Teaching Tools, Strategies, and Resources

Section D offers strategies, tools, and resources to become more culturally aware and to help trainees become more culturally aware.

It identifies areas of awareness, knowledge, and skills in cultural awareness and offers case studies, self-discovery exercises, and resources to incorporate cultural awareness into existing training curricula.

Areas of Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills

The NCCC selected the following areas of awareness, knowledge, and skills to highlight in this curricula enhancement module. This list is not exhaustive. Faculty are encouraged to adapt and enhance the following characteristics based on the needs, interests, and areas of focus within their respective disciplines and training programs.

Awareness of

• Models of culture
• One’s self as a cultural being
• One’s biases and stereotypes
• The fact that culture impacts health and mental health:
  • Beliefs and practices
  • Treatment and care delivery
  • Access and utilization of care
  • Status and outcome
  • Outcomes, including racial, ethnic, and geographic disparities
• The need for ongoing self-reflection and learning
• The impact of organizational and professional culture on practices and policies
• Health and mental health inequities in current systems.

Knowledge of

• Techniques for self-reflection
• Group-specific as well as cross-cutting knowledge in applying cultural awareness to practices and policies.

Skills in

• Integrating cultural awareness into curricula and teaching activities
• Modeling cultural awareness across all aspects—teaching, research, and practicum
• Communicating and interacting in a multicultural environment
• Observing others and reflecting on one’s own thoughts and behaviors
• Interactions with peers and other health and mental health professionals
• Managing the dynamics of difference across cultural groups
• Providing supervision to diverse students in multicultural environments.