Final answer:
Cultural competence consists of congruent attitudes, behaviors, and policies, crucial in understanding and responding to diverse cultural systems. It is a concept deeply embedded in social interactions and institutional settings, influenced by a society's shared values, beliefs, and practices.
Step-by-step explanation:
Cultural competence has been described as a set of congruent attitudes, behaviors, and policies. This idea aligns with the view that cultural competence involves a comprehensive sense of understanding and responding effectively to different cultural and belief systems. Cultural competence is crucial in various settings, including but not limited to, educational institutions, healthcare facilities, and workplaces.
In both education and sociology, the process by which people learn their culture's values, norms, and behaviors is intricate and multifaceted. It involves both explicit teaching and implicit learning through everyday experiences and interactions. These learned beliefs and attitudes are then expressed through an individual's actions and often further disseminated within the community. Cultural education thus becomes an ongoing process of immersion and practice.
Within any given political or social group, cultural norms are established and maintained through shared practices, values, and beliefs. These components form a cultural system which includes various societal arrangements and can extend to political culture, healthcare systems, and educational programs, among others.