INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCY AS A COMPONENT OF THE SOCIAL WORK SPECIALISTS PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCY

Abstract

Modern Ukrainian society needs a competent competitive specialist in social work, ready to work in an intercultural environment burdened by interethnic, intercultural, moral-psychological, socio-economic conflicts. Having investigated different approaches to the interpretation of the concepts of «competency», «professional competency» and «intercultural competency», it allowed us to interpret the latter as a complex multi-component formation that affects the result of communication and interaction with representatives of other cultures. It is manifested in the ability to apply speech abilities determined by socio-cultural context, to apply in practice cultural rules and norms that identify the success of intercultural communication. The main characteristics of intercultural competency are defined: openness to learning about another (foreign) culture; perception of psychological, social and other intercultural differences; psychological readiness to cooperate with representatives of other cultures; the ability to differentiate collective and individual in the communicative behavior of a foreign-cultural communicator; ability to overcome social, ethnic, cultural prejudices and stereotypes; the availability of a set of communication tools, their appropriate selection in accordance with the communication situation; compliance with the rules of etiquette in the process of communication. The formation of intercultural competency of social work specialists is facilitated by: their readiness to interact with representatives of other cultures; respect for other people's cultural values and traditions; the ability to recognize, respect and use correctly the intellectual and behavioral differences of one's own and other cultures in the process of communication. An important task of the professional training of future specialists in social work is the revision and improvement of educational programs, in particular, the study of such selective educational components that would consider the issue of formation of worldview culture, tolerance, conflict culture, communicative culture, speech culture and business (professional) etiquette.