspects of Organization and U.S. National Culture
Worksheet # 9, pages 49-51
Purpose: to demonstrate the congruence between aspects of organization culture and U.S. national culture

25. Skill 1:Level Four Worksheet # 10, pages 53-55
Understanding Aspects of Culture/Ethnicity in an Organization
Worksheet # 10, pages 53-55
Purpose: to demonstrate the need for cultural understanding in daily life (at work, etc.)