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This chapter provides an overview of the importance of cultural competence and how it is developed in some careers by higher education institutions. Included in the discussion is a brief overview of some research and strategies used when attempting to develop cultural competence.

As the demographics of US schools continues to shift, it is now more important than ever that school-based professionals demonstrate a commitment to serving children and families in a culturally competent manner. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss strategies utilizing technology to teach cultural competence in the context of a school psychology graduate course on diversity. Strategies include the use of journal assignments, using a website to promote anonymous in-class participation, collaborative hot topic presentations, utilizing podcasts as assigned materials, and adapting the Privilege Walk experiential learning activity to reduce potential marginalization. Each of these strategies strategically incorporates technology to remove barriers to participation and self-reflection, which are vital for students to develop their skills in cultural competence. Instructors are encouraged to think critically about how technology may be used to enhance their instruction of content related to cultural competence.

As US universities increasingly participate in the project of the internationalization of higher education through growing international student enrollment, those campuses need to better support their diverse learners and prepare students to be culturally competent. Part of cultural competence for university students includes issues related to language use and language policy because one cannot separate language from culture. Highlighting multilingual international undergraduate student voices from China, India, and Malaysia, the author offers insight into how these students thoughtfully navigate through complicated language ideologies and policies inside and outside of the classroom. The chapter concludes with recommendations for how US universities should encourage cross-cultural competence through embracing multilingual ideologies and language policies.

The way in which we teach cultural competence is evolving. There are emerging definitions, new perspectives, and social justice experiences that affect how we react and respond to cultural competency ideologies – ideologies that can polarize or produce change. This chapter will examine the idea of cultural humility and explain why adding it to the diversity, equity, and inclusion lexicon can help engage various discourse communities and deepen one’s understanding of various cultural identities. The authors will briefly review key research findings that examine why college students are often resistant to discourse about culture, race, and bias. Finally, the chapter will use the model of influence framework as a conceptual approach to teach and foster cultural humility in higher education settings.

The chapter examines the perspectives of campus advocates involved with the advancement of a comprehensive internationalization process at their state comprehensive university (SCU). Advocates explain their definitions of comprehensive internationalization, which are analyzed through an internationalization lens and framework of intercultural competence based on recent studies of Internationalization at Home (IaH). The study found faculty and staff perspectives of comprehensive internationalization to reflect attributes consistent with IaH, which is believed to be a vehicle for transmitting intercultural competence throughout the higher education institution. The context for this study is important as it takes place in an SCU located in a region where higher education is under significant public scrutiny.

Cultural competence (CC) education has become mandatory in the training and licensure of many fields today. Meeting this demand presents quite a challenge as teaching CC is not the same every time, everywhere, every place. With diverse dynamics across higher education settings, the educator is tasked with being able to discern the needs of the classroom, ascertain which best practice is most applicable in any given moment and to decide how best to tailor classroom discussions based on the current socio-political climate, and the various social identities and personally held values and beliefs present.

In this chapter, using a social justice framework, the author will share lessons learned in teaching CC in various subjects, to diverse classes (i.e., different racial/ethnic compositions, a range of socioeconomic status, sexual orientations, gender identities, political leanings, etc.) with a focus on how these dynamics can be leveraged to positively influence the delivery of material. Lessons learned, challenges faced along the way and answers to questions such as, “What do you do when men want to dominate discussions on gender?”; “What do you do when white students want to dominate discussions of race?”; “How do you allow marginalized students space to speak freely without making them feel like they are the token spokesperson for their social group?”; and “How do you attend to the feelings of members of majority groups who feel silenced during discussions of diversity?” will be reviewed.

For more than two decades, clinical legal education scholars have touted the value of cultural competence. Professors, practitioners, and law school administrators now agree that experiential learning opportunities not only provide students with exposure to real clients and organic factual scenarios but also offer students the opportunity to work with diverse individuals. Indeed, because cultural competence is so important to the lawyer–client relationship, many clinical programs offer classroom instruction on cultural competence before allowing students to interact with clients.

Generally, clinical education is reserved for upper-level law students while first-year students spend their time immersed in doctrinal courses and a legal writing and analysis course. Clinical faculty have no opportunity to introduce cultural competence skills to law students unless they enroll in a clinic. As a result, many students receive no training in cultural competence.

This chapter proposes a framework for introducing cultural competence during the first year of law school. The central focus of the framework is the concept of cultural self-awareness. Through an education in cultural self-awareness, students will learn that they are cultural beings whose perspectives on the law are colored by their own life experiences and any attending biases. They will also learn that judicial decision-makers, like other human beings, are influenced by their culture. This approach is necessary to disabuse first-year law students of the notion the law is objective, gender-neutral and colorblind. The chapter offers specific strategies for a Torts course, but the general concepts are applicable to the other first-year courses.