A skillset and a stance: Program planning for cultural competence and cultural humility in home visitation

Cultural competence has long been valued in home visitation, with a special focus on adapting home visiting programs to maximize their effects on specific cultures and populations. Critics advocate that traditional cultural competence training focusing on individual, professional skills-building should be replaced by cultural humility approaches that focus on humble engagement of participants. Little is known about how home visiting programs serving broadly diverse populations experience cultural competence and/or cultural humility efforts and initiatives on the ground. Interviews approximately 90−120 min in length were conducted with 34 home visiting program administrators in a large Midwestern state. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, coded thematically, and subjected to content analysis. Two themes were identified from interviews. Respondents emphasized that: 1) cultural competency training was required by home visiting program models, so cultural competency questions were always addressed in home visitation, especially in training for new home visitors; and 2) cultural competence also included many aspects of cultural humility, commitment to continuous self-evaluation and self-reflection on cultural encounters that identified cultural knowledge gaps and sought more information. Respondents did not see cultural competency and cultural humility as oppositional and saw both concepts as important for engaging participants in home visitation.     

Cultural Competency and Achieving Styles in Clinical Social Work

Abstract

This paper attempts to build a cultural competency framework by reviewing the literature and laying a conceptual foundation for professional standards in clinical social work. It also explores the implications of cultural competency by relating some important factors to clinical decisions, alliance, and outcome in the mental health field. The pathways and directions of the relationships as well as the potential factors affecting cross-cultural clinical alliance are illuminated in a general model to guide hypothesis formulation in further research. Empirical data are presented on clinical social work practice with Asian American clients in light of a key factor in shaping cultural competency, i.e., clinicians' personal achieving styles. The findings suggest that such styles are culturally bound.     

Toward a Cultural Competence Measure for Social Work with Specific Populations

Abstract

The notion that cultural competence is crucial to sound social work practice is widely accepted in the profession. However, there exists a gap between the achievement of the goal of developing culturally competent practitioners through social work education and the ability to measure such competence. A second gap exists between education and the providing of culturally appropriate services in everyday practice. These gaps are likely due to (1) the broad terms used to define cultural competence, (2) the slow evolution of instrumentation to measure cultural competence, and (3) the lack of culture-specific training and measurement techniques. This paper assesses the need for further refinement of the concept and suggests a new approach for the development of instruments to measure it. The authors provide an overview of the construct of cultural competence, analyze the conceptual and empirical foundations of four well-known measures, and provide a rationale forthe development of culture-Specific instruments.     

Disability Culture and Cultural Competency in Social Work

Despite recognition of the importance of cultural and social diversity in social work education and practice there is a dearth of social work literature related to disability culture. A review of disability studies literature indicates that the disabled people's movement already affirms and celebrates the existence of disability culture as characterized by several agreed upon assumptions: disability culture is cross-cultural; it emerged out of a disability arts movement and its positive portrayal of disabled people; it is not just a shared experience of oppression but includes art, humour, history, evolving language and beliefs, values and strategies for surviving and thriving. Essentialist concepts of culture, as represented in assimilationist and pluralist social work approaches, provide social workers with the false belief that there are cultural competencies that one can develop that are sufficient to become more culturally sensitive. However, analysis of the critical theory underpinning disability culture demonstrates that an understanding of cultural politics is fundamental to social work education if it is to support the work of the disabled people's movement in demystifying and deconstructing the norms, discourses and practices of dominant culture which are represented as neutral and universal.     

Cultural history analysis and professional humility: historical context and social work practice

This article explores the importance of history context to the cultural humility of the social work profession. Four graduate student reflections on history context using simplified cultural history method are used to illustrate how important it is to take a critical approach to social work policy and macro practice history. An important element of cultural humility is becoming conscious of social work blind spots on an interpersonal and professional level. Social workers have been involved in institutional practices in the past that are now considered insensitive to cultural difference. The profession has, at times, supported practices of discrimination. Thoughtful history analysis allows social work students and educators to begin to reveal blindness in the past that could help provide insight into current implicit bias and unintentional injustice.     

Embedding Cultural Literacy in Higher Education: a new approach*

Higher Education institutions face specific challenges preparing graduates to live and work in transdisciplinary and transcultural environments. It is imperative for these institutions to provide their students with the skill sets that will give them the mobility and flexibility to be able to operate efficiently in different cultural and professional contexts. This position paper proposes that developing proficiency in Cultural Literacy will allow graduates of Higher Education institutions to transcend such cultural and disciplinary boundaries. In this paper we define Cultural Literacy in Higher Education as a modus operandi and a threshold concept, following Meyer and Land’s understanding of the term. We also propose ‘Destabilisation’ and ‘Reflection’ as two strategies for teaching Cultural Literacy, and examine three case studies where these strategies were successfully embedded into teaching and learning spaces.     

Learning from the Research Process: Discussing Sensitive Topics as a Cultural Outsider

This paper explores the sensitivities and cultural complexities of engaging in research about substance use with a Sikh Punjabi community in England, from the perspective of cultural outsiders. The objective of the research was to explore the feasibility of developing a Community Alcohol Support Package (CASP) within the community, where existing alcohol service provision was felt to be limited, using ethnographic research methods. Tensions between a strict religious prohibition against drinking and a cultural acceptance of a heavy drinking culture created the conditions for the research and its particular challenges. This paper reports on the process of conducting the research and the transferable lessons for social work teaching and practice. Two key methodological challenges are highlighted together with reflections on how they were addressed: first, the problem of engagement and negotiating access to the community in focus; second, the challenge for outsiders of tuning into the socio-political context of the community and the power dynamics within it. Overcoming these challenges required high levels of sensitivity to the concerns of the community, while maintaining research integrity, and demonstrable openness and honesty in the course of developing research relationships. The lessons for social work education and practice are discussed.     

Getting to Know the Piece of Fluff in Our Ears: Expanding Practitioners' Cultural Self-Awareness

Israel being a multicultural society with a variety of ethnic groups, the delivery of culturally competent services is a crucial issue in social work practice. This paper describes the outcomes of a training model for cultural competence applied with social work graduate students in Israel. The model, based on work with immigrants' narratives, increased the cultural self-awareness of the trainees. Presented are conceptual and technical aspects of the training model as well as outcomes of an evaluation study. Fifty-one trainees submitted a short account of their personal experiences following the training. The reports indicated expansion in the trainees' cultural self-awareness: awareness of their own and their families' immigration experiences as well as of other transitions in their lives. Training elements that made this outcome possible are discussed.     

Critical social work and competency practice: a proposal to bridge theory and practice in the classroom

Social work education in North America is increasingly focused on competency criteria and micro skills training for future practitioners. Market forces are transforming the nature of social work practice in Canada, and social work regulators are concerned about the lack of evidence-based competencies in social work education. Since the Controlled Act of Psychotherapy was proclaimed in 2017, social work practitioners are in a position to offer psychotherapy services; as a result, universities are under greater pressure to shift to competency-based learning that meets the requirements of a regulated profession. This has raised concerns about the narrowing focus on critical social work theory in preparing students for practice. The divergence between anti-oppressive and direct practice schools is widening with the result that many students have difficulty bridging the gap between critical theory and competency-based practice. This paper attempts to integrate both traditions by offering students a course that directly links critical analysis of structural barriers and client centered interventions. The course is part of a developing critical competency curriculum that focuses on methods of facilitating empowerment and change in the helping process by articulating key relational components between service user and practitioner from a critical-competency perspective.     

Forget Cultural Competence; Ask for an Autobiography

Recent management practices seek to standardize and routinize practice through formulaic assessment processes and casework to ensure risk minimization and cost effectiveness. Such pressures have become entrenched in social work practice in Australia and other economically developed societies. Under such regimes cultural competence is rendered as expert knowledge about the other to be acquired and applied in ways to ensure maximum efficiency. But working effectively across racial and cultural differences demands critical reflection on one's own position and the complex interactions between different aspects of identity. While some versions of cultural competence incorporate the need to examine our own values and behaviours, the paper argues that rather than focusing on knowledge of differences, social workers should concentrate on critically listening to our clients' autobiographies to reveal over time what aspects of their social and cultural lives matter to them. The paper reviews findings from teaching Australian social work undergraduate and graduate students engaging with these challenges with particular reference to working effectively with Indigenous people.     

How social workers reflect in action and when and why they don’t: the possibilities and limits to reflective practice in social work

The need for professionals to use reflection to learn about and develop their practice is now a universally stated goal. In social work however there has been little research into whether and how reflection in action actually occurs and this paper explores the possibilities and limits to reflective practice by drawing on research that observed encounters between social workers and children and families as the work was being conducted in real time. The findings show that practitioners often do reflect in action by elevating their minds above the interactions they are having so that they can think critically about and adjust what they are doing. But there are times when reflection is either limited or non-existent because practitioners defend themselves against the sensory and emotional impact of the work and the high anxiety they are experiencing. Drawing on psychoanalysis and social theories of the body and senses, the paper argues for a revision of the concept of reflective practice to take account of how the self is defended. The limits to reflection must be fully recognised while seeking ways to develop the capacity of practitioners to think clearly and critically so that vital insights about service users and the helping process can occur.     

Cultural Issues in South African EAPs

Cultural identity is at the core of the current sociopolitical changes taking place in South Africa. Similarly, EAP practice is fraught with obstacles that are culturally based, involve language barriers, traditional versus contemporary medicine, and even the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. This articlc examines some of he cultural concerns facing black and white EAP practitioners and clients alike.     

Using an Anti-racist Framework for Assessment and Intervention in Clinical Practice with Families from Diverse Ethno-racial backgrounds

Cultural competency and cultural sensitivity are now widely considered to be essential for clinical social work practice with individuals and families from diverse cultural, racial, and ethnic backgrounds. Failing to incorporate these concepts into clinical services can be harmful to clients, can fail to meet the needs of members of diverse ethnoracial communities, and can result in inappropriate services. Yet a sole focus on culture can obliterate our understanding of the consequences of race and racism on individuals and families. The use of a discursive anti-racist framework for assessment and intervention in practice with members of diverse ethnoracial communities is suggested and explained through the use of a case example.     

Guattari,Deleuze, and Cultural Studies

This essay maps the changing ways that the concepts and writings of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari have been mobilized in the journal Cultural Studies over the past three decades, reflects on roads not taken, and invites readers into a new conversation about the implications of the work of Deleuze and Guattari for cultural studies.     

Social work educators’ perceived barriers to teaching with technology: the impact on preparing students to work with younger clients

ABSTRACT

The educational needs of current social work students have transitioned in time from fully face-to-face to hybrid and for some, to fully online instruction. This helps to address students’ need to save time and money, as well as it assists the higher education institutions to provide easier and more efficient access to education. The use of technology in educational instruction has a positive impact on the future social workers who have to address the needs of technologically savvy younger clients. This is due to parallels related to the access and the use of technology, communication preferences, and the wide use of social media platforms. A quantitative non-experimental research design was employed in this research study. Non-parametric statistics were employed. A Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the perceptions of barriers/challenges to eLearning among US and Spanish social work educators. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to find the differences in the perceptions of barriers/challenges to eLearning across different group characteristics such as age, academic position, and experience teaching online and hybrid courses. There are six main barriers/challenges identified in this article. When not addressed, these barriers could have a negative impact on social work students’ readiness to use technology in their future social work practice.     

Service Delivery Models for Social Work Practice: Organizing the Content of Human Behavior and Social Environment Courses

The ever-increasing breadth in the conceptual base of current social work practice requires a schema for organizing the diverse needed knowledge for use by practitioners. This paper describes five models of social work practice: social functioning or social competency; social change; medical-clinical; ecological; and learning or education. The basic commonalities and dimensions within each model are reviewed with emphasis on the varying theoretical bases from the social and behavioral sciences as well as social work; the belief systems inherent in each model; assumptions made relative to the target population, the change process, and social work roles; and the authority patterns existing within each model.     

Perceived Levels of Cultural Competence for School Social Workers: A Follow-Up Study

The purpose of this article is to report on findings from a follow-up study that examined the relationship among social work education programs, postgraduate professional development, and school social workers’ perceived levels of cultural competence in practice with urban minority youth. The initial study demonstrated that African Americans perceived a higher level of cultural competence than their Anglo American counterparts did. Findings highlight the need to understand the processes by which practitioners become culturally competent for urban school social work practice. Underscoring the importance of professional development, the authors determined that geographic location of practice may serve as a factor that influences how practitioners anticipate the need for culturally competent practice with diverse populations. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.     

Cultural processes and physical change in Sisli—Istanbul

The cultural change model introduced in this paper covers the cultural change processes and their impacts on housing systems. Cultural processes cause changes in life style learned by the agreed enculturation, acting on the formation of the opinions of the society. Culturation, acculturation, cultural shock, cultural diffusion, transculturation, cultural assimilation are other cultural processes constituting cultural change. The cultural change model for housing proposes that “housing and its close environment physically change in accordance with the cultural processes that are taking place in the related society.” Functions of cultural processes include types of formal or informal housing, urbanization, migration, stratification, life styles, selection of housing equipment, and behavior. Cultural processes have been used as tools to explain the interaction between the above socio-cultural, economic factors and housing patterns of a definite people and place in the cultural change model. A case study was applied in the Sisli–Bomonti region to obtain cultural changes. Cultural processes according to cultural change model were examined in this case study by using the existing results.     

Editorial

Social work students' responses to research tend to reflect their anxiety about the acquisition of competency in statistics and research methods. Their desires to attain social work education and subsequently become practitioners are viewed by them as at odds with research as taught. Yet, within the current quantocentric culture—which the authors define as one in which quantitative research methods are privileged over other lines of inquiry—social work education is increasingly emphasizing research as a central component of practice. Using a ‘culture as disability’ framework to understand quantocentric culture and its impact on the educational environment, we suggest an educational approach designed to interest students in a broad view of research allowing for the wholehearted inclusion of non‐quantitative and practice‐related facets of research. The approach encourages students to: (a) fully articulate their perceptions of research, both positive and negative; (b) link these views and experiences to the anti‐oppressive social work literature and to examine research methods from the perspective of quantocentrism; and (c) develop an inclusive typology of research that integrates qualitative approaches encompassing historical, philosophical, narrative and other avenues that are relevant to their future social work practice careers.