Reconceptualising Cultural Competence

Cultural competence is vital across health, education, and social sectors — yet it often remains superficial, reduced to box-ticking rather than lived understanding. My current doctoral research, which underpins the Poutama IQ Ascent Series, reframes cultural competency through a kaupapa Māori worldview, one grounded in relationality and identity — positioning it as a transformative practice rather than a compliance measure.

Recent Aotearoa-based research by Curtis et al. (2025) reframes the conversation. Drawing from six years of implementation, the authors emphasise that achieving equity depends on both culturally-competent and culturally-safe systems and workforces. They define cultural competency as “a set of knowledge about culture(s), along with the associated skills and behaviours that health professionals require, to deliver high quality health care and achieve equitable health outcomes for all groups” (p. 4). Crucially, they argue that this must be grounded in a lens of critical consciousness — where practitioners actively challenge existing power structures rather than simply learning about “other” cultures.

Reconceptualising Cultural Competency Within Kura Poutama

In the Poutama IQ Ascent Series, the approach draws on the definition offered by Curtis et al. (2025) and extends it as a threshold concept — offering a powerful lens for re-envisioning learning environments and supporting metacognitive awareness, integrative thinking, and confidence in complex, values-rich spaces (Harlow & Peter, 2014; Lucas & Mladenovic, 2007). In this view, cultural competency is not a fixed state or checklist. It is an ongoing relational practice requiring reflexivity, attunement, and accountability. Activated within a kaupapa Māori worldview, it becomes a mode of restoration and alignment — transforming how leaders understand themselves, others, and their spaces of practice.

Within Kura Poutama, cultural competence as a threshold concept is:

• Relational and evolving — rooted in whakapapa, wānanga, and context.

• Ontological and identity-centred — anchored in who leads, not only what they do.

• Critical and generative — moving beyond performative inclusion toward systemic transformation.

This reconceptualisation aligns with threshold concept theory (Baillie et al., 2013; Meyer & Land, 2003a, 2003b, 2005; Meyer et al., 2010), which describes learning as transformative, irreversible, integrative, bounded, troublesome, discursive, reconstitutive, and liminal — marking significant shifts in understanding. Such learning can be both disruptive and identity-reforming, acting as a gateway into deeper, irreversible insight and fundamentally reshaping worldview and professional practice (Farrell et al., 2024; Nahavandi, 2016).

How Kura Poutama Embodies This Shift

The Poutama IQ Ascent Series approaches cultural competence as an immersive journey, not an obligation:

• Identity affirmation – allowing leaders to engage from the foundation of who they are.

• Collective responsibility – building with and for others in ways grounded in relationality.

• Transformative practice – embedding mātauranga Māori and values-led strategy in leadership flow.

This is not about ticking a box on diversity — it is about recalibrating leadership from the ground up and embedding cultural competence as a critically conscious capacity, cultivated through whakapapa, wānanga, values-led leadership, and the rhythmic integration of mātauranga Māori.

Reflection for Leaders

• How is your leadership practice crossing thresholds — shaping who you are, how you act, and why it matters?

Further Reading

Read the full article by Curtis et al. (2025) here.

References

Baillie, C., Bowden, J., & Meyer, J. (2013). Threshold capabilities: Threshold concepts and knowledge capability linked through variation theory. Higher Education, 65, 227-246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-012-9540-5

Curtis, E., Jones, R., Tipene-Leach, D., Walker, C., Loring, B., Paine, S. J., & Reid, P. (2025). Refining the definitions of cultural safety, cultural competency and Indigenous health: Lessons from Aotearoa New Zealand. International Journal for Equity in Health, 24(1), 26. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-025-02478-3

Farrell, L. M., Cuncic, C., MacDonald, S., Egan, R., Hafferty, F. W., Whitehead, C. R., & Kuper, A. (2024). Thresholds of becoming: An exploration of threshold concepts as a means to support professional identity formation in competency-based curricula. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 29, 349–359. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-023-10245-8 

Harlow, A., & Peter, M. (2014). Mastering threshold concepts in tertiary education: “I know exactly what you are saying and I can understand it but I’ve got nowhere to hook it.” Waikato Journal of Education, 19(2), 245–256. https://wje.org.nz/index.php/WJE/article/view/95/80

Lucas, U., & Mladenovic, R. (2007). The potential of threshold concepts: An emerging framework for educational research and practice. London Review of Education, 5(3), 237–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/14748460701661294

Meyer, J. H. F., & Land, R. (2003a). Occasional Report 4, May 2003, Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Linkages to Ways of Thinking and Practising within the Disciplines. University of Edinburgh. https://www.colorado.edu/ftep/sites/default/files/attached-files/meyer_and_land_-_threshold_concepts.pdf

Meyer, J. H. F., & Land, R. (2003b). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge 1 – Linkages to ways of thinking and practising. In C. Rust (Ed.), Improving student learning – Theory and practice ten years on (pp. 412-424). Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development (OCSLD).

Meyer, J. H. F., & Land, R. (2005). Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge (2): Epistemological Considerations and a Conceptual Framework for Teaching and Learning. Higher Education, 49(3), 373-388. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-004-6779-5

Meyer, J. H. F., Land, R., & Baillie, C. (2010). Editors' Preface Threshold Concepts and Transformational Learning. In J. H. F. Meyer, R. Land, & C. Baillie (Eds.), Threshold Concepts and Transformational Learning (Vol. 42, pp. ix-xlii). Sense Publishers. https://www.lamission.edu/learningcenter/docs/1177-threshold-concepts-and-transformational-learning.pdf

Nahavandi, A. (2016). The art and science of leadership (7th ed.). Pearson.

Image credit: Tahere, K. (2025). Used with permission.

Author: Megan Tahere. (2025).