Cultural Competence

Although not intended as such, the concept of Thomas and Inkson may be considered as the cultural competence. A major part of Dutch education is competence based and in this context a competence is an integral combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes. Thomas and Inkson focus on Cultural Intelligence (CQ), which consists of knowledge, skills and mindfulness. Knowledge relates to the different theories on culture and the acknowledgement of their effects. Skills range from mastering languages to adaptation of behavior in another culture. Mindfulness is just one of the attitudes required for the cultural competence and the term itself is suboptimal. Thomas and Inkson did not want to use the term ’respect’ in view of its rather fuzzy nature nowadays. What they mean is that people should wait with judging the behavior of others till they have sufficient information. In that sense mindfulness might well replace respect. However, in many countries mindfulness is a mediation technique, something clearly not intended!