YOCOMO - Displaying intercultural sensitivity skills

Displaying intercultural sensitivity

…is the ability to support successful communication and collaboration among people from different cultural contexts and backgrounds. Youth workers have to deal with diverse attitudes and behaviours in [international] training and youth work and tackle underlying values. They approach ‘culture’ from an identity perspective and understand ambiguity, human rights, solidarity, self-confidence, acceptance of one’s limits versus stretching beyond them, and how geopolitical conflicts influence one’s understanding of these aspects. Youth workers take these intercultural dimensions into account in their work. In the digital environment, this means paying particular attention to the issue of representation when producing and using media.

the single skills are summarised in different headlines that illustrate what “displaying intercultural sensitivity” means for youth workers skill-wise. The “cluster headlines” do not name skills as such; these can be found through clicking on the lists.

Youth workers handle identity-related aspects within groups and between individuals. + -

They can benefit from being able to:

raise awareness about each other within the group
work with interrelated dimensions of culture and identity
handle information about or in the group which means applying, analysing and evaluating the available information
deal with ambiguity and change

Interaction in (diverse) groups can be challenging in many aspects. + -

Thus, youth workers need to have the ability to:

deal with tension and conflict
initiate critical reflection
recognise discrimination and understand discrimination mechanisms in order to react properly

To deal methodically with intercultural group processes and how diversity is handled in our societies. + -

Youth workers also need skills to:

address issues of diversity, identity, culture, and discrimination
address human rights topics through different methods (human rights education)

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