In this discussion, we want to assess our cultural agility and reflect on a situation where we faced cultural challenges.
Read Chapter 1 in the "Build Your Cultural Agility" book. This chapter discusses the importance of "cultural agility", which describes a set of competencies that help effectively navigate cultural differences. Then go to the website myGiide.comLinks to an external site.. This website allows you to assess your cultural agility. Over the semester, I also encourage you to complete the action plan and cultural tools included at myGiide.comLinks to an external site.. This will provide helpful input for our Cultural Agility Paper (due at the end of the semester).
Questions & Instructions
- What areas of your cultural agility assessment are you planning to improve and how?
- Think of a situation in which you faced cultural challenges. Briefly describe what made the interaction difficult for you. How did your cultural agility weaknesses or strengths affect this situation?
- Example: What areas of your cultural agility assessment are you planning to improve and how?In my agility assessment, I scored low in resilience and high in perspective taking and humility. I would like to improve my resilience which is something I have always struggled with. It is hard for me to sometimes move on from a negative situation. I know that this is an important competency to have especially when working globally because there are many risk and negative impacts that can happen. I have been working in improving my resilience especially after noticing how difficult times would control my everyday mood. I would like to continue to practice having a growth mindset and practice being more self aware. I think being self aware of my own lack of resiliency can help me practice when a tough situation presents itself. Another competency I would like to improve is my tolerance to ambiguity. I think this connects to my resilience and is what makes me have trouble dealing with negative impacts in my life. I think I need to learn to be more flexible and understand that not everything will come out the way I want it. These results did surprise me because as a teacher I always have to be flexible and recover quickly when situations happen. I guess this something I am still continuing to develop which helps me understand I am not where I want to be with these competencies. Think of a situation in which you faced cultural challenges. Briefly describe what made the interaction difficult for you. How did your cultural agility weaknesses or strengths affect this situation?One situation that comes to mind is when I was working with another teacher from Spain. It was difficult to me because here in the US we are so used being fast paced and have a set structured. I found it difficult to work with her because she was very relaxed and did not care much about the deadlines. Additionally, she had trouble having a set structure in the classroom because in Spain they do not have set schedules and it was difficult for her to get used to it. I also found it difficult to work with her because it made me anxious when plans were not clearly defined or when the deadlines were not treated important. I think my low amount of resilience affected how I handled this situation. I focused more in avoiding or not helping in this situation. I found it difficult to "get over" missed deadlines or not following a set schedule. This is a perfect example on why I need to improve my resilience because it can affect me anywhere, especially when working with others. This showed me that when I encounter cultural diversity I should be flexible and try to not let situations affect me. Instead I also need to improve in having a growth mind not only about my skills but also about others.