Encountering the Culturally DiverseEmpathy and Dialogue in Intercultural

Spiritual Care

Adriana P. Cavina2014

Part One:Living Human Documents and the Global Society:Developing Pastoral Competencies from an Intercultural

Worldview Part Two:

Finding Our Place:Self, Story and Context in the Global Society

Part Three:Empathy and Cross-cultural DialogueConnecting Across the Bridge of Intercultural

Communication

Table of Contents

Globalization and its impact on education The relationship between globalization and the

multicultural society Pastoral competencies in multicultural contexts Supervisory competencies in multicultural

pastoral education The place of self and story in intercultural

empathy The new paradigm of “inter-subjectivity”

What we will be focusing on

Part One:

Spiritual Care in the Global Society Developing Pastoral Competencies from an

Intercultural Worldview

Living Human Documents and the Global Society

The study of “living human documents” is the “careful and systematic study of the lives of persons struggling with the issues of the spiritual lives in the concreteness of their relationships” to the aim of “restoring the connection between the language of theology and the language of human experience”

Charles Gerkin, The Living Human Document

What changes in this definition today?Today we would need to add: ...“the language of human experience in a society where relationships take place in a digital, virtual, mediatic, global, multilayered context ”....

We live most of our relational lives through social media in the context of global markets and global political scenarios

Living Human Documents in an Intercultural Perspective

Sherry Turkle, cultural analyst, sociologist and psychologist, teaches at the MIT. She argues that

“the social media we encounter on a daily basis are confronting us with a moment of temptation. Drawn by the illusion of companionship without the demands of intimacy, we confuse postings and online sharing with authentic communication. We are drawn to sacrifice conversation for mere connection.

Technology promises to let us do anything from anywhere with anyone. But it also drains us as we try to do everything everywhere. We begin to feel overwhelmed and depleted by the lives technology makes possible. We may be free to work from anywhere, but we are also prone to being lonely everywhere. In a surprising twist, relentless connection leads to a new solitude. We turn to new technology to fill the void, but as technology ramps up, our emotional lives ramp down”.

Social Media and the Search for Connection

Turkle affirms: “In constant digital contact, we feel ‘Alone Together’ ”She explains: “These days cultural norms are rapidly shifting. We used to equate growing up with the ability to function independently. These days always-on connection leads us to reconsider a more collaborative self. All questions about autonomy look differently now if, on a daily basis, we are together even when we are alone.”

Sherry Turkle. Alone Together. Why We Expect More From Technology And Less From Each Other. New York, Basic Books, 2011.

http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together

A New Maturity in Interpersonal Relationships?

What does it mean to have a conversation in today’s world?

How do you carry on a conversation in today’s world?

....I’d rather text than talk...

Question for the group

The second feature of our time, beside social media, is the world wide web, that takes to us to look at globalization. Globalization is not a concept; it is something we observe and experience; it is the heart of the society we live in.

Society moves at the speed of possible communication and spread of information.

In a society that becomes global, the question to ask is: Is education in rhythm with the movement of people

and ideas in today’s world?

Global Society and Culture

1. Development of global financial markets, growth of transnational corporations, and their increasing domination over national economies. (tight economic definition)

2. Globalization of information and culture, spread of TV, internet, social media, digital and other forms of communication, and the increased mobility and commercialization of ideas. (broad social definition)

George Soros, On Globalization

Two Views of Globalization

“What happens when the movement of people, goods, or ideas among countries and regions accelerates.

While human lives continue to be lived in local realities, these realities are increasingly being challenged and integrated into larger global networks of relationships”

Suarez-Orozco, Globalization. Culture and Education in the New Millennium

Globalization, a definition

The world is “flat” (Thomas Friedman) because:• events happen on the simultaneous world wide

web of global communication• (artistic, commercial, industrial) production takes

place through simultaneous processes in different world locations

A “flat” world requires new skills, and new paradigms for teaching and learning.

The question that challenges us is: How to study a “living human document” in a flat,

globalized world?

The World is Flat

The Endless Knot of ourLiving Web

Our differences are inextricably woven together

We live on the same planet and share the same resources, breathe the same air

We are connected physically, and also emotionally and spiritually

In our pastoral/spiritual assessment work, we are confronted with a question:

How to place people (individuals and groups with their private suffering)

in context (socio-economic, cultural, global context)?

Suffering always takes place in a context that can support the

suffferer but also contribute to the suffering

The Domain of Difference and the Domain of Complexity“All modern nations contradict themselves: they contain multitudes” Clifford Geertz

Managing differences has become one of the greatest challenges worldwide in multicultural countries

It requires a “global intent”, the world-encompassing mental process that changes our awareness of how the local and the distant are connected in a global (universal, world-wide) reality

It requires also that we rethink what we mean with “identity” globally.

The process of creating an “Us”.....should it inevitably involve creating a “Them” –those not like us.

The Two Domains of Globalization

Negotiating differences requires energy and a special attitude:

the ability to consider multiple perspectives and worldviews

to reverse mental routines of thought and to consider multiple hypotheses

to embrace different cultural views and practices to argue freely and respectfully within a framework of

difference to integrate personal and collective identity with

restraint, respect, humility; avoiding the “narcissism of small differences”

Negotiating Differences

In summary:Across the globe, there is an increasing amount of

intricate demographics, economies, political processes, media and information

The revolution of the World Wide Web, the global diffusion of social media, the spread of information in the fastest and easiest of times characterize the way we live and relate to one another

This creates the need for a different paradigm of teaching and learning

We are all part of this global system. It is not something we have to study. It is an identity we already have and that we need to assume consciously.

We are local citizens of a global society

Complexity in the Global Society and Intercultural Practices

What is required of a new educational paradigm:Individuals who are cognitively flexible, culturally

sophisticated, and able to work collaboratively in groups made up of diverse individuals

Competencies required of students increase exponentially generation after generation

We are asked to expand our scope of teaching and learning, at the same

time placing our educational work against the background of

its specific context, a paradox we need to live in

Education in the “www.com” society

Howard Gardner affirms that the global society requires certain new skills, abilities, and understandings; among which:

1. Understanding the global system2. Ability to think analytically and

creatively within disciplines, and to tackle problems and issues that do not respect disciplinary boundaries

3. Knowledge of, and respect for, one’s own cultural tradition as well as other cultures and traditions.

Howard Gardner, How Education Changes

Education and Globalization

A set of individual attitudes and communication and practice skills that enables the nurse to work effectively within the cultural context of individuals and families from diverse backgrounds

Diana Gustafson, Transcultural Nursing Theory from a Critical Cultural Perspective. In: Advances in Nursing Science, Vol.28, 2005, 2-16

Cultural Competence

An attitude of respect when approaching people of different cultures, which entails engagement in a process of self-reflection and self-critique requiring an ability to move beyond one’s own biases

ACPE 2010 Standards, Definition of Terms

Cultural Humility

Attitudes, values, opinions, concepts, and philosophy of life, built within the viewpoints of one’s cultural upbringing and adjusted to individual personality and lifestyles.

“Every standpoint or worldview shapes what is possible to see and what is obscured. Each standpoint is based on a set of assumptions that structures how one sees and interprets the world”.

Gustafson

Individual Worldviews

Universality and Particularity

Every human being operates in the world by expressing:

What is universal (consciousness of self, ability to make use of symbols, having a body, going through a lifecycle, experiencing emotions, -fear and joy, anger and pain, etc..)

What belongs to his/her group (norms, customs, beliefs, socio-cultural location, role and gender expectations, etc..)

What is unique of him/ her as an individual (unique genetic endowment, personal experiences, character and personality, etc..)

David Augsburger

No person is an island. We are always “situated” (culturally, historically,

geographically, relationally)We belong to several groups, that are separate from

others, overlapping others, containing others, and contained by others.

We are all embedded, both culturally and contextually, and moving though successive phases of being “rooted out” , “staying put” for a while, and “embedded’ again.

Robert Kegan

How then can I know you....... if not in a context? How do I know at all ……if not out of my context?

Not Just Cultural Beings, and Yet….Mostly Cultural Beings

Two pitfalls to avoid:being “encapsulated” in one ethnocentric view of

life that veils and obscures the other, and misses both the individual context and the global connection.

being blinded by “universalism”

Becoming aware of socio-cultural complexity is the first step. Then we become sensitive to cultural differences, which is preliminary to acquiring cultural competence.

There are no shortcuts

Steps to Acquire Cultural Competence in a Global Society

When we talk about being culturally and spiritually sensitive, we start with ourselves and our own personal assumptions.

We have a life-long unconscious framework of our world. This framework of values influences all we do.

1. The first invitation is for us to become aware of our own assumptions before we can appreciate the cultural and spiritual values and customs of others.

2. The second invitation is to acquire clarity of the context in which the cross-cultural encounter takes place: both the specific local context and the global society context, both the spiritual care context and the technological and digital context

Start where you are

End of Part One

Part Two:Self, Story and Context in the Global

Society

Encountering and engaging with diversity

In our increasingly more complex personal and professional formation, our educational “tool bag” should include some specific tools:

Cultural awareness of our own personal story Specific knowledge of cultural dynamics, and

especially when a power differential is in place A receptive attitude to intercultural exploration Cross-cultural skills in communication and

dialogue Genuine passion for multicultural settings and

intercultural exchangesand it will not be enough, if we do not learn

to dance……….

The Process of Building Multicultural Competencies

Intercultural communication:a circle-dance movement

Sharing our storiesSharing our values and beliefsSharing our personal contexts

Building a new story

A new story is built every time the cross-cultural encounter modifies both partners. Differences remain but they are engaged openly, trustfully, fully. There is a common ground we share with all:

The process of formation of our cultural identity (though not, its content).

Building a new story

Different Worlds, Worlds of Difference

To extend our professional care to others or educate others, we need to enter into another person’s unique world of meaning, but meaning is based on a world-view and

world-views, worlds of meaning, are socially constructed and maintained

This process of socialization of worldviews is the common ground we all share

...We may begin to see its connection today with the global society we live in....

Attitudes, values, opinions, concepts, and philosophy of life, built through the lenses of one’s cultural upbringing

There are no value-free worldviews and lifestyles. Every choice we make, every dream we dream, every action and commitment of ours, are based on a specific set of values, beliefs and norms that are deeply embedded in a specific culture.

Since I belong to a culture, to connect cross culturally I need to start with me. How am I a cultural being? What is my culture? What should I know to enter someone else’s cultural world?

World-Views

The way we understand others and the world around us is by way of three central ideas:

Categorization, or “analogical understanding”, understanding myself and others

by applying categories, or measuring blocks (may lead to build walls of separation…)

Identification,or looking for the “places of belonging”, of similarities,

defining people on the basis of where they belong (may lead to feelings of isolation…) Social comparison,

or “how similar/different am I from the other(s)?”, “where am I located in the general context?” (may arise feelings of inferiority or superiority…)

Personal Identity and Understanding Others

The prism of cultural identification

Cultural identity is a rainbow

How many ethnic/ cultural traits do you recognize in yourself?

Reflect on your roots, family, generations, travels, places, encounters, studies, new and old values, habits, etc…

What is your present culture composed of?

WE ARE MANY CULTURES IN ONE PERSON

The characters of my life story

Whose voices sit in the circle of my life and identity?

parents, teachers, extended family, friends, mentors….

socio-political events and conditions

cultural norms, values and beliefs

geography and placePut some word for

each chair …….

This is a personal exerciseTake time to reflect and write down 5 things that you

know you have because were handed down to you by your family of origin, the society you lived in, the school, etc..

They may be values or beliefs or something really important for you.

Then, find one person in the group whom you do not know well, and share it with him/her, taking turns

10 minutes

How do I come to be who I am?

How could one tolerate a foreigner if one did not know one was a stranger to oneself? Julia Kristeva

Whether you are aware of it or not, you are the product of your environment, your time and place, the family who raised you, the society you lived in

If we do not explore the forces that have shaped our own identity and all the forces that shape other people’s identities,we may not avoid the “unintentional racism” that is born out of cultural blindness

We need three qualities to accompany this process of recognition:

Humility, compassion, critical thinking

We are all culturally “situated”

Humility: the capacity to regard oneself in the company of others as one, but not more than one

Compassion, or an attitude of charity towards others: to regard our neighbor as ourselves, as fully as oneself, and appreciate those who challenge my beliefs and values

Critical thinking: the capacity to see things as they really are, to continually question my assumptions, and look for explanations that go beyond what appears self-evident

Pamela Hays

The virtues of a culturally responsive pastoral caregiver

Through observation and the exercise of wonder

• I suspend what I know so that I might discover what I could not see before.

• Both set the stage for perceiving familiar things in radically new ways; both raise the possibility of new understanding.

• From wonder I can move to the nature of interior landscapes, the sensory parameters of world views, and the search for the unique essence of another

Alfred Margulies, The Empathic Imagination

How does one approximate the cultural experience of another?

Let us take a clear look at how social media characterize interpersonal communication: it must be

Immediate (what is going on with me now)Shared (bouncing information with the largest group people across distances)Public (the concept of “private” has undergone huge change)Narcissistic (my little world is of interest for everyone)Visual (photos, images, videos)Entertaining (the world is my stage)

The observation of social media

Intercultural Process in a Global Society is a Möbius band

The consequence of all this is that personal boundaries have acquired different meaning; and that they are flexible and permeable; there is a new practice of interchange that cannot be ignored.

The complexity that lives in me

Our basic nature as human beings is a combination of sameness and differences

I am me, and you are you, but actually, in some way, I am also you and you are also me. And we both belong to a larger “we”….So,…

Who am I? Who are you? And what does “we” really mean?

An “interpersonal identity dance ”

In a two-person interaction, the “I” and the “You” move fluidly as in a dance, change position, their worldviews come together and influence each other

In viewing the world through your eyes, I am not just enriched, I am transformed

We have co-created a new reality

Relationship is viewed as a two-person co-construction of reality, as opposed to the view of two isolated subjects each regarding the other as an object.

Self and the other become intertwined in the relational matrix

This is the space of Intersubjectivity, the “shared wisdom” through which we come to know one another

Pamela Cooper-White, Sacred Wisdom. Use of the Self in Pastoral Care and Counseling

The New Relational Paradigm in Pastoral Care

The new paradigm advocates for a complex relational structure in which two subjects are understood as reciprocal subjects.

Aspects of selfness and of otherness both appear in the relational space in between two subjects, as the relationships unfolds and is co-created.

There is no more a “subject/object” mode of relating, but a shared process of reciprocal relating.

Reality is perceived and lived through a co-construction operated by a complex connectivity of different worldviews

Intersubjectivity and Complexity in Pastoral Care

Inter-subjectivity is the space where cultural humility meets cultural competence

In meeting you, I recognize that my inner worldview is influenced and changed by your internal and external world

The same happens to you. I know my self and your self as I observe the

reciprocal influences in the space in between us.We “make meaning” in a relational context

Intersubjectivity and Cultural Humility

First requirement to fully engage in the dance of intersubjectivity is self-awareness:

To write a personal cultural historyThe elements: Identity formationSocial location, or socio-cultural contextFamiliarity with multilayered contexts, such

multifaith, multispiritual, different avenues of global information and communication

Writing our personal cultural history

Seeing my personal development as part of a larger process of cultural and ethnic identity formation

Recognizing the influence of cultural conditioning in shaping relational attitudes and power dynamics

Becoming conversant with issues of prejudice, bias and power as related to identity

Seeing my place in the wider context of global connectivity

Recognizing the place of global information in the shaping of my worldviews

Steps of the Interpersonal Intercultural Dance

End of Part Two

Part Three:

Empathy and Connection Across the Bridge of Intercultural Communication

Multicultural Competencies in Clinical Pastoral Education

Developing Competencies: Empathy and Care in Multicultural

Encounters

Empathy is the ability to feel with, to enter in,

the affective and cognitive world of another,

and to provide a sustained emotional presence.

Interpathy is the ability to enter into a second culture cognitively, affectively and respectfully, and to bridge over different worldviews to provide an empathic presence.

Defining Empathy

Cultural Issues in our Clinical Pastoral Environment

Dynamics of personal cultural awareness, cross-cultural skills, empathic connection and intercultural engagement appear in the Student-Patient relationship

as well as in theSupervisor-Student relationship

as well as in theInstitutional context

as well as in the Patient-Institutional context

The Clinical Rhombus

“People fail to get along because they fear each other.

People fear each other because they don’t understand each other.

They don’t know each other because they have not properly communicated with each other.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Failed communication is based on ignorance that gives birth to insensitivity.

We begin with acquiring Cultural awarenessThen we move toCultural sensitivityAnd finally we get toCultural competence

Dynamics of Cultural Insensitivity

Empathy is a disposition, a willingness to stay open and available in the inter-subjective space

Empathy is an integrated set of skills of participant observation, artful inquiry, imagination, intuition, tolerance, interpersonal dance

Empathy is a space for story-telling, where different experiences and different worldviews can meet

Empathy is an embodied experience where connection occurs in body, mind and spirit

The Nature of Empathic Encounters

To connect cross-culturally in awareness,we need to be open to enter cultural borderlands, the area where differences and similarities overlap, and then

develop a tolerance for ambiguitycreate a space for not-knowing

where we can remain open to the other, whatever the other cultural and spiritual identity may be. Empathy can grow when cultural identity and diversity find recognition, acceptance and celebration

Tools for acquiring awareness

A profound, sincere, open-minded, curiosity for the diversity of human nature.

Tools for acquiring sensitivity

The ability to provide accurate and effective pastoral/spiritual assessment that includes:

Cultural influences and valuesSocial locationIssues of racial-ethnic identityGeographical, generational, linguistic context

within the framework of a solid awareness of, and familiarity with, the same elements in myself

Tools for acquiring competence

Therefore, a culturally competent chaplain/CPE student needs to be able to: Provide appropriate and specific-to-the-case guidance,

support and presence with an awareness of cultural and contextual issues

Understand cultural identities with their norms and behaviors, values and beliefs, different worldviews and different spiritual frames of reference, such as: Relation of individual and family to community Social location Different use of time and space Different communication patterns Locus of identity validation and socially accepted ability

to make independent choices

Culturally competent chaplains/CPE students

CPE is a not a US “local reality”Worldwide developments in pastoral care have opened the doors to the globalization, internationalization, and indigenization of pastoral care and counselingEmmanuel Lartey, in: Pastoral Care and Counseling. Redefining the Paradigms, 87-108

The results of this process for the pastoral formation involve the necessity of :

Understanding the importance of socio-cultural location in the identity formation of every individual, and of cultural worldviews in the modality with which every individual copes with suffering and loss

Seeing intercultural dialogue as the paradigm of every intersubjective encounter and affirming its crucial importance for personal and interpersonal growth

New Paradigms for CPE

In our global, interdependent world, we realize that we cannot understand the world, nor exist as whole persons in it, without understanding its pluralism.

We do not have the option of ignoring the diversity around us.

We learn about who we are in the process of learning about others.

Kathleen Talvacchia, Critical Minds and Discerning Hearts

A central truth in multicultural teaching and learning

A critical mind understands that social location and culture define identity and that identity is linked with social structures of power and inequity on a global scale, …and integrates all this in teaching

A discerning heart understands that learners are more than their socio-cultural context, that there are contradictions and differences between our experiences, and yet that we are deeply embedded in our story,…and integrates all this in teaching

What are the consequences of the new paradigm for CPE supervisors?

Preliminaries for the “global citizen” of CPE:

Staying humble while thinking critically Viewing our place in the global network Daring to add complexity to our professional

practices Recognizing the obstacles to cultural competence:

confusion, defensiveness, fear, ignorance, pain, the attachment to one’s particular view, bias and power with its correlated systems of oppression

Being willing to embrace the new in supervision Learning to engage in an intercultural dance that is

spiritual, emotional, and deeply challenging

Becoming Interculturally Competent

The capacity to know and explain one’s own “cultural set”, one’s own spiritual and cultural foundation

The capacity to identify experience and information that are outside of one’s own spiritual/cultural frame of reference or world-view, and to learn about “otherness”

The capacity to demonstrate multicultural attitude and approach, and dialogical cross-cultural communication skills

The capacity to identify contextual and relational barriers, as well as one’s limitations in communication practice, and to demonstrate respect for otherness

What measures our cultural competence?

Cultural competence in pastoral practice is a process that requires both competence and humility.

As reflective practitioners: We engage constantly in self-reflection and self-

critique, and try to redress power imbalance by giving voice to those with less power

We are able to say that we do not know when we truly do not know, and to access resources that might enhance our understanding

Culturally competent or culturally humble?

“Being more inclusive of diversity is not simply a matter of assimilating different voices: it means rethinking how we supervise, taking into account those contributions from different perspectives”

H. Anderson, Pastoral Supervision at the Crossroads:, JSTM 20, 2000, 8-12.

Integrating diversity calls for a prophetic voice; it requires that we work for justice and equality in building curricula, defining tasks, choosing themes, establishing goals; it makes us to prefer connection over privilege and habit; and it keeps us open to change, new learning and ongoing negotiation.

Rethinking diversity in pastoral supervision

End of presentation

We touched the meaning of:InterculturalInterspiritualIntersubjectivityGlobal SocietySocial MediaWorld Wide WebNew paradigms of teaching and learning........but the unifying circle of all remains the human experience of love and loss that characterizes living across all cultures and places and makes us truly human...