Enacting Cultural Humility

Background. Cultural humility is increasingly embraced as a theoretical lens that occupational therapists, educators, and researchers can use to promote justice and inclusion in diverse contexts. Cultural humility differs from cultural competence in its recognition of power and bias and its invitation to embrace advocacy and lifelong learning. Key Issues. Occupational therapy scholarship on cultural humility neither confronts the profound challenges of putting cultural humility into practice nor articulates strategies to integrate cultural humility into daily life and work. These challenges, including perceived objectivity, difficulty identifying power structures, and emotional responses to difference, are particularly salient when belief systems are in clear opposition. In such situations enacting cultural humility requires intellectual, emotional, relational, and community building strategy and skill. Implications. To support development of such skills, conceptual practices are outlined here with a focus on uprooting biases, building self-compassion, identifying multiple, co-occurring dimensions of power, and supporting development of collaborative advocacy vision and strategy. This work offers both theoretical and practical knowledge to advance cultural humility praxis in occupational therapy.