A lot of people say that learning about the culture of another person is not that important. As long as they are living here in America, what difference does it make where they came from? This attitude is one that can cause many misunderstandings. In many cases, it might not make a difference, but in health care it can make the difference between life and death. The case for cultural competency in health care is well documented, and has been the concern of many organizations. There is even a website that is devoted to improving health care in a diverse world. I have placed the link for this website at the bottom of the blog.
In education, it is also important to be sensitive to the culture of the people with whom we are working. Their culture is what makes them who they are. King, Sims and Osher (2010), state that culture implies integrated patterns that includes a person's thoughts, actions, beliefs, customs, values, communications, and institutions of racial, ethnic, religious or social groups. If this is the case, then as an educator, we must take these things into consideration when trying to help someone to learn something. Not to do so would not only be detrimental to our success, but would be ignoring a great part of who the person is. That would not be a very smart thing to do if we truly want to become a successful educator.
http://www.diversityrx.org/
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