I attended the Academy of Professional Family Mediators (APFM) in the fall of 2014 in beautiful San Diego with Elizabeth Hyde, Lene Madsen and Jennifer Suzar, distinguished mediators from Ontario.
I have been speaking on the topic of cultural competency in mediation for the last several years. I often find participants eager to find the “steps” or rather “answers” to working with clients that they consider to be culturally different. In my session at the APFM, one of the participants raised her hand and proposed that she start her mediation by asking her clients to talk about their cultural values. Eager to make a point, I asked her the same question. She looked at me and paused, realizing that she didn’t really know how to express her so-called cultural values.
This was one of those “a-ha” moments that demonstrate how often we think that our clients, visible minorities in particular, can talk about their culture. Culture is often not easily articulated in a conversation, but rather, it is part of the way we live.
Culture is a shared experience, influencing values, beliefs, attitudes, and interactions. It is passed on from generation to generation and provides members with an ability to identify with a group and differentiate from other cultural groups. It includes the knowledge that people need to have in order to function effectively in their social environment. This knowledge is created in sets of rules and social standards that govern behaviors considered acceptable, they are often not spoken rather they are just known. It has been referred to as the collective glue that maintains individuals’ connections to the cultural milieu.
It’s important to recognize that the actions of culture are in the rules that produce the behaviors, not the behaviors themselves. This is an important differentiation. Individuals are not fixed within culture and experience different degrees of inclusion within various cultural groups. Culture is not static. Roles and expectations can change over time and can be influenced by other cultures, especially in today’s global society.
So, it’s understandable why it is not surprising that members of a cultural group may be unable to describe the set of roles, expectations, and values even though they may be proficient in the cultural behaviors of the group. Nevertheless, culture plays a vital role in the lives of children and families, regardless of their level of consciousness about the reasons for their behaviors.
We, as mediators, also work by our own cultural values, and this may indeed impact the mediation. Living in this incredibly diverse city calls upon family law professionals to critically reflect on how they are relating to their clients and the assumptions they bring to the table. Cultural competency involves recognizing the dynamic interplay of the various cultures at the table, including our own.
It would be wise to reflect on the question of your own cultural values before asking the person across the table. It is through this dialogue where the development of cultural competency begins.
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