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Developing Cultural Awareness Curricular Competencies for Humanitarian Non-Governmental Organization Staff

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2021

Alexander Hart Open the ORCID record for Alexander Hart [Opens in a new window] ,
Mariana Toma ,
Fadi Issa  and
Noelle Neault
Alexander Hart*
Affiliation:
Director of Research – BIDMC Disaster Medicine Fellowship, Department of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Instructor, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MassachusettsUSA
Mariana Toma
Affiliation:
Clinical Supervisor, New England ABA, Wakefield, MassachusettsUSA
Fadi Issa
Affiliation:
Associate Director of Education – BIDMC Disaster Medicine Fellowship, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MassachusettsUSA
Noelle Neault
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Practice, Department of Behavioral Analysis, Simmons University, Boston, MassachusettsUSA
*
Correspondence: Alexander Hart, MD Director of Research – BIDMC Disaster Medicine Fellowship Department of Emergency Medicine Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Instructor, Harvard Medical School 330 Brookline Ave, Boston, Massachusetts02215USA E-mail: Ahart1@bidmc.harvard.edu
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Abstract

Background:

Cultural awareness is an important part of organizational success when interacting with multiple cultures. Research has shown a dearth of standardized cultural awareness training programs for non-governmental humanitarian organization staff.

Purpose:

This study aims to develop an expert-consensus set of cultural awareness competencies as the basis for development of humanitarian staff cultural awareness trainings.

Methods:

A modified Delphi process was selected. The first round of surveys collected a list of cultural awareness competencies from experts in the fields of non-governmental organization (NGO) operations and cultural awareness education and research. This collated list of competencies was then used as the basis of a survey obtaining ratings by the group on a five-point Likert scale. Competencies which achieved an average rating of 4.0 or higher were considered to be “important” for inclusion in future training programs.

Results:

A total of 67.9% of contacted experts agreed to participate, with 84.2% of those completing all rounds of the survey. This group developed a list of ten competencies, including: Cultural Awareness/Sensitivity and Intercultural Communication; Cultural Intelligence; Unconscious Bias/Diversity Awareness; a Universal Declaration of Ethical Principles; Gender and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Other Sexual Identities (LGBTQ+) Issues and Safety; Analytical and Critical Thinking Skills; Negotiation; Program Mission; Power Dynamics; and Empathy.

Conclusions:

This study defined a set of ten expert-consensus cultural awareness competencies which can be a basis for future NGO staff training. Future work can both use these competencies to create educational programs and further define and expand the set of competencies based on analyses of their implementation.

Keywords

cultural awarenesscurriculum competenciesnon-governmental organizationsstaff training
Type
Original Research
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 36 , Issue 6 , December 2021 , pp. 669 - 675
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine

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