Refelctions on Cultural Training Programs

I was asked what my thoughts were on the following statement. "Many “culture-specific” training programs use an inventory of cultural characteristics of minority groups to help trainees understand and interact appropriately. Does this technique run the risk of perpetuating stereotypes and offending ethnic groups?"

While I think that culture-specific training programs are very helpful, especially when someone knows absolutely nothing about a cultural group, there is a danger in it also.  It goes back to the single story video we watched.  In order to help trainees understand and interact appropriate you need to give them something like a set of rules so they know when to act which way.  If you come in and teach them that Japanese people don't like handshakes and only bow, that may be true (or not) for a majority of people raised in Japan. However,  if their patient was born in america, ethnically Japanese, yet didn't grow up that way, and they come in and bow to them, the patient may find it strange or even take it as you are stereotyping them and get angry.  

If your patient is Greek ethnically, yet was born or raised in America, then using techniques you may have been taught in a Greece Cultural training like nodding your head for no and shaking it for yes would be even more confusing than it already is.  They would most likely assume you have no idea what you are talking about.  

"Becoming aware of another culture’s beliefs and practices is essential for fostering strong, open communication with people from that culture. Many cultural awareness programs, however, present cultural differences in terms of “we act like this, and they act like that.”"1

"Cultural awareness training has been criticized for increasing stereotyping and reinforcing essentialist racial identities"2

We need to treat everyone like an individual.  Yes, having a basic idea of cultural characteristics may be helpful, but the world is a melting pot now.  So many people now days come from multiple cultures or multiple races, so to generalize them into something you learned in a cultural training class is doing them and yourself a disservice.



1. Bromberg and Associates.Cultural Awareness Training: Dodging the Stereotype Trap. http://brombergtranslations.com/2017/06/01/cultural-awareness-stereotype-trap/. Accessed Nov 5, 2017.

2. Truong M, Paradies Y, Priest N. Interventions to improve cultural competency in healthcare: a systematic review of reviews. BMC Health Services Research. 2014;14:99. doi:10.1186/1472-6963-14-99.