Historical and Theoretical Development of Culturally Competent Social Work Practice

Figures & data

TABLE 1 History of CSWE's Emphasis on Human Diversity

Decade	Theoretical perspective	Emphasis on diversity
1950s	Melting pot	Emphasis was on the treatment of clients' problems (Chau, 1990).
1960s	Awareness of cultural contexts	Treatment included consideration of clients' sociocultural contexts (F. D. Harper & McFadden, 2003).
1970s	Minority perspective	With political and economic turmoil, and the influence of the Civil Rights movement, voting rights, and work programs for the poor, emphasis was placed on minority perspectives. Thus, curricula included information on people of color and women (Gould, 1995; Montiel & Wong, 1983).
1980s	Cultural pluralism	Content on other vulnerable and oppressed groups became important and was also included in curricula, and importance was placed on identity development (K. V. Harper & Lantz, 1996; Torres & Jones, 1997).
1990s Forward	Respect for differences	Diversity issues encompass not only ethnic and racial issues, but also variables such as age, sex, gender, physical and mental abilities, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, and political affiliation. It is now mandated that content on human diversity be included as one of the nine core areas of study in CSWE-accredited schools of social work (CSWE, 2008).
Early 2000s	Ethnocultural framework	Social constructionist views incorporated to teach social work students.

FIGURE 1 Six stages of attaining cultural proficiency.

TABLE 2 Approaches to Develop Cultural Competence in the Counseling Profession

Approach	Proponents	Major contributions
Three-dimensional approaches	Theory of multicultural counseling and therapy (Sue, Ivey, & Pedersen, 1996)	Conceptualized as a 3 × 3 matrix with 3 dimensions of cross-cultural competencies:
		1. Counselors' awareness of their own cultural values and biases.
		2. Counselors' awareness of the client's worldview.
		3. Initiation of culturally appropriate intervention.
		These dimensions are interlinked with three major components:
		(a) Knowledge
		(b) Beliefs and attitudes
		(c) Skills
	Three-dimensional model for counseling racial/ethnic minority clients (Atkinson, Thompson, & Grant, 1993)	Counselors adopt different roles based on three client dimensions: (a) locus of problem, (b) acculturation level, and (c) goals of helping.
		Emphasis is on healing the client.
	Integrative model (Leong, 1996)	Emphasis on multidimensionality when understanding human personality is stressed. It is important to cover all levels—micro, macro, and mezzo— during treatment.
Worldview approaches	Existential worldview theory (Ibrahim, 1991)	The emphasis is on defining worldview and how understanding and knowledge of client worldviews lead to more effective, ethical, sensitive, and client-specific counseling interventions.
		Based on the grounded theory that identifies universal elements of culture and culture-specific variables; uses a cognitive, affective, and skills approach.
	Transcultural perspective (McFadden, 1996)	The generic nature of multicultural counseling does not hinder, but supports, the inherent differences within people.
		Cultural ideas between different cultures should be blended together and integrated for effective communication.
	Stress-resistant delivery model (Smith, 1985)	Importance is on understanding stress factors in clients' lives.
		Distinguish stress from prejudice and discrimination.
		Respect the differences in worldviews.
	Model of change process (Trevino, 1996)	Worldview is seen to have two levels: (a) general/abstract and (b) specific counselor-client congruence in general worldviews is desired.
Process-oriented models	Developmental model of intercultural sensitivity (Bennett, 1986)	Different cultures create and maintain worldviews using different processes.
	Perceptual schema model for cultural sensitivity (Ridley, Mendoza, Kanitz, Angermeier, & Zenk, 1994)	Use of schema theory to enhance cultural sensitivity.
	Racial identity development model (Helms, 1995)	Focus is on how people develop racial and ethnic identity.
	Multicultural assessment procedure model (Ridley, Li, & Hill, 1998)	Encourages and directs practitioners to take a scientific stance in counseling process when assessing clients' issues.
		Counselors help clients to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy expression of values and beliefs while affirming clients' worldview.
	Banks's model of development of ethnicity (Banks, 2002)	Six stages for development of ethnicity:
		1. Ethnic psychological captivity
		2. Ethnic encapsulation
		3. Ethnic identity clarification
		4. Biethnicity
		5. Multiethnicity and reflective nationalism
		6. Global competence

FIGURE 2 Psychological frameworks for understanding cultural competence.

TABLE 3 Approaches to Develop Cultural Competence in the Social Work Profession

Approach	Proponents	Major contributions
Social constructionist approach	George & Tsang (1999)	Emphasis is on social construction of diversity and difference. Intersectionality of oppressions is discussed with respect to multiple identities and the nonhierarchical nature of oppression.
	Lee & Greene (1999)	It is not possible to be experts on all diversity-related issues due to considerable intergroup diversity.
		This framework is based on the premise that people actively create and recreate their realities. Differences in views should be accepted and cultural sensitivity toward different worldviews is the key point.
Humanistic approaches	Cross-cultural approach (Goldstein, 1987)	A model of cognitive humanism that emphasizes not fixating on either/or approaches, but focusing on the ethical and humanistic dimensions when counseling clients from diverse backgrounds.
	Existential cross-cultural approach (K. V. Harper & Lantz, 1996)	Enlightened view of human diversity that is grounded in cross-cultural social work practice. Emphasis is on accepting and respecting human differences and similarities.
	Culturally transferable core (Taylor, 1999)	Social work shares some fundamental responsibilities, tasks, and principles, and thus has elements that can constitute a culturally transferable core internationally.
	Human-centric approach (Webster, 2002)	Instead of making people realize that they belong to specific groups, effort should be made for people to see their innate similarities and celebrate their differences.
Strengths approach	Saleebey (2006)	Based on Saleebey's ideas, an effort is made to mobilize the creative will of individuals as it produces the strength necessary for growth. It enables the clients to use resources and become empowered. The focus is on the strengths of clients rather than problems. Belief that positive perception of self-worth in the clinician is created through:
		1. Recognition
		2. Connection
		3. Analysis
		4. Knowledge and skills
		5. Reflection and collaboration
Empowerment approach	Guadalupe (1999)	Based on the ideas of Freire (2000) and Giroux (1992). Basic premises are:
		1. Promotion of well-being
		2. Multiple dimensions of life
		3. Consciousness raising
		4. Many ways of doing things
		5. Trust
Ethnic-sensitivity approach	Devore & Schlesinger (1999)	One's individual and collective history has an impact on understanding psychosocial problems. Social workers try to simultaneously focus their attention on the individual and systemic concerns as they emerge. Seven layers of understanding are proposed to understand problems from a holistic perspective.
Person-in-environment/ecological approach	Haynes & Singh (1992); Sowers-Hoag & Sandau-Beckler (1996)	Problems faced by clients are assessed in relation to their historical, environmental, cultural, familial, and individual levels. Interactions of individuals with their environments occur at all of these levels and any disruption results in stress. The emphasis is on educating social work students toward differences in the different ethnic/social groups.
		The ecological approach looks at the individual, familial, community, national, and global issues when finding solutions to problems.
		These theories are based on the values of justice, independence and freedom, and the importance of community life, client self-determination, and social change.
People of color approach	Lum (2000)	This is a process stage approach based on generalist practice. Four areas of competence:
		1. Personal and professional awareness of ethnicity by practitioners
		2. Knowledge of culturally diverse practice
		3. Skill development in work with culturally diverse clients
		4. Inductive learning
Cognitive sophistication approach	Latting (1990)	This perspective involves identification of “isms,” acknowledgment of own biases, and development of critical thinking skills when examining one's own and others' biases. The “isms” are social arrangements that create problems. Both intergroup contact and development of critical thinking skills have potential to uncover biases of students. Functions of bias:
		1. Socialization
		2. Psychological
		3. Cognitive social psychological
		4. Politico-economic
Coverdale approach	Plionis & Lewis (1995)	Borrowed from management consulting, it promotes individual, interpersonal, and intragroup tolerance toward inherent differences within people.
Integrated cognitive and affective learning approach	Torres & Jones (1997)	It encourages students to address the significance of their racial, ethnic, and cultural heritage and emphasizes the effects of this education and enrichment on developing ethnic-sensitive social workers. The focus is on the awareness and knowledge skill components of developing cultural competence.
		There are challenges in using this approach as it could include instructing a homogeneous group, the constraints of a single course, and a lack of systematic evaluation of the impact of a single course on students' personal lives and professional growth.

FIGURE 3 Social work frameworks for understanding cultural competence.

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