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Cultural Humility: Home

WHAT IS CULTURAL HUMILITY?

“Cultural humility involves an ongoing process of self-exploration and self-critique combined with a willingness to learn from others. It means entering a relationship with another person with the intention of honoring their beliefs, customs, and values. It means acknowledging differences and accepting that person for who they are."

- "Cultural Humility Vs. Cultural Competence."  2021.  Soundscaping Source.

Cultural Humility Is:

  • A personal lifelong commitment to self-evaluation and self-critique whereby the individual not only learns about another’s culture, but one starts with an examination of her/his own beliefs and cultural identities
  • Recognition of power dynamics and imbalances, a desire to fix those power imbalances and to develop partnerships with people and groups who advocate for others
  • Institutional accountability
-- Yeager, Katherine A., and Susan Bauer-Wu. 2013. "Cultural Humility: Essential Foundation For Clinical Researchers". Applied Nursing Research 26 (4): 251-256

Key Attributes of Cultural Humility

  • Openness
  • Self-Reflection/Awareness
  • Lifelong learning
  • Institutional accountability
  • Empathy and compassion
  • To be “other-oriented”
  • Acknowledging Power Imbalances and Balancing power imbalances
 -- Wheeler, Michael. “Cultural Competence and Cultural Humility A Literature Review for Understanding and Action.” tripartners.com, March 20, 2018.

Members of Pittsburgh University discuss the importance of

cultural humility at the university in a short video.