Teaching Note—Learning About Segregation and Cultural Competence

ABSTRACT

The Council on Social Work Education requires students to understand how diversity and difference shape human experience. But segregation prevents students from appreciating the circumstances of others’ lives and how widely human experience differs by race, religion, and other social identities. This teaching note presents the Social Contact Survey, a pedagogical tool designed to help students understand their level of segregation, its effect on their daily lives, and its relationship to social work practice. Aversive racism and intergroup contact theories suggest a relationship between segregation and prejudice and frame the survey. Following a review of the literature and theory, the survey instrument and pedagogical suggestions are provided.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nancy Rodenborg

Nancy Rodenborg is professor of social work at Augsburg University.

Adrienne Dessel

Adrienne Dessel (deceased) was most recently with the Program on Intergroup Relations at University of Michigan.