Final answer:
Intercultural competency encompasses self-awareness, cultural awareness, effective communication, collaboration, and a commitment to lifelong learning and adaptability. These elements work together to build global citizenship and contribute to social and racial justice.
Step-by-step explanation:
Intercultural competency involves a deep understanding of, and ability to interact effectively with, people from different cultural backgrounds. Many aspects contribute to intercultural competence, such as:
Self-awareness and introspection: Recognizing one's own cultural biases and assumptions is crucial. Engaging in self-reflection helps to understand and mitigate unconscious biases.
Cultural awareness and empathy: Gaining knowledge about other cultures and perspectives is essential. This includes understanding socio-historical contexts, values, beliefs, and customs.
Communication skills: Developing the ability to respectfully communicate across cultural boundaries, including adapting language and non-verbal behaviors to diverse contexts.
Collaboration: Seeking opportunities for collaboration that respect and represent the perspectives of all involved, especially those from marginalized communities.
Continuous learning and flexibility: Remaining open to learning from experiences and being adaptable to new and unexpected situations in cross-cultural interactions.
These elements are part of developing a broader global citizenship and the ongoing process of reflection and action toward social and racial justice.