March 2019 Educator | Resource
The Center for Diversity and Social & Economic Justice Educator|Resource is a monthly feature that highlights curricular resources and social work educators that address diversity and justice.
Rethinking Practice With Multicultural Communities: Implications for Social Work Education
This month’s Educator|Resource invites us to rethink the way we teach practice with multicultural communities. Research shows that racial and ethnic minority clients are generally dissatisfied with the way they are treated, and providers do not feel fully prepared to work with diverse groups. This resource offers tangible, research-based approaches to engaging with multicultural clients and presents a critical assessment of barriers and challenges posed by current models of social work practice. The resource is from a newly released special issue organized by the Diversity Center for the Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work.
Teaching Resources
Rethinking practice with multicultural communities [Full Article]
State of the art in multicultural social work practice [Abstract]
A culturally informed autism intervention for Latino parents [Abstract]
Culturally relevant couple relationship education for African Americans [Abstract]
Cultural adaptations in PTSD interventions for refugees [Abstract]
Kin networks in mental health care of African Americans with mental illness [Abstract]
A culturally-grounded biopsychosocial assessment with the Cowichan Tribes [Abstract]
Experiences of South Asian providers involved in culturally congruent care [Abstract]
About the Educators:
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Dr. Yolanda C. Padilla is the director of the CSWE Center for Diversity and Social & Economic Justice and the Clara Pope Willoughby Centennial Professor in Child Welfare at the University of Texas at Austin Steve Hicks School of Social Work. Her expertise is in social inequality and multicultural practice. |
| Dr. Ruth McRoy is the Donahue and DiFelice Endowed Professor and a co-founding director of the Research and Innovations in Social, Economic, and Environmental Equity (RISE) at the Boston College School of Social Work. She is an expert in racial disproportionality in child welfare. | |
| Dr. Rocío Calvo is Associate Professor and founding director of the Latinx Leadership Initiative at the Boston College School of Social Work. Her work focuses on the role of public services in the integration of immigrants and their children and factors affecting the life satisfaction of immigrants. |
Educator Q&A
What are the implications of new approaches to practice with multicultural communities for the way we teach cultural competence?
New research on social work practice with multicultural communities suggests that we need to reevaluate how we teach cultural competence. We often minoritize cultural communities by defining them by the marginalization they are facing and by making the treatment they receive from others part of their social identity. There is no question that we need to address the social injustices that some communities face (and communities include that in their own stories), but we need to avoid what often happens, which is that we let it fully eclipse the cultural richness of these communities—the totality of their life experience, their beliefs, social norms, and institutions. Read the Full Q&A.
The view expressed in the Educator|Resource Q&A are those of the educator [or educators] and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Council on Social Work Education.