Intercultural Competence
"Recognizing Privilege means being aware some people have to work much harder just to expierience things you take for granted, if they experience them at all"
Intercultrual Competence
What is Intercultrual Competence?
The ability to communicate affectively and appropriately in a variety of cultrual contexts. This includes learning about other people's cultures, keeping an open mind, and being aware of how your view of your own culture plays into this.
Intersectionality
Definition: the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a group or individual, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimmination through disadvantage.
Personal Example: I watched as the students took a survey the school required them to take. The survey was about race in the school systems, and during this survey I heard one student remark, "why do they give us these survey's if they aren't going to do anything about it. When a question about whether or not she got along with other students came up on the survery, she stated "what if I get along with other students, but they do not get along with me." This student is deaf and from a different country.
This was eye opening to hear coming from a student so young. It's eye opening to realize how early on these systematic issues begin in the students lives, and how they're already feeling defeated by things that are out of their control.
Understanding intersectionality is essential in developing intercultural competence. Understanding how different facets of people's identities affect their lives and contribute to who they are helps you develop empathy and grows your intercultrual competence.
community accountability
What is Community Accountability?
Accountability is defined in LTS as meaning “responsibility, being accountable for our actions requires us to consider the ramifications of our choices on those we are serving and on the change efforts we hope to be a part of.”
I also think it's important to add a few things in relation to my service site. Accountability also means working in the most accessible way possible, and being open to constructive criticism of your current view/actions.
What does Community Accountability look like?
One day when the interpreter was out, the mainstream teacher told the teacher I work with, "it's okay, we don't need an interpreter today, we're just watching a video. I'll turn on the closed captions on." This teacher did not realize that the students don't have the same language access, and sometimes need the concepts expalined through sign in order to understand them, which the teacher I work with had to explain to her.
After this, the teacher I work with informed me they give the mainstream students the option to choose between closed captions and the interpreter interpreting the videos they watch.
This is an example of Community Accountability because the teacher I work with is educating the mainstream teacher by awknowleging how the ramifications of this decision will affect the students. This also represents community accountability by giving the D/deaf and hard-of-hearing students the support/resources they need as well as the autonomy to make decisions for themselves.
How I Have Learned From This Expierience:
This summer I have an internship with Amazon, a company who has a large population of D/deaf employees. This example has helped give me the framework of how to best support D/deaf individuals while giving them the autonomy to make their own decisions. It also shows how it's important to hold yourself accountable because your decisions have rippling effects, something I will be aware of in my position this summer and in the future.
citizenship
What is citizenship?
Citizenship is when an individual or group becomes connected to a given community through their service efforts.
Taking Action & Implementing Change
What does it mean to take action and implement change?
Taking specific actions to enact change that will benefit and impact the community in some way.
See more about how I've enacted change in the "Agents of Change" Tab!
hearing privilege
"Like other forms of #privilege, #hearingprivilege is having the choice not to listen" (Kohli, 2016).
At the school, an announcement went off while a video was playing during class. The hearing students had access to the information being presented by the announcement, but the D/deaf students did not. The interpreter had to pick between signing the announement or the video, and in the this case she chose the video.
Why is this an example of hearing privilege?
In that moment, the interpreter had the power to decide what was "important" and what was "not important", and did not give the students the power to decide for themselves. Like the quote says, as hearing people we have the choice not to listen.
How did this make me feel? What have I learnd?
Although in class time we've discussed privilege is not something to be guilty about, guilt is one of the first emotions I expierience. Guilt and anger are my natural reactions because this privilege is unearned and I know there are larger systematic issues at play.
This semester has been a learning expierience on how to best use my hearing privilege. As discussed in class, communicating the information being presented turns your hearing privilege into accessability to communication. For example, if the interpreter had interpreted the announcement, this event would be accessability to communication because the D/deaf individual could have decided what to do with that information. This is beneficial for knowing how to use my privilege moving forward.
"Getting to decide whether providing accessibility options (captioning, interpreters, etc) is 'in the budget' or not. #HearingPrivilege" (Kolhi, 2016)
Although I think you could argue this point parralells more of the theme of oppression compared to hearing privilege, it's still an important point to bring up. If an interpreter is "out" for whatever reason at Dominion, the teachers have to "make do" with the interpreters that are there that given day. There was one day the woman who normally interpretted for the mainstream classroom I was in was not at school, and the students had to watch the video in class with closed captions. This is because doing anything else would not be "in the budget." I do think it's a hearing privilege to always have communication access and having a hand in these types of decisions.
Observed Aspects of Deaf Culture
Visual Ways of Getting Someone's Attention
In the classroom, waiving hands and tapping on the shoulder were the main ways the students and the teacher got eachothers attention. This is a daily occurance.
This differs from my upbringing because my teachers and friends always voiced my name in order to get my attention. What I also found interesting is that banging on the table is seldom used in the Deaf/hard of hearing classroom to get their attention. This reminds me of when Marla told us in class when she chose to bang on the table to get our attention, she was using OUR hearing privilege. This parrallels what happens in the classroom.
Increased Comfort/Occurance of Physical Touch
Physcial touch is more common and normalized within the Deaf community. This was evident during their sensory breaks in the classroom. Sometimes the students would play a game with the football together. During this game, the students were pushing, touching eachothers arms, and lightly shoving eachother.
This differs from my personal expierience because when I was in middle school, we got yelled at for the events that happened within the classroom everyday. For the Deaf students, this is normal and part of their culture. Phyical touch is something I am not super comfortable with, but learned to adapt throughout the course of the semester.
Patience with Hearing People and Helping Them Learn How to Sign
The Aid in the room is new to ASL and the students are patient with teaching him different signs. One day, he signed “church” instead of "chocolate" and one of the students informed him of the difference. Later, when I was chatting with one of the students, she told me it was her birthday tomorrow and the aid signed “birthday” and “favorite” and asked her which one was the right one. After, she showed him the correct way to sign it. As we’ve discussed in class, D/deaf people are very patient and willing to help with signing.
Clear and Direct Communication
Interpreter:
"Hi, it's nice to meet you, what's your name.
Where are you from?
Are you observing today?
Are you here because you are in an ASL class?
Has interpreting ever been something you've maybe, potentially have thought about doing?
Deaf Student:
"Why are you here?"
"Do you want to become an interpreter?"
The best example I have observed of clear and direct communication is the interaction I had the first day meeting the interpreter compared to meeting one of the Deaf students. In hearing culture, we tend to beat around the bush and use many filler words when communicating with eachother and asking questions. Although the interpreters main question was if I wanted to become an interpreter in the future, she asked me many other qustions first and used words like "maybe" and "potentially." The Deaf student got straight and to the point using no filler words. This ties back to the "being assertive" lesson we did in class.
Kohli, Sahaj. “Hearing Privilege Is One Many People Take For Granted.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 28 Sept. 2016, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hearing-privilege_n_57ebd4c5e4b024a52d2bb142#vgi=16_&=http%253A%252F%252Fm.huffpost.com%252Fus%252Fentry%252Fus_57ebd4c5e4b024a52d2bb142%252Famp.