Using a Group Process in the Teaching of Cultural Awareness for Students in a Multicultural Society

Abstract

Penny Anagnostou and David Cox (1988) have pointed out that there is little written in Australia about the education of social workers for working in a multicultural society.

This article describes the group process used in the Social Work department at Monash University to teach firstly, cultural awareness, and secondly, a generalised framework for practice in a cross-cultural society.

There is a brief discussion on the need for such a course, both from the viewpoint of practitioners and as a consequence of an ethnically diverse student population in the Monash course. The method of teaching was initially in small groups run during lunchtime. The course was so popular that in 1990 the sessions were moved into the fieldwork curriculum and became available to all students.

The groups discussed the impact of their own culture on themselves as social workers and the implications of their own experiences in developing a framework for cross-cultural social work in a multicultural society.