Brain Drain - Hochschule der Bundesagentur für Arbeit

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3.2 Unit 1: Multicultural Environment
Definitions and terminology, culture, nationality, multiculturalism, diversity,
culture-centred concept
All individuals exist in social, political, historical, and economic contexts. Counsellors
are called upon to understand the influence of these contexts on individuals’
behaviour. This module is focused on the preparation of the teaching guidelines on
multicultural practice for counsellors working with individuals, and groups based on
their ethnic/national heritage, and social group identity or membership.
We are defining the word multicultural in these guidelines narrowly to refer to
interactions between individuals from national groups in European culture. We define
culture as the belief systems, and value orientations that influence customs, norms,
practices, and social institutions, including psychological processes (language, caretaking
practices, media, educational system), and organization (media, educational
systems). Inherit in this definition is acknowledgement that all individuals are cultural
beings and have an ethnic/national heritage. These definitions suggest that culture is
fluid and dynamic and that there are both cultural universal phenomena and culturally
specific or relative constructs.
The term nationality in this module refers to ethnicity as the acceptance of the group
mores and practices of one’s culture of origin and the concomitant sense of
belonging to concrete nation. Moreover, individuals may have multiple national
identities that operate with a different salience at different times.
The term diversity refers to the individuals’ social identities, including nationality, age,
language competences, socio-economic status, workplace role/position, religious,
and spiritual orientation, and work/family concerns.
The term culture-centred is used through the teaching guidelines programme as a
concept of encouraging clients by counsellors through “cultural lens” as a central
focus of professional behaviour. In culture-centred practices, counsellors recognize
that all individuals, including themselves, are influenced by different contexts. Only
culture-centred counselling may be ethically fair.
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