4A Model Framework and Assessment

Overview

Through the development of a cultural Integration-Adaptation Model (I-AM), we have identified a set of relevant micro and macro skills and practices to enhance integration and adaptation in multicultural conflict. The model integrates the aims, values and strategies of both the cultural approach to conflict management, which emphasizes the harmonious navigation of difference in conflict, with the multicultural approach, which champions notions of equity, justice and fairness in disputes. It does so by highlighting the core competencies and strategies needed for managing multicultural conflict in both a just and constructive manner. Thus, the core foci of the model are fairness and fit.

We elaborate on a set of micro and macro skills, processes and structures that research has identified as enhancing the core components of the I-AM Model, or the 4-As that lead to Integration-Adaptation:

1. Awareness of cultural assumptions, cultural rules, racial/ethnic identity, privilege, class, and other components of the worldview of self and others.
2. Accuracy in reading situations, valuing data and not giving in to preconceived theories, beliefs and stereotypes regarding multicultural dynamics and conflict.
3. Adaptivity requiring cognitive, emotional, and behavioral flexibility in responding to multicultural conflict.
4. Accountability to self, other, and community, through reading feedback and synchronizing with the other.

Publications

Multiculturalism and Conflict
In The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice, 3rd Edition
By Mekayla Castro & Peter T. Coleman (forthcoming)

In this chapter we offer an introduction to the relationship between multiculturalism, conflict and conflict resolution. First, we present an overview of multiculturalism – the “good”, the “bad”, and the relevant – including its contribution to our understanding of conflict theory and conflict management, how it compares and contrasts with the study of culture and conflict, and the limitations of both multicultural and cultural perspectives. We end the first section with a review of the empirical literature on multiculturalism and conflict-relevant outcomes and resolutions. We devote the second part of the paper to the presentation of the Integrity-Adaptivity Model (I-AM), an integrated approach to managing multiculturally-based conflicts that builds on applications of multiculturalism in education, counseling, and organizational development. In conclusion we offer a summary and suggestions for the research and practice of multiculturally-sensitive conflict analysis, management, and resolution.