Being smart in a diverse world.

This article reviews the concept of intelligence from different cultural perspectives and explains why the traditional approach to determining "who is smart" is inappropriate for students from culturally/linguistically diverse backgrounds and inadequate even for determining if mainstream students will be successful in daily living. The concept of successful intelligence is described and related to the components of cultural intelligence that are essential for professionals to function effectively in a diverse world. Strategies for promoting cultural intelligence in students are suggested.

Keywords: cross-cultural; intelligence; assessment; testing

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All the articles in this issue of Communication Disorders Quarterly address concerns related to cultural and linguistic diversity, with particular attention in many articles given to the types of knowledge and skills (or intelligence) professionals need if they are to work successfully with persons from culturally/linguistically diverse backgrounds. Authors discuss emotional intelligence and cultural intelligence (CQ) in addition to the traditional academic knowledge that is part of the education and speech-language pathology fields. This article will review the concept of intelligence from different cultural perspectives, explain why the traditional approach to determining "who is smart" is inappropriate for students from culturally/linguistically diverse backgrounds and inadequate even for determining if mainstream students will be successful in daily living, and elaborate on the importance of CQ for professionals and students.

In mainstream society in the United States, educators and employers frequently ask how smart a student, job applicant, or employee is. Smartness or intelligence is often judged on the basis of a person's performance on formal tests and evaluations. Schools test children yearly to determine if they are making appropriate process; if they are not, the frequency of testing increases. Entry into a number of jobs requires some type of skill and knowledge assessment. Employees are regularly evaluated. Speech-language pathologists and special educators use standardized tests to determine if students qualify for additional services--is a student "as smart as" other students on a particular skill or knowledge such as using language, reading, or writing? In educational settings particularly, intelligence is determined almost solely by use of standardized or conventional assessment tools. Educators and speech-language pathologists are often aware that English-language learners may not have the necessary language to do well on formal assessments, but they may attribute the students' difficulties to language differences alone. At some point, the decision is made that children have had enough exposure to English so that their first language should not significantly affect their test performance. For many students from diverse backgrounds, however, the language of testing is only one factor influencing their performance. The tests may not assess knowledge and skills that are valued by the children's cultures, or the ways in which the knowledge and skills are assessed may not be typical of their use in the culture (Sternberg, 2007).

What Is Intelligence?

What is conceived as smart or intelligent may differ in different cultures. Cultural groups using the same language may have different views of what it means to perform intelligently, and cultural groups using different languages may have similar views on what it means to perform intelligently. A study of Kenyan conceptions of intelligence (Grigorenko et al., 2001) found four terms referring to what was perceived as smart: rieko (knowledge and skills), luoro (respect), winjo (comprehension of how to handle real-life problems), and para (initiative). Only the first refers to the type of knowledge measured by traditional Western IQ tests. In Zimbabwe, the word for intelligence, ngware, means to be prudent and cautious, especially in social relationships (Dasen, 1984). Even in the United States, there is no one overall conceptualization of what is valued as intelligent behavior. In a study of parents' concepts of intelligence, conducted in San Jose, California, Okagaki and Sternberg (1993) reported that Latino parents of schoolchildren tended to emphasize the importance of social competence; Asian parents heavily emphasized cognitive skills; and Anglo parents emphasized cognitive skills, but not to the degree of Asian parents. Children's school performance could be perfectly predicted by the extent to which their parents shared the teachers' conceptions of intelligence.