The document describes Milton Bennett's model of intercultural sensitivity, which outlines six stages or orientations that individuals and groups can have towards cultural differences: denial, defense, minimization, acceptance, adaptation, and integration. Each stage represents increasing sensitivity and ability to understand different cultural perspectives. The model moves from more ethnocentric stages, where one's own culture is seen as central, to more ethnorelative stages, where cultural differences are recognized and valued. The document asks the reader to identify which stage best represents the general attitude towards cultural differences in their own country.

1. Cultural Competence
is the process
by which
people learn to value
and
respond respectfully

2. «Intercultural sensitivity»
M. Bennet

3. Ethnocentric
stages

4. Ethnorelative
stages

5. 1. Denial
Unaware of the existence of cultural
differences
People are prone to imposing their
value system upon others, believing
that they are “right” and that others
who are different are “confused.”
They are not threatened by cultural
differences because they refuse to
accept them.
They consider migrants separated
from the others and they are likely to
be isolated

6. 2. Defense
People recognize the existence of other cultures, but
not their validity. They feel threatened by the
presence of other ways of thinking, and thus
denigrate them in an effort to assert the superiority of
their own culture..
Methods used to defend against uncomfortable
feelings are: Denigration Superiority Reversal.
The worldview must not change
and nothing good comes from
other cultures.

7. 3. Minimization
People minimize cultural differences in order to protect
one’s own cultural identity and try to minimize them by
telling themselves that people are more similar than
dissimilar.
People here are much more tolerant of superficial cultural
diversity. However, Minimization obscures deep cultural
differences by a false assumption of equal opportunity.

8. 4. Acceptance
People begin to recognize other cultures and
accept them as viable alternatives to their
own worldview. They know that people are
genuinely different from them and accept
the inevitability of other value systems.
?
They no longer see other cultures as threatening,
wrong, or inferior. People in the acceptance phase can
be thought of as “culture-neutral,” seeing differences
as neither good nor bad, but rather as a fact of life,
while continuing to give importance to own culture

9. 5. Adaptation
Capacity to be able to relate to
differences.
People begin to view cultural
differences as a valuable resource.
Because differences are seen as
positive, people consciously adapt
their behaviors to the different
cultural norms of their
environment.

10. 6. Integration
People accept that their identity is not based in
any single culture. Once integrated, people can
shift between worldviews and cultural frames of
reference. Though they maintain their own
cultural identity, they naturally integrate aspects
of other cultures into it (i.e. migrant children).

11. Bibliography
Bennett, M.J. (1993).
Towards Ethnorelativism: A developmental model of
intercultural sensitivity. In R.M. Paige (Ed.) Education
for the intercultural experience.
Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.

12. A question to you
In terms of attitudes toward cultural
differences,
at what stage do you think your
country is?

13. Please
Put a little flag of your nation near
the stage that describes the general
attitude of your country, in your
opinion