"Lessons learned: Integrating cultural diversity in the social work curriculum"

Jeanne Saunders, Salome Raheim, Yvonne Farley

Assistant Professor

University of Iowa School of Social Work

308 North Hall

Iowa City, IA  52242

319.335.1276 (office)

319.335.1711 (fax)

jeanne-saunders@uiowa.edu

Abstract:

Building a culturally competent social work curriculum requires both vision and commitment. The evolution of both of these is described for one midwest School of Social Work.  Lessons learned from an assessment of this process and implications for pedagogy will be discussed.   

Description:

Lessons learned: Integrating cultural diversity in the social work curriculum

As the realities of living in a global society become increasingly evident in our daily lives, it becomes equally evident that social work educators must build their cultural competence if they are to effectively meet the needs of students in this new environment.  This is a challenging task because of the wide variety of diverse populations, the complexity of the issues and the varying levels of knowledge and skills students bring to the program.  An additional challenge is facilitating the organizational cultural change necessary within a school of social work to support and reinforce changes made by faculty and students.

This presentation will describe the evolution of building a culturally competent curriculum that took place within one Midwest school of social work as it responded to these challenges over the last decade.  These efforts toward increased cultural competence for faculty and students included a diversity focused curriculum model that was developed for integration into the BSW and MSW programs, which will also be presented.  The process used to implement this model is assessed within the framework of organizational change models suggested by Brager and Holloway (1978) and Schein (Schein, 1992).  Lessons learned from this assessment and implications for pedagogy will also be presented.   

Initially recognizing a need to increase their cultural competence, a Diversity Committee was organized to provide leadership and coordination for diversity education activities.  Later, the social work faculty planned a monthly educational seminar on diversity issues.  Realizing these efforts were not adequately meeting the needs of faculty or their students, the Diversity Committee proposed a four point plan for formally and systematically incorporating learning about diverse groups into the curriculum.  The plan was based upon a review of the literature that collectively suggested many strategies but offered few formal models.  The plan included integrating immersion experiences for faculty and students, the development of formal networking and mentor relationships with individuals from diverse groups, systematic integration of content into core courses and a formal evaluation plan. 

This plan provided the mechanisms necessary to incorporate vertical and horizontal integration of cultural diversity material into the curriculum, allowed for individuation for students and faculty and created a foundation to systematically focus on many diverse groups.  However, this proposal would have also required significant adaptation to the organizational climate of the school.  Faculty questioned the need for such a formal change in the curriculum that would require considerable time on their part to revise course content centered around prescribed themes and were uncomfortable with a perceived loss of academic freedom to develop course material. 

Using the organizational change models to critique the implementation plan offers a basis for understanding potential difficulties for implementing such a plan even though a commitment to increasing cultural competence is supported by the faculty.   The critique also suggests steps that are critical to successfully change the environment of schools of social work to meet the educational needs of faculty and students in the area of cultural competence.    

Jeanne Saunders, PhD, MSSW, LISW, Assistant Professor, University of Iowa School of Social Work

Salome Raheim, PhD, MSW, ACSW, Director and Associate Professor, University of Iowa School of Social Work

Yvonne Farley, MSW, LISW, Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Iowa School of Social Work, Des Moines Education Center