Culturally Sensitive Student Supervision

Abstract

Despite years of experience with mass immigration and cultural variability, many social workers in Israel, remain “culturally encapsulated,” following prescriptions for treatment from the dominant “Israeli” culture and downplaying, denying or rejecting the need for sensitivity. Nowhere is this more salient than in the field of social work education and supervision. The present paper focuses on the supervision of students from other cultures, specifically from Ethiopia, and supervisors from the majority culture in Israel, and explores the difficulties in the supervisory process from two approaches: one that minimizes and the other that magnifies cultural differences. Clinical examples and dilemmas are presented, and culturally sensitive ways of working through these issues are suggested. Implications for training and supervision are also discussed.

Key Words:

• Cultural sensitivity
• student supervision
• multicultural competency
• supervisory relationship
• supervisor training