Cultural Insensitivity in Higher Education   

Posted: December 22nd, 2022

Cultural Insensitivity in Higher Education   

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Cultural Insensitivity in Higher Education   

Globalization and technological advancements are increasing the interaction between different cultures. As higher education institutions admit students from different countries, they are expected to accommodate and promote cultural diversity. For instance, the Institute of International Education initiated the Generation Study Abroad in 2014 to double the number of Americans studying abroad by 2020 and enhance the cultural competence of the society (Leavitt, Wisdom & Leavitt, 2017). However, the institution fails to address the issue of cultural insensitivity among students. Cultural insensitivity in higher education creates a hostile environment for students and faculty. It leads to the development of cultural myths, biases, and stereotypes, hindering learning and knowledge generation. Cultural insensitivity nurtured in tertiary institutions can be carried over to workplaces and society after graduation and undermine social justice. For these reasons, colleges and universities in the United States that serve specific cultural groups use culturally-relevant pedagogy, promote a sense of belonging among the learners, and encourage them to participate in ethnic studies (Garcia, 2017). Cultural insensitivity in higher education creates a hostile environment for students and faculty. It leads to the development of cultural myths, biases, and stereotypes, hindering learning and knowledge generation. Moreover, cultural insensitivity nurtured in tertiary institutions can be carried over to workplaces and society after graduation and undermine social justice (Phillips, 2019). Therefore, cultural insensitivity in higher education should be dealt with effectively to prevent the immediate and long-term detriments on the victims and institutions.    

Cultural Insensitivity

Cultural insensitivity hinders people from understanding others who have different characteristics and cultures. It can also be viewed as engaging in behavior that is culturally blind or offensive to others (Leavitt, Wisdom & Leavitt, 2017). In higher education institutions, the issue takes many forms and can manifest itself in many contexts and levels. Tertiary institutions unite people of multiple cultures, which may be compatible or incompatible with each other. Students may be culturally insensitive to each other and the faculty may be culturally insensitive to students. Also, the curriculum, pedagogy, and institutional management may be culturally biased and influenced by the dominant culture in the society. Allen, Scott and Lewis (2013) refer to such curriculums as hegemonic curriculums because they are relevant to the dominant group. Such syllabuses advance curriculum violence by intentionally manipulating academic programs to undermine the intellectual and psychological development of a section of learners. For instance, the curriculum may involve examples from the dominant culture and ignore cultural diversity. Some higher education institutions are known to have implemented culturally insensitive policies that ban certain types of food, regulate behavior and dressing, emphasize some sports, and focus on the dominant culture.

The complexity of cultural insensitivity is worsened by numerous issues. The insensitivity is associated with issues related to gender, age, religion, race, disability, and socioeconomic status (Carpani & Somerville, 2019). Stereotypes associated with these issues can be projected through an offensive cultural lens. For instance, individuals from the collectivistic culture may find academic arguments between a western student and professor offensive due to the violation of respect for elders. Also, they may lose marks for being passive in class discussions. It is distasteful to compel such students to engage their professors or ridicule them for their passivity. Similarly, students from the west can be disturbed by restrictions in expression, teacher-centered instructions, and little interaction with faculty. Their forwardness may be frowned at and mocked by students from the east. Other culturally-insensitive practices include microaggressions, lack of emotional and psychological support, pretentious empathy, and condescension (Cabrera, 2014). For instance, African American students may be directed to African American faculty for counseling because the other faculty members feel inadequate in addressing such issues. While the action may not be culturally offensive, the direct can be given in a condescending manner. Similarly, students may empathize with their peers in a demeaning manner based on cultural stereotypes. Myers and Cowie (2017) observed that technologies may promote cultural insensitivity through cyberbullying. This social vice is easy to perpetrate because of its anonymity, expansive reach in the college community, and cost-effectiveness. These factors make culturally insensitive practices hard to detect because of their subtleness, yet their effects are far-reaching.   

Culture shock confronts students and faculty from the less dominant and foreign cultures. This issue may explain why the insensitivity directed against minorities can be unnoticed. Dominant communities provide some privileges to the members, which protect them from negative cultural effects (Newsome & Cooper, 2016). Therefore, conflicts can be caused by the cultural inconsistency. While culture shock is the first step towards acculturation, it may be offensive as it challenges strongly-held beliefs and threaten one’s sense of identity (Newsome & Cooper, 2016). University and college students may be unable to reconcile to the cultural inconsistency, which may have long-lasting and far-reaching effects on them. Moreover, as they are transitioning from adolescence to young adulthood, some negative cultural experiences encountered during this phase may develop into strong cultural prejudices and stereotypes (Bai, 2016).

Cultural insensitivity can be explained using the critical race theory, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and the theory of self-evolution. According to Maslow’s (1970) human needs and motivations are hierarchically ordered. While all cultures may share similar low-level needs, esteem and self-actualization are emphasized in individualistic cultures and not collectivistic ones (Newsome & Cooper, 2016). Therefore, western cultures denigrate non-western ones in higher education settings.

The critical race theory posits that race is socially constructed to advance the interests of white people and thus is not natural or grounded in biology. This explains why racism has entrenched in the society and normalized by the dominant and marginalized cultures. Moreover, systemic institutionalized racism is embedded in tertiary institutions and disguised at college traditions and best practices (Alexander & Hermann, 2016). According to the theory of self-evolution, transitioning into adulthood presents complexities related to meaning-making structures (Franklin, 2016). In the developmental progress towards self-authorship, individuals are exposed to situations that create dissonance, complicating sense-making process. This fact explains why college students react differently to various cultural occurrences during the identity formation. It also explains why they experience acculturative stress in such situations. 

Global Experiences

Colleges and universities in different parts of the world have common culturally insensitive issues. For instance, higher education institutions seek international recognition through accreditation from Europe and North American and by adopting the European-American culture. This practice is common in non-European countries and some non-English speaking European countries. For instance, many higher education institutions adopt English as the instructional language. Therefore, some students may be required to take English lessons and proficiency tests before they can engage in their college or university programs. However, speakers of English as a second language do not attain the proficiency of native speakers and may speak with an accent. They may be ridiculed native English speakers in a culturally insensitive manner in and out of campus making their international experience unpleasant. Valdez (2015) revealed that Chinese international students felt inferior to their American colleagues because of their limited English language ability. Inferiority feelings were aggravated by the low academic performance of previously high-achieving international students. Political events also impact the cultural atmosphere in higher education institutions. For instance, the election of President Trump in the United States and Brexit in the United Kingdom have heightened racial sentiments in colleges and universities, with international students being viewed as outsiders (Jindal-Snape, 2018). International students are most aggrieved by these issues causing feelings of exclusion and alienation.  

Many colleges and universities import curricula from prestigious western education institutions, such as Oxford and Harvard. The student-centered instruction and technological advancements are often cited as the advantages of the western educational system (Alghamdi, 2014). Therefore, students come to these institutions excited about the prestigious academic experience awaiting them. However, these practices undermine indigenous cultures and make tertiary education culturally irrelevant. Similarly, some countries have cultures that restrict foreign customs. For instance, many colleges and universities in the Arab and Muslim world prohibit open consumption of alcohol and displaying affection. Such countries as France, Austria, Belgium, and Bulgaria have banned the hijab or the burqa among Muslim students (Hussain, 2019). These policies create avenues for cultural insensitivity and generate social anxiety.     

American Experiences

The United States is the most popular destination for international students. As such, many American colleges and universities are challenged by multiculturalism among learners and faculty. The European-American culture is dominant in the United States and is reflected in tertiary institutions of the country. As such, American ethnic, racial, and religious minorities encounter cultural insensitivities in colleges and universities. On the one hand, African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans are usually ignored in curriculum, pedagogy, and institutional management. On the other hand, international students become acculturated, but the Americans are not aware of the foreign cultures. Since the foreigners are the minority in these institutions, they are the most susceptible to cultural insensitivity from other learners, faculty, and administration. White privilege is observed when European-American male ideals are advanced in policy (Cabrera, 2014). White students and faculty members are considered as intellectually-equipped for higher education, while non-whites are of inferior ability. For instance, African American female students were often marginalized by white faculty, and this issue was evident in the case when a college professor refused to include a female engineering student in his white male-dominated research group (Alexander & Hermann, 2016). The white engineering professor claimed that the student was not experienced enough to join his group and advised her against undertaking a graduate research if she planned to pursue a post graduate course. In another case, educators from foreign countries are not expected to hold liberal and intellectual views regarding global issues as they are limited by their inferior origins (Cotiner, 2019). These are racial and gendered microaggressions against minority students and faculty members that perpetuate exclusion in higher education.    

Virtue signaling is common in tertiary institutions as people seek acceptance by the members of the dominant culture who in turn strive to cement their privilege through insincere gestures. The latter express their lifestyles choices, political attitudes, religious convictions, ethical principles, and moral values conspicuously to perpetuate their dominance. For instance, a white student may cause mayhem when another confuses the names of minority individuals to signal the support for nondiscrimination (Cotiner, 2019). Cultural appropriation occurs when a privileged group adopts some customs of a marginalized group to belittle it or erase its role in the society (Jaschik, 2017). For example, Latina students at Pitzer College in California asked white students to stop wearing hoop earrings as that style was an appropriation of the Latina culture. The president and staff members of the University of Louisville who took pictures in sombreros were criticized for misappropriating the Mexican culture.

Minority students often protest cultural appropriations in higher education institutions. For instance, Asian students protested against the Asian food served at Oberlin College because it was not authentic. Likewise, black students have harassed white peers who wear braids and dreadlocks, citing cultural appropriation (Jaschik, 2017). In other incidences, white students have held themed Halloween parties denigrating minorities, while the use of Native American-based team names and mascots has been banned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (Jaschik, 2017). In these incidences, the minorities are offended by the cultural insensitivity of their white counterparts.       

In the United States, the first amendment guarantees the freedom of speech, and cultural expressions are viewed as free speech regardless of whether they are offensive or not. It thus allows culturally insensitive acts to be tolerated under the guise of cultural expression. Williams (2019) argued that free speech was being used by the right wing to cover for sexism, racism, anti-semitism, classism, xenophobia, and other discriminatory sentiments. These are cases of selective use of the law as minority and non-American students were not provided with the same legal protection.        

Current Efforts

New students and faculty should be encouraged to adhere to the traditions of the college or university, provided they are not culturally insensitive. Many educational institutions use tokenism to demonstrate a semblance of social diversity and inclusion (Fong, Ficklin & Lee, 2017). As such, they admit a limited number of faculty and students from marginalized groups. Unfortunately, minorities are perceived as unqualified and incompetent by the university community and thus exposed to cultural insensitivity. Moreover, the limited faculty is overloaded with mentorship duties. For instance, minority students are not guided equitably as higher education institutions cater for the large cultural groups, marginalizing the smaller ones and making them invisible in the campus community (Fong, Ficklin & Lee, 2017). The United States has minority-serving institutions, such as Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs), Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), Tribal Colleges or Universities (TCUs), and Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) among others. These institutions serve the interests of minority groups that are underserved by public colleges and universities (Phillips, 2019). However, these approaches do not save minority students and faculty from experiencing cultural insensitivity. If anything, they highlight the systemic difficulty in integrating the diverse cultures in the American higher education system and entrench cultural stereotypes.    

To enhance cultural sensitivity, the authorities must promote cultural awareness and competence, as well as introducing diversity and inclusion initiatives. Higher education institutions around the world are taking steps to accommodate diverse cultures in their faculties. Cultural awareness is advanced by encouraging interactions between different communities through various events and affording adequate time between lessons (Wyckoff et al., 2019). Moreover, ethnocentrism is eradicated through the realization that no culture is superior or worthy over another. To make the curriculum, pedagogy, and institutional management culturally sensitive, tertiary institutions adopt culturally-relevant pedagogy (CRP). The use of diverse learning materials that are culturally-relevant and present international contexts may improve cultural intelligence (Jindal-Snape, 2018). Moreover, faculty and students are encouraged to gain multicultural exposure through student and faculty exchange programs. However, culturally intelligent institutional leadership is required to make such initiatives successful.   

Conclusion

Cultural insensitivity is pervasive in higher education institutions all over the world. Although the mobility of students and faculty has increased cultural diversity in colleges and universities, it contributes to the development of cultural insensitivity. The issue can be overt and become apparent in the form of cultural appropriation or covert and be the reason of microaggressions. It affects both faculty and students at home and foreign campuses and is often directed towards minority groups by members of the dominant culture. Differences in national customs present more challenges to cultural sensitivity because what is acceptable in one country may be offensive in another. Therefore, the white culture in some American and European universities and colleges exalt white privilege and denigrate minority groups.

Efforts to enhance cultural diversity and inclusiveness through tokenism are ineffective in eradicating the insensitivity if they are not grounded in cultural awareness and competence. As such, culturally-relevant pedagogy and curriculum can address the issue of cultural intolerance more effectively. Student and faculty exchanges, as well as some academic activities internationally, would prevent cultural insensitivity as they enhance cultural intelligence. Indeed, higher education institutions that are culturally tolerant are conducive for intellectual pluralism and knowledge generation.         

References  

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