A transformative model for culturally-informed social work and health professions education

ABSTRACT

This article introduces a curricular design that brought together faculty and members of local immigrant and oppressed groups to build, teach, and evaluate a culturally-informed social work course. Course design was grounded in multiple theories including transcultural competence theory, critical multicultural social work theory and transcultural perspective. Trauma-informed principles guided content and teaching methodologies. A culturally-informed survey was developed to measure learning outcomes and feedback was gathered from student focus groups. Survey themes indicated students benefited from learning with and from cultural stakeholders and valued the integration of cultural- and trauma-informed perspectives.

KEYWORDS:

• Culturally-informed
• trauma-informed
• curricular design
• reflectivity
• diversity

Acknowledgments

The authors wholeheartedly thank the community of diverse leaders who provided valuable insight and assisted faculty and students in developing critical consciousness in the intersection of race, ethnicity, and immigration status on healthcare.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Of approximately 5,600 full-time faculty members in social work programs in the United States as of fall 2019, 61.1% were White (non-Hispanic), 17.6% were African American/Black (non-Hispanic), and 6.8% were Hispanic/Latinx.

2. Council on Social Work Education. (2020). 2019 statistics on social work education in the United States. https://www.cswe.org/Research-Statistics/Research-Briefs-and-Publications/2019-Annual-Statistics-on-Social-Work-Education