Between practicing and rehearsing: cultural awareness challenges in the military

Abstract

In this article, we confront the tradition that understands cultural awareness training as the individual acquisition of intercultural competences with recent developments in the theorizing of culture and education. The question we ask is how to understand cultural awareness training if dealing with cultural diversity is not depending on individual competences but rather on the interaction between people on the ground. We will take three steps to discuss this point. In a first step we consider the challenge of cultural diversity for military organizations. The second step consists in a reflection on the notion of intercultural competences and the idea that intercultural competences can be acquired by individuals. In the third step we develop an alternative understanding of the preparation for intercultural interaction, based on Sennett's distinction between practicing and rehearsing (Sennett, 2012).