Cultural Humility

Cultural humility is a distinctive and desirable way of comprehending cultural differences; successful intercultural communication can only occur by questioning the primacy of our own perspective. Cultural humility refers to respecting the validity of the other person’s culture and accepting the creative tension of holding two different perspectives simultaneously.

First described through the lens of the Peace Corps experience, the concept of cultural humility has become central to the discussion of intercultural competence. This entry reviews the origins of the idea, describes the elements included, and suggests the contribution of cultural humility to the development of intercultural competence.

When the concept of cultural humility was first described by Alan Guskin in a small publication of Antioch University in 1991 and then explored in other papers and speeches, ...