University of Oregon Cultural Humility Working Definition
Cultural humility is a practice of self-reflection on how one’s own background and the background of others, impact teaching, learning, research, creative activity, engagement, leadership, etc.
More Definitions of Cultural Humility
“Cultural humility involves an ongoing process of self-exploration and self-critique combined with a willingness to learn from others. It means entering a relationship with another person with the intention of honoring their beliefs, customs, and values. It means acknowledging differences and accepting that person for who they are."*
*"Cultural Humility Vs. Cultural Competence." 2021. Soundscaping Source.
Cultural Humility Is:
- A personal lifelong commitment to self-evaluation and self-critique whereby the individual not only learns about another’s culture, but one starts with an examination of her/his own beliefs and cultural identities
- Recognition of power dynamics and imbalances, a desire to fix those power imbalances and to develop partnerships with people and groups who advocate for others
- Institutional accountability*
*Yeager, Katherine A., and Susan Bauer-Wu. 2013. "Cultural Humility: Essential Foundation For Clinical Researchers". Applied Nursing Research 26 (4): 251-256
Key Attributes of Cultural Humility*
- Openness
- Self-Reflection/Awareness
- Lifelong learning
- Institutional accountability
- Empathy and compassion
- To be “other-oriented”
- Acknowledging Power Imbalances and Balancing power imbalances
Wheeler, Michael. “Cultural Competence and Cultural Humility A Literature Review for Understanding and Action.” tripartners.com, March 20, 2018.
The Importance of Cultural Humility
Members of Pittsburgh University discuss the importance of cultural humility at the university in a short video.
Project READY Images of Practice: Cultural Humility*
Adilene Rogers, a bilingual Youth Services Librarian at Sacramento Public Library, discusses how cultural humility has improved her work with Spanish-speaking youth and their families and why “cultural competence” was not enough.
*Project READY Images Of Practice: Cultural Humility. 2019.
The Cultural Iceberg
*Bennett, Milton J. The Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, Summary. Intercultural Development Research Institute, Revised 2014.
“The portions we see of human beings is very small, their forms and faces, voices and words (but) beyond these, like an immense dark continent, lies all that has made them.” Freya Star
Dr. Milton Bennett notes, of the iceberg model below, that “it is important to realize that the iceberg is a starting point and that once our audiences have grasped the concept of culture, we must emphasize the fact that the iceberg is just one of the possible metaphors (including the onion, tree, atom) and that most likely, there is no perfect model that encompasses all aspects of culture."
Cultural Humility: People, Principles and Practices
This 30-minute documentary by San Francisco State Professor Vivian Chávez, that mixes poetry with music, interviews, archival footage, images of community, nature and dance to explain what "Cultural Humility" is and why we need it.
Part i: Introduction
Full Documentary
What Cultural Humility is Not
Cynthia L. Foronda explains that to understand what cultural humility is, one can look at what it is not: “.... prejudice, oppression, intolerance, discrimination, stereotyping, exclusion, stigma, inequity, marginalization, misconceptions, labeling, mistrust, hostility, misunderstandings, cultural imposition, judgmental, undermining, and bullying....”*
* Foronda, Cynthia, Diana-Lyn Baptiste, Maren M. Reinholdt, and Kevin Ousman. 2015. "Cultural Humility". Journal Of Transcultural Nursing 27 (3): 210-217. doi:10.1177/1043659615592677.