Cultural metacognition: a large, well-stocked, organized and illuminated toolshed in the mind

Since the introduction of cultural intelligence (CQ), extraordinary numbers of articles have been published associated with CQ. To date, there is no clear work to explicate cultural-metacognition (CM) - one of the central elements of CQ. The chapter unpacks CM, identifying the elements and mechanics of CM, and how CM functions using knowledge and skills to adapt and generate new appropriate behaviors within and in different cultures. Cultures are presented as hybrid-systems that socially construct solutions for existing basic problems of survival in societies that are organized in schematic frameworks of interdependent-action-strategies. Cognition and metacognition are discussed in terms of automatic- and deliberative-processes which are involved in activating one’s interdependent network of schemas in cultural metacognition. The metaphor of a large, well-stocked, organised, illuminated toolshed in the mind is used to discuss CM processes, where functionally-equivalent toolkits are mixed-and-matched to create new solutions for problems within cultures and cross-culturally.