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Cultural Competency as New Racism: An Ontology of Forgetting
Abstract
This article argues that cultural competency promotes an obsolete view of culture and is a form of new racism. Cultural competency resembles new racism both by otherizing non-whites and by deploying modernist and absolutist views of culture while not using racialist language. Drawing on child welfare, cultural competence is shown to repeat what Lowe (1993) calls an ontology of forgetting Canada's history of colonialism and racism. A recommendation is made for jettisoning cultural competency and emphasizing instead a self-reflexive grappling with racism and colonialism.
... For decades, cultural competence, described as the ability of individuals, professions, and organizations to learn about the different cultures' values and distinctions to work effectively in culturally diverse environments and situations (Shen, 2015), was used to educate healthcare professionals to serve individuals from diverse backgrounds. However, cultural competence and other theories focusing on culturally congruent care have not decreased healthcare inequity or disparity that disproportionately affects Black and Brown populations (Iheduru-Anderson & Wahi, 2022;Pon, 2009;Williams et al., 2019). Critics of cultural competence and multicultural education concur that they do not address the underlying systems of operation (power dynamics and perceiving non-whites as "other") and further validate the assumed inferiority of the marginalized group (Bell, 2020;Garneau et al., 2018;Pon, 2009). ...
... However, cultural competence and other theories focusing on culturally congruent care have not decreased healthcare inequity or disparity that disproportionately affects Black and Brown populations (Iheduru-Anderson & Wahi, 2022;Pon, 2009;Williams et al., 2019). Critics of cultural competence and multicultural education concur that they do not address the underlying systems of operation (power dynamics and perceiving non-whites as "other") and further validate the assumed inferiority of the marginalized group (Bell, 2020;Garneau et al., 2018;Pon, 2009). Learning about cultural differences is not enough to transform human relations constructed in the context of power or eliminate racial discrimination and inequities (Allen et al., 2013;Iheduru-Anderson & Wahi, 2020). ...
... Nurse educators must reorient nursing pedagogy away from the discourses of individualism, multiculturalism, and color-blindness toward an explicit engagement with addressing institutional racism, anti-Black racism, and health inequities. Power-based frameworks such as antiracist pedagogy grounded in Critical Theory focus on sources of oppression rather than merely the symptoms are suggested as alternative pedagogy for nurse educators (Bell, 2020;Hilario et al., 2018;Iheduru-Anderson & Wahi, 2022;Pon, 2009) Path to Achieve Health Equity (National Academy of Sciences, 2021) report asserts that social justice and health equity are top priorities for nursing and call for nurses to act and support the development of structural competence to address racism in education, policy, and practice. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is two-fold. ...
In the profession of nursing, whiteness continues to be deeply rooted because of the uncritical recognition of the white racial domination evident within the ranks of nursing leadership. White privilege is exerted in its ascendency and policy‐making within the nursing discipline and in the Eurocentric agenda that commands nursing pedagogy. While attention to antiracism has recently increased, antiracism pedagogy in nursing education is nascent. Pedagogical approaches in the nursing profession are essential. Because it encompasses the strategies used to transmit the science in how nurses practice and teach, which has predominantly been informed using a Eurocentric lens. This paper presents a literature review on antiracist pedagogy in nursing education, discussing how nurse educators can integrate antiracism pedagogy in nursing education, highlighting examples presented by the authors. Key terms related to antiracism are reviewed. The resultant themes from the literature review include resistance to antiracist pedagogy, managing emotional responses, and supporting transformative learning using an antiracist approach. The primary implementation of Eurocentric pedagogical approaches whiteness pervasive in nursing education must be uprooted. Antiracist and other antioppressive learning approaches must be embraced to understand the insidiousness of racial inequities and its power in sustaining structural oppression in nursing academia.
... Over the past few years, I have noticed several pedagogical tensions in using cultural competence training models to prepare counselors to address issues of race and racism and other forms of oppression on both a macro-and microlevel. First, cultural competency training models decenter race as a central mechanism of oppression, preferring to instead focus more broadly on many categories of social differences, intersectional identities, and forms of oppression (Pon, 2009). Although I find it important to talk about race at the intersections of other identities (Haskins & Singh, 2015), it is also vital to explore racism (and race) directly and deeply. ...
... They find a culturally competent, also known as multicultural competence, approach more comfortable (and fair) because it avoids a hierarchy of oppressions and excuses them from critically examining their privilege (and others' oppression). Pon (2009) asserted that cultural competence constructs knowledge about cultural "others" in a way that does not challenge helping professionals' sense of innocence and benevolence. ...
... The lack of attention to power or systems of oppression also means that cultural competency discourses seldom include an analysis of Whiteness or dominance. Specifically, cultural competence models can focus on practitioners learning about the other and making practitioners more comfortable with nondominant groups (Pon, 2009;Yee, 2005). ...
This self‐study examined the challenges experienced by three Black counselor educators when implementing antiracist pedagogy into their classrooms. Two themes emerged: White gaze in counselor education and marked as an outsider within. Counselor educators should engage in continuous self‐reflexivity and positionality while integrating and valuing Black perspectives in counselor education.
... Canada has used the child welfare system to push a "white vision of welfare" (Thobani, 2007, p. 110) by pathologizing racialized women as "bad mothers" and exalting the White women entrusted with providing care for their children (Thobani, 2007). Pon (2009) views the concept of cultural competency as a continuation of this exaltation, in which the normative culture of Whiteness is still the standard by which other now-cultures are constructed. ...
... Cultural competency is argued to invoke racism "without actually using the word race" (Pon, 2009, p. 61). Pon (2009) further argues that cultural competency is a racist concept because cultural difference rather than race is focused on as the source of potential problems in social work practice. ...
... The premise of cultural competency in child welfare -that (White) people can develop competencies which allow them to overcome differences created by culture (see Nash & Flynn, 2016; see also OACAS, 2018)neglects the significance of race. Cultural competency is incompatible with anti-racist practice because it ignores the power and privilege associated with Whiteness under White supremacy and is thus based on an assumption of White "innocence" (Dei, 2013;Pon, 2009;Thobani, 2007) or race neutrality. Child welfare's investment in cultural competency is seen as representing resistance to examining White supremacy in Canada and resistance to examining the violent, colonial process by which White women have come to be exalted -and thus a commitment to notions of White "innocence" (Dei, 2013;Pon, 2009;Thobani, 2007). ...
This article reports on narrative interviews conducted as part of the Rights for Children and Youth Partnership Project exploring the experiences of 25 Black Caribbean youth (ages 16–26) who have navigated the child protection system in Ontario, Canada. An introduction to transracial fostering in Ontario is provided, and participants’ reflections on the significance of caregivers’ race in their experiences of out-of-home care are presented. Critical Race Theory and Anti-Black Racism are used as theoretical frameworks to guide the discussion. Themes discussed include adapting to White environments and community visibility; appropriate haircare, skincare, and food in placements; navigating Whiteness and anti-Black racism; and sense of connection with caregivers.
... However, there are limitations in a multicultural approach. Considering cultural competence without adhering to the concepts of power, whiteness, and oppression promotes the idea of cultural "others" (Pon, 2009), which is antithetical to anti-racism. Specifically, multiculturalism falls short in recognizing and critiquing racism (Berman & Paradies, 2008), resulting in a broad promotion of diversity and pluralism that arguably sustain forms of color-blindness (Kubuta, 2016). ...
... Our findings also expand on limitations in the existing literature. As noted, scholars have critiqued multicultural and social justice approaches, which are deficient in providing specific guidance addressing race-related oppression (Kubota, 2016;Pon, 2009); thus this study fills a gap in research providing practical guidance on anti-racist school counseling. The competencies identified in the current study can help address racial inequities replete in the school context (see LaFortte & DeMarco, 2020). ...
The current sociopolitical climate of the United States has heightened awareness around the need for school counselors to engage in anti-racist practices in order to address racism within schools; however, there is a lack of guidance around anti-racist counseling competency. The purpose of this Delphi research study was to develop an initial list of empirically based anti-racist school counseling competencies to support school counseling professionals. An expert panel of school counselors, directors, and counselor educators reached a consensus on 180 items across 5 categories including specific aspects of awareness, attitudes, knowledge, characteristics, and behaviors needed to dismantle racism and promote equity in schools. Considerations for school counselors, supervisors, and counselor educators are discussed.
... The findings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) was a prime motivator for its introduction. Significantly, however, such training has also inevitably been influenced by the development and design of cultural competency instruction in North America, and in other countries where colonialism was, and remains, a crucial factor dictating on-going relationships between Indigenous and Settler communities including in parts of Africa and South America (see for example : Dean, 2001;Pon, 2009;Almeida et al., 2011;and Muaygil, 2018 among others). In the United States, cultural training emerged primarily within the welfare, health and education sectors among dominant society professionals working with African American clients (Dean, 2001). ...
... Over the past 10 years or so, analyses have looked at the inadequacies of cultural competency or cross-cultural competence training in the health and social work sectors, which are designed to understand cultural difference in order to facilitate better, more productive relationships with clients. Rather than providing an avenue of genuine empathy with the culture of the 'other', some have argued that such training has actually become a form of 'new racism' by othering non-whites and perpetuating stereotypes by promoting absolutism (e.g., Dean, 2001;Pon, 2009;Almeida et al., 2011;Hollinsworth, 2013). Most significantly, Pon contends in relation to social work settings, cultural competency "seldom analyses the role of whiteness" (Pon 2009, p. 59). ...
The 15 th April 2016 marked the 25-year anniversary since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) in Australia handed down its Final Report. The report signified a landmark in the relationships between Indigenous Australians and the post-colonial State and Federal governments. Established by the Hawke Labor Government in 1987, the Commission examined 99 Indigenous deaths. Most significant was the finding that the deaths were due to the combination of police and prisons failing their duty of care, and the high numbers of Indigenous people being arrested and incarcerated. In the wake of the RCIADIC, cross-cultural sessions and cultural competency workshops have become ubiquitous for public servants, therapists, and legal and welfare employees, in attempts to bridge gaps in cultural knowledge between agents of the welfare state and Indigenous clients. Using Indigenous Knowledges theory, this chapter assesses how cultural misalignments between Indigenous clients and those who work with them in the name of therapies designed to improve Indigenous lives, dominate cross-cultural interactions. In so doing the questions are posed: how do good intentions become part of the discourses and practices of on-going colonialism for Indigenous Australians, and what can be done to change the balance of power in favour of therapies of relevance to Indigenous people?
... While these and other culturally responsive evaluation approaches advance important work, the evaluators implementing these approaches are still impacted by the broader sociopolitical context that created the need for these approaches in the fi rst place (Cloete & Auriacombe, 2019). Th e point here is that evaluation, including its history, is bound up in larger social discourses and systems, including systems of oppression (i.e., racism and colonialism) ( Pon, 2009 ;Th omas et al., 2018 ). Th us, the implementation of evaluation approaches that are responsive to culture does not preclude how the legacy of evaluation and systems of oppression still impact current day-to-day evaluation practice. ...
... Mignolo (2014 ) elaborates on this point, stating that the theories and methods of social science are informed by a range of histories, discourses, and interests (i.e., local, national, religious). Given the cultural specifi city of theories and methods, they need to be interrogated with close attention to the historical events and systems of power (i.e., racism, colonialism, sexism, ageism) that shape evaluation practice ( AEA, 2020 ;Pon, 2009 ). ...
Cultural competence is a complex and contested notion. Yet, cultural competence remains integral to working with difference in the context of evaluation practice. Given its status in evaluation practice, the field’s commitment to cultural competence prompts the need for further interrogation and reconsideration. Accordingly, this paper explores the establishment and conceptualization of cultural competence. Potential challenges to cultural competence are also examined. In consideration of these challenges, an alternative framework is offered based on the philosophy of Emanuel Levinas. This work aims to support the evaluation community’s ability to work with cultural diversity, a vital aspect of evaluation practice.
... Since the concept holds privileged status, it draws critiques within scholarly circles (Fisher-Borne et al., 2015;Sawyer, 2021;Wagner, 1990). Its myriad meanings, ambiguity, perceived reinforcement of institutionalized racism, acceptance of equalized oppressions, colonialist epistemology, and paradoxical value base draw criticism across disciplines (Harrison & Turner, 2011;Johnson & Munch, 2009;Pon, 2009). ...
... They point to western language, thought patterns, and meaning systems as privileging dominant epistemologies and meaning making (Furlong & Wright, 2011;Johnson & Munch, 2009). Pon (2009) boldly argues that its use has promoted a new form racism institutionalized in our professional values, language, and professional practices through "the otherizing of non-whites" (p. 59). ...
Cultural competence and cultural humility dominate discourses on practice across difference within social work and other helping professions. Despite their prominence, they remain contested constructs, thoroughly critiqued within the literature, and fall short in providing guidelines for intersectional practice across myriad differences. This article analyzes challenges inherent in approaches to preparing social work students for practice across difference in diverse settings and introduces a methodology for teaching difference practice grounded in applied social science paradigms: Traditional/Rational, Interpretive/Experiential, and Critical/Radical. Rooted in analysis of deeply embedded assumptions relative to history, values, reality, and knowledge development, it serves as a clarifying tool for learning, selecting, and developing practice approaches based on context.
... Cultural competence has been seen as a valuable way to address some of the tensions and challenges of working with racially and culturally diverse populations. However, cultural competence is not attainable as culture is not stagnant but ever-changing (Danso, 2015;Pon, 2009;Sakamoto, 2007). Becoming competent at another person's lived experience is an unrealistic goal, but affinity with is a target. ...
... Most of us live in more than one cultural setting, and therefore, how we perceive, experience, and engage with the world around us often needs to be understood through the lens of one or more cultures (Atteberry-Ash et al., 2019;Truong et al., 2014). Reflecting the need for concepts that reflect the dynamism and fluidity of identity and the need for a critical decolonising perspective, many activists and academics have suggested the concepts of cultural humility and cultural responsiveness (Danso, 2018;Pon, 2009;Sakamoto, 2007). The term competence implies a set of knowledge and skills that can be achieved and mastered (Bennett & Gates, 2019;. ...
COVID-19 has shifted social work education and widened the gaps in services for historically marginalised communities, including people of diverse cultural, sexual and gender identities and social classes. Existing inequities based on cultural differences have been magnified, perhaps most recently evident in George Floyd’s slaying and the subsequent #BlackLivesMatter demonstrations across the globe. Learning to be an ally for diverse communities and working towards the betterment of all people is a goal of social work education. We argue that simple allyship is not enough given the structural inequities present in North America and Australia the civil unrest amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Social work education’s focus should trend towards allegiance with disadvantaged communities or critical allyship and include a commitment to undertake decisive actions to redress the entrenched colonial, capitalist, systemic and structural inequities that oppress many and provide unearned privilege and advantage to others. We explore strategies used in classrooms to promote allegiance and make recommendations for social work education, policy, and practice in this time of change.
... Relational approaches are elements ranging from learning to understand the self and others, being self critical and reflective, looking out for one's biases, and being culturally humble on a quotidian and ongoing basis. Pon (2009) argued that cultural competency promotes an obsolete view of culture and is a form of new racism. Cultural competency resembles new racism both by otherizing non-whites and by deploying modernist and absolutist views of culture while not using racialist language. ...
... In this way, the newcomer is socially constructed as being different from Canadians and belonging outside of the nation-state. According to this logic, the newcomer and the Canadian culture are mutually exclusive and binary categories (Pon, 2009). ...
In this qualitative, single case study, I focused on international graduate students enrolled in a higher education institution in Western Canada to explore their perspectives and experiences on intercultural capacities and responsiveness in higher education contexts. The participants were international graduate students who had been in a Canadian higher education institution for a minimum of one year. Through semi-structured interviews with six international graduate students, document analysis, and a reflective journal, I explored their perspectives and experiences on intercultural capacities and responsiveness in higher education contexts. I sought to understand international graduate students' experiences, including inclusive integration, alienation, and/or isolation, when transitioning into their new academic environment, given their unique socio-cultural backgrounds and learning needs. I examined the responsiveness of higher education institutions to the needs of international graduate students by drawing on intercultural capacities of both the international graduate students and the higher education institution. As an international graduate student myself, I was a researcher-participant in this study. Together, participants and I interpreted and shared our perspectives and experiences through dialogue. The interaction focused on what intercultural capacities meant to them, their significant learning experiences, their intercultural perspectives as international graduate students, and how the higher education institution supported them in adjusting to their new academic environment.
... Examples of new, covert and overt racism were discussed by several participants. New racism is the covert and nuanced ways that people are discriminated against, where the focus is placed on culture, rather than race (Pon, 2009). An example given by one participant of new racism occurring within the hospital setting is provided below: ...
This article explores how Australian social workers who work with people resettling interpret Whiteness operating within organisational practices and contexts. Eight White Tasmanian social workers participated in a multimethod qualitative study informed by relationality and a dialogical framework. The research data were analysed using narrative analysis. Participants reported that Whiteness operated through workplace climate, culture and practices, and how physical spaces are constructed. Whilst the majority reported feeling discomfort about these contexts and practices, many had not spoken up or challenged Whiteness within organisations, affirming and perpetuating Whiteness. This research highlights the importance of social workers becoming actively involved in decision-making that explores alternatives to dominant approaches to refugee resettlement. Given the research suggests that knowing about Whiteness does not guarantee action, social workers also need to explore strategies for ensuring that they speak up to challenge Whiteness. However, service delivery models which are refugee-led and/or refugee-staffed organisations, or who utilise accountability practices are alternatives requiring more attention.
... The foundation of cultural safety is that it depends on people, including patients, from non-dominant cultures engaging in equal partnerships in clinical practice, to protect their cultural identity and well-being [10]. Perceptions of patients and communities are pivotal in cultural safety, distinguishing it from cultural sensitivity and cultural competence which are usually criteria set from within the dominant culture [11,12]. ...
Background
Cultural safety training is not yet standard in Colombian medical education. If incorporated, it could address currently adversarial interactions between health professionals and the 40% of people who use traditional medicine practices. In 2019, a randomised controlled trial tested the impact of cultural safety training for medical students using participatory serious game design. The quantitative evaluation showed improved cultural safety intentions of Colombian medical trainees. We report here a qualitative evaluation of the most significant change perceived by trial participants.
Methods
This qualitative descriptive study used the most significant change technique. We invited the trial participants engaged in clinical settings to describe stories of change in their supervised clinical practice that they attributed to the intervention. Using a deductive thematic analysis based on a modified theory of planned behaviour, two independent reviewers coded the stories and, by consensus, created themes and sub-themes.
Results
From 27 stories of change, we identified seven themes and 15 subthemes: (a) Conscious knowledge: benefits of cultural safety training, consequences of culturally unsafe behaviour, cultural diversity and cultural practices; (b) Attitudes: respect and appreciation for cultural diversity, openness, and self-awareness; (c) Subjective norms: positive perception of cultural practices and less ethnocentrism; (d) Intention to Change; (e) Agency to accept cultural diversity and to prevent culturally unsafe actions; (f) Discussion; and (g) Action: better communication and relationship with patients and peers, improved outcomes for patients, physicians, and society, investigation about cultural health practices, and efforts to integrate modern medicine and cultural health practices.
Conclusion
The narratives illustrated the transformative impact of cultural safety training on a results chain from conscious knowledge through to action. Our results encourage medical educators to report other cultural safety training experiences, ideally using patient-related outcomes or direct observation of medical trainees in clinical practice.
Trial registration
Registered on ISRCTN registry on 18/07/2019. Registration number: ISRCTN14261595.
... Importantly, racism is also erased from the Policy. While the text includes racism under the notion of discrimination, this is never situated as structural, institutional or systemic despite the broad body of literature on the topic (Acevedo- Garcia et al., 2012;Bailey et al., 2017;Birmingham, 1999;Ford & Airhihenbuwa, 2010;Gee & Ford, 2011;Holmes, 2006Holmes, , 2017Morey et al., 2018;Pon, 2009;Powell, 2008;Viruell-Fuentes et al., 2012). In its place, racism is conceived of as only interpersonal and intrapersonal. ...
This is an Author’s Original Manuscript (AOM) of an article published by Taylor & Francis in
Global Public Health on 11-08-2022, available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17441692.2022.2111452
... Importantly, racism is also erased from the Policy. While the text includes racism under the notion of discrimination, this is never situated as structural, institutional, or systemic despite the broad body of literature on the topic (Acevedo- García et al., 2012;Bailey et al., 2017;Birmingham, 1999;Ford & Airhihenbuwa, 2010;Gee & Ford, 2011;Holmes, 2006Holmes, , 2017Morey et al., 2018;Pon, 2009;Powell, 2008;Viruell-Fuentes et al., 2012). In its place, racism is conceived of as only interpersonal and intrapersonal. ...
In the current historical moment of rewriting the Chilean Constitution, there are new hopes for producing a different socio-legal, political-economic and public health order. The Chilean case holds important implications for global health practitioners, researchers and policy-makers because it clearly shows both the impacts of neoliberal processes on a worldwide scale and neoliberal policy responses. This article contributes to the field of global health policy critical analysis by offering scrutiny of Chile's international migrant healthcare policy from the perspective of its ideological assumptions. We apply Fairclough's analytical perspective to the Chilean migrant healthcare policy, identifying its components, argumentative premises and ideological assumptions that contribute to the reproduction of the processes of social determination. It allows us to identify bias mobilisation, exclusion, and subordinate inclusion processes that systematically lead to the omission of structural processes in the social determination of migrants' healthcare, contributing to their reproduction. We conclude by problematising the place of academia in said reproduction to the extent that the concepts and premises they use remain in the ideological territory of exclusion of the structural defined by the policy, disconnecting reflection and action in the health field from collective demands.
... As an essentially depoliticised construct (Pon 2009), cultural competence fails to address or challenge socio-political inequalities at structural, institutional and interpersonal levels (Azzopardi & McNeill 2016;Fisher-Borne, Cain & Martin 2015;Ortega & Faller 2011). To interrogate the mechanisms of power and oppression that operate in our societies, cultural competence must begin with critical self-reflection and self-critique rather than a focus on the 'Other'. ...
In this review we aim to:
• Review and map the national and international literature from settler colonial countries for rationales, theories and descriptions of practice for CRP
• Identify current understandings of CRP in order to advance theorisations and consider its potential in the Australian context.
This review focusses on the primary and secondary schooling years, although CRP certainly has a role to play in early childhood learning and higher education. Depending on the legislation in specific Australian states or territories, children begin their primary schooling at around age five and remain in the compulsory system until aged 16 or 17. The main focus is on CRP with Aboriginal students in government schools located in metropolitan and some regional areas. However, with more than a quarter (26%) of Australia’s population born overseas (ABS 2017), classrooms in metropolitan and some regional areas are becoming ‘super-diverse’ (D’warte 2016). Therefore, CRP is advanced as a hopeful approach to enhancing the educational experience of all students, irrespective of their home cultures. In what follows there is first a brief outline of historical approaches to Aboriginal education, followed by an overview of changing policy approaches over time. The concept of CRP is introduced through an exploration of its key characteristics and challenges as identified in the literature. Finally, the concept of cultural humility is advanced as an alternative to cultural competence which is currently positioned in Australian educational policy as a proxy for CRP.
... Yuval-Davis (2006) focuses on racialization processes and how the state justifies legal and social boundaries that make belonging difficult to achieve for certain categories, based on 'race', origin, language and/or culture. These power relations and processes of difference are central components of racism and processes of racialization (Fredrickson, 2015;Yuval-Davis, 2006), with contemporary discourses increasingly focusing on 'cultural' differences (Pon, 2009). In this article, we focus on how subject positions of the 'other' are produced based on racialization and difference-making. ...
This article analyses how youth subject positions of the ‘racialized other’ are produced, and how these positions interconnect with the concept of belonging to the rural community. We do this by analysing 15 group discussions with 63 young people living in rural areas in northern Sweden taking a discursive psychology approach, and focusing on how discourses produce certain subject positions of ‘the racialized other’. Drawing on the concepts of the politics of belonging and the ‘stranger’, we argue that discourses on belonging to the (rural) community create boundaries that exclude ‘other’ youth, as well as resistance and contestation. The subject positions that such discourses produce represent racialized youth in stereotypical ways and imply a promise of belonging for certain ‘others’ based on their fulfilment of particular norms. However, such a depoliticized promise of belonging that places the responsibility for becoming integrated on the ‘others’ was also challenged. Firstly, in relation to criticisms of the welfare system, and secondly, in relation to racism as an unwelcome threat in rural communities.
... Indeed, it presupposes the practitioner's identity to be that of the dominant culture. Pon (2009) thus considers cultural competence to be a "form of new racism" (60) because it "devalues non-White cultures without using racist language" (in Danso 2018, 417). This becomes harmful-violent, even-because using "culture" as a euphemism for race makes it difficult to address racial inequities directly (Fisher-Borne et al. 2015, Hess 2021). ...
Cultural humility has gained traction as a potentially transformative construct in social justice work, compelling practitioners to engage in a lifelong process of self-reflection and self-critique to recognize the limitations of their knowledge, practice openness toward others, and actively work to mitigate systemic inequities. In this paper, we draw theoretical interpretations from an empirical study of cultural humility as negotiated and developed through dialogues within a preservice music education course. By considering cultural humility through an iterative analysis of both empirical findings and theoretical perspectives, we propose that cultural humility comprises a fluid interrelation of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and transformative dimensions. We further articulate the significant internal struggles and challenges that emerged from this work as students navigated the various complications and contradictions that materialized through the process.
... Using social impact as a starting point, conceptualizing what identity means to a particular community may limit the use of evaluation as a compliance-oriented profession (Symonette, 2004) and move toward a culturally responsive method of community-engaged practice (Howard et al., 2020). Identity here not only refers to the identities of those being evaluated; rather, using a lens of identity should encourage researchers to engage in critically reflexive practice to understand how their own identity influences their interactions with others (Gross, 2000;Pon, 2009). Researcher reflexivity and entanglement with the evaluation process may further be enhanced by arts-based approaches to disseminating evaluation data (Clough, 2002;Johnson et al., 2013). ...
In this article, the primary author explores the use of poetic transcriptions as a method to enhance evaluation and social impact assessment data analysis and dissemination. The construction of the poetic transcriptions and the artful method of analysis allows for a more explicit acknowledgment of the researchers’ entanglements with both the data and the program being evaluated. Using a specific lens of identity, the authors posit that a culturally responsive approach to evaluation using arts-based analyses may reveal methodological and empirical insights overlooked in previous engagements with qualitative evaluation data.
... Many have argued that this concept captures the complexity and the necessary components of working across racial and cultural differences more adequately than the commonly used cultural competence model (Fisher-Borne et al., 2015;Hook, 2014;Ortega & Faller, 2011). Cultural humility is built on the recognition that culture is often used as a tool of social, economic, and political power of one group over another (Pon, 2009), and, if left unaddressed, the cultural oppression can be perpetuated in professional encounters between service providers and recipients. By emphasising that the most important sources of guidance for practitioners are the families and communities they seek to serve, cultural humility becomes a way of lifean ongoing process that does not entail an outcome (Foronda et al., 2016). ...
Cultural humility is increasingly important in social work literature given its emphasis on mitigating power imbalances in helping relationships, particularly across cultural differences. Consequently, there is a need to understand whether and how cultural humility can be taught in social work education, both through traditional classroom instructions and cultural immersion programs. Guided by the Transformative Learning Theory (TLT) and relying on ethnographic observations and reflective journals, this study explores the process of developing cultural humility among 19 U.S. social work students who studied abroad in Ghana in the years 2016–2018. To summarise how the learning process required to develop cultural humility manifests at each of the TLT stages, we identified three major themes: 1) confusion and discomfort, 2) re-moulding, and 3) humility in action. Specifically, this process seems to depend on the experience of a disorienting dilemma, meaningful connections with others, and the ongoing readiness to function beyond one’s own cultural frame of reference. We suggest TLT can serve as a guide to social work educators and study abroad coordinators in planning, facilitating, and evaluating transformative learning experiences which can help students begin this life-long journey.
... Over the last few decades, cultural competence has been the framework of choice for working across cultures in the HICs (Gopalkrishnan, 2019b). However, this framework is either silent about or actively perpetuates issues of power differences, racism and discrimination and the voicelessness of marginalized groups (Pon, 2009;Sakamoto, 2007). A central element of any cultural partnership between academics/other professional staff and students would have to involve an acknowledgement of the historical placement of this relationship as well as the power differentials implicit within that. ...
Relationship difficulties are at the core of why most people seek counselling. The same is true in the context of higher education. Many students who seek counselling at university report experiencing issues in their intimate relationships. Transitioning to university is a major life milestone. This is a time filled with possibilities, when individuals evaluate and make important life and career choices. Also, for some, this time represents the beginning of new relationships with romantic partners. While these intimate connections can be a source of security and foster well-being, some individuals experience relationship issues that interfere with their academic performance, life satisfaction, and future success. Evidence shows that both negative relationship quality and relationship break-ups are strongly associated with poor mental health outcomes contributing to academic failure, and sometimes leading to, university attrition, and economic burden. More specifically, relationship difficulties are a significant contributor to anxiety, depression, and suicidality. This chapter will present a theoretical discussion of the literature to highlight the importance of understanding intimate relationships in the context of higher education and the effect of relationship issues (including conflict, lack of relationship skills, self-handicapping and self-sabotage, and personality traits) on the mental health of individuals, with implications for research and practice.
... Accordingly, by focusing on means of communication rather than mechanisms of power, competence essentializes and decontextualizes inequities and therefore fails to address the root causes of marginalization. 33 Our findings indicate that language accommodations alone are not sufficient to ensure equity in claim experiences and outcomes, in support of previous research that showed that injured workers experience English language proficiency dependent recovery barriers despite access to interpreter services. 3 Namely, our analyses documented systems that lacked the opportunity for workers to have their voices heard, even when their words were interpreted and translated-systems that are adversarial, antagonistic, depersonalized, rigid, unreceptive, one-sided, complex, bureaucratic, and poorly coordinated. ...
Workers who experience language barriers are more likely to get injured or sick because of their work and have poorer claim and return-to-work outcomes compared to other workers. To better understand the systemic factors that shape access to compensation in contexts of language barriers, we compared language accommodation policies and practices in the Quebec and Ontario workers' compensation systems. We uncovered gaps limiting access to professional interpreters in both provinces, although gaps were more pronounced in Quebec where workers were responsible for the cost of interpreters. We argue that simply improving the linguistic competence of workers' compensation systems is not sufficient to tackle access barriers and must be accompanied by efforts to address the root causes of social and economic inequities for workers who experience language barriers.
... Recently, scholars have called attention to the limitations of couching analyses of race and racism under existing curricular content that broadly addresses "diversity" issues through a lens of multiculturalism and cultural competence (Abrams & Moio, 2009;Ortiz & Jani, 2010;Pon, 2009;Potocky, 1997;Razack & Jeffery, 2002). Increasingly, multicultural paradigms, with their emphasis on awareness and appreciation of cultural differences and the reduction of individual prejudice, are coupled with antioppressive frameworks that highlight differential power relations between dominant and subordinate groups that sustain social inequalities (Marsiglia & Kulis, 2016). ...
Social work is contending with an increasingly racially and ethnically diverse population and an academic field that is facing mounting pressure to diversify its curriculum to meet the needs of its students and the communities that social workers serve and inhabit. This article draws on the history of ethnic studies and the work that the field has produced to inform and challenge social work to recognize its shortcomings in addressing racial equity and advance the profession to commit to self-determination for all. In particular, the ethnic studies movement gave rise to relevant education reflective of the experiences of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities. Inspired by the canon and ideologies of ethnic studies, we offer recommendations for social work education.
... For many years, cultural competence has been used as a framework for respecting cultural diversity and differences (Sue, 2006), but has been challenged for (a) its focus on knowledge acquisition and skill mastery instead of accountability and advocacy; (b) its lack of attention to challenging systems that contribute to inequities; (c) its belief that culture is static or unidimensional, ignoring the history, power differences, intersectionality, and dynamics between people and systems; (d) its assumption that White norms are the standard to which BIPOC cultures are compared and differentiated; and (e) the attainment of competence which is only context dependent (Fisher-Borne et al., 2015). Compared with cultural humility, previous frameworks of cultural competence did not explicitly address systemic oppression or personal discomfort as problems to overcome (Pon, 2009). Since attainment of cultural competence remains vague, Hook and colleagues (2017) asserted that those who were not honest about their limitations might feel anxious and might try to avoid appearing "incompetent, " rather than embracing their discomfort, which is essential for professional growth and accountability. ...
School psychology has faced longstanding challenges in advancing equity and parity due to persistent oppression, racism, and colonialism in the field. These challenges have contributed to critical shortages of faculty and practitioners who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), racial disparities in educational and mental health services for children, and White hegemony in school psychology research and scholarship. The purpose of this commentary is to outline and advocate for a cultural humility framework as the foundation of social justice to improve discourse, practices, and service delivery by engaging in ongoing self-awareness (e.g., critical reflexivity, understanding of power and privilege), and sustained actions (e.g., social justice advocacy, alliances with communities) to improve outcomes of the individual and community (e.g., relational empowerment). Implications of incorporating cultural humility for trainers, researchers, and practitioners are discussed as continuing efforts to improve institutional and professional accountability are needed to facilitate systemic change.
... [5][6][7] Some authors recently criticised cultural competence, however, based on its superficial and often utilitarian understanding of the patient culture. 8 Others advocate for more comprehensive approaches to cultural diversity in healthcare, such as cultural safety. 9 Strengths and limitations of this study ► This is the first randomised controlled trial exploring game jam learning in medical education and the first quantitative study exploring cultural safety training in Latin America. ...
Objectives
Explore the acceptability and feasibility of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to assess game jams—participatory events to cocreate digital or board games in a time-constrained environment—in cultural safety training of medical students. The pilot tests methods and procedures and explores the validity and reliability of our research instrument.
Design
Two-arm parallel-group pilot RCT with a 1:1 allocation ratio.
Setting
Faculty of Medicine in Chia, Colombia.
Participants
79 final-year medical students completed the baseline questionnaire. 64 completed the assessment immediately after the intervention: 31 in the intervention group (20 female) and 33 in the control group (18 female). 35 completed the final assessment (18 control and 17 intervention) 4 months after the intervention.
Interventions
The intervention group joined a 5-hour game jam composed of a 1-hour lecture and a 4-hour session to create and to play educational games about cultural safety. The control group had a 1-hour conventional lesson, followed by a 4-hour study session of selected readings on cultural safety.
Primary and secondary outcome measures
The instrument, an online self-administered Likert-type questionnaire, assessed a self-reported cultural safety results chain based on a planned behaviour theory. Student recruitment, retention and perception of the activity determined acceptability. The methodological and logistical factors for a full-scale study determined feasibility.
Results
After the intervention, students randomised to that arm reported a slightly higher cultural safety score (26.9) than those in the control group (25.9) (difference −1, 95% CI −3.0 to 1.0). Students described game jam learning in favourable terms and considered cultural safety training relevant. The university authorised the conduct of the full-scale trial.
Conclusion
Game jam learning is feasible and acceptable for cultural safety training of Colombian medical students. Researchers and educators may find our results informative in the design of RCTs assessing educational interventions.
Trial registration number
ISRCTN14261595 (stage: pilot study results)
... Critical analyses of cultural competence critique this policy as a form of racism for its focus on essentializing culture and for failing to theorize power and systems of oppression. [41][42][43][44] Despite these critiques and evidence demonstrating its limited effectiveness in patient health outcomes and health care access and utilization, 45 the policy of cultural competence continues to guide practice in the health care setting. ...
In Toronto, Canada, 51.5 % of the population are members of racialized groups. Systemic labor market racism has resulted in an overrepresentation of racialized groups in low-income and precarious jobs, a racialization of poverty, and poor health. Yet, the health care system is structured around a model of service delivery and policies that fail to consider unequal power social relations or racism. This study examines how racialized health care users experience classism and everyday racism in the health care setting and whether these experiences differ within stratifications such as social class, gender, and immigration status. A concept mapping design was used to identify mechanisms of classism and everyday racism. For the rating activity, 41 participants identified as racialized health care users. The data analysis was completed using concept systems software. Racialized health care users reported "race"/ethnic-based discrimination as moderate to high and socioeconomic position-/social class-based discrimination as moderate in importance for the challenges experienced when receiving health care; differences within stratifications were also identified. To improve access to services and quality of care, antiracist policies that focus on unequal power social relations and a broader systems thinking are needed to address institutional racism within the health care system.
... In this framework, culture is seen as value neutral and, in effect, allows issues of racism and oppression to disappear into the background (Sakamoto 2007). This is especially a problem where communities have experienced long histories of oppression and are often struggling to make their voices heard, a framework that ignores these histories and their impacts is more likely to become part of the problem than part of the solution (Pon 2009). All of these issues raise the need for frameworks that incorporate notions of anti-oppressive practice and challenge some of the issues of power and historical dispossession that many minority communities have to deal with. ...
In an increasingly globalized world, we continue to face dramatic health disparities that impact adversely on Indigenous, migrant and refugee populations as well as other minority ethnic populations in most of the countries of the world. Culture plays an important role in how people experience health and illness, and how they access and experience healthcare. It impacts on the healthcare professionals as well as on their patients and the communities, modifying the healing relationship and presenting both barriers and opportunities for better health outcomes. This chapter will explore some of the key ways in which this happens with a view to highlight the opportunities that they represent. These include issues such as how the aetiology of disease is perceived, health-seeking behaviour, issues of racism, stigma and discrimination, as well as the impacts of stress, coping and resilience. The final section will present some specific suggestions for improved healthcare systems that are more inclusive and that work towards more equitable health outcomes for culturally diverse communities.
... [f]rom this color standard, racial/ethnic minorities are evaluated, judged and often found to be lacking, inferior, deviant or abnormal' (Sue, 2006: 15). Unlike established and new racisms based exclusively on one's skin colour, ethnicity, nationality, culture, and religion (Eliassi, 2017;Hall et al., 2010;Phillips, 2011;Pon, 2009;Sue et al., 2007), linguistic racism stems from the type of language that one uses, the way such language is spoken (Piller, 2016), as well as all types of verbal or written abuse against someone's racial, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic background (Mahboob and Szenes, 2010), implying the unequal power relations among people as determined by an individual's use of language (Skutnabb-Kangas, 2015). Linguistic racism thus explores the varied ideologies that may generate and endorse monolingual, native, and normative language practices, while reinforcing the discrimination and injustice directed towards certain groups of language users -in particular, towards groups and individuals whose language and communicative repertoires are not necessarily perceived as standard and normal (Dovchin, 2019a). ...
Linguistic racism explores the varied ideologies that may generate and endorse monolingual, native, and normative language practices, while reinforcing the discrimination and injustice directed towards language users whose language and communicative repertoires are not necessarily perceived as standard and normal. This article, thus, investigates linguistic racism, as a form of existing, but newly defined, racism against unconventional ethnic language practices experienced by Eastern-European immigrant women in the Australian workplace. Our ethnographic study shows that, once these women directly or subtly exhibit their non-nativism, through a limited encounter with local expressions, non-native language skills, and ethnic accents, they become victims of covert and overt linguistic racism in the form of social exclusion, mockery, mimicking, and malicious sarcasm in the hierarchical power environment of the workplace. As a result, these migrants can suffer from long-lasting psychological trauma and distress, emotional hurdles, loss of credibility, and language-based inferiority complexes. We, as researchers, need to highlight the importance of combatting workplace linguistic racism and revealing language realities of underprivileged communities. In that way, we can assist them in adapting to host societies and help them regain some degree of power equality in their institutional environments.
... La naturalización de las enfermedades atribuidas al descuido individual (individualismo biomédico): por medio de la ideología biologicista y del individualismo característicos de la mirada médica, casi indefectiblemente identifica el lugar de la responsabilidad de la enfermedad en el paciente, culpabilizando a la víctima (Ryan, 1976). Cuando al individualismo biomédico se le añade el supuesto culturalista de que sería en virtud de ciertas características culturales que los pacientes enferman, se configura una nueva forma de racismo, el de las competencias culturales (Pon, 2009). ...
El artículo analiza críticamente las tres aproximaciones teóricas contemporáneas más importantes en el abordaje del binomio salud-migración: el enfoque de determinantes sociales de la Organización Mundial de la Salud; los estudios sobre transnacionalismo y salud; y las propuestas sobre vulnerabilidad estructural. Se exponen las ideas centrales que les caracterizan y se presentan las principales críticas realizadas. Dado que la mayor parte de la literatura actual está siendo publicada en inglés, el artículo acerca de manera sintética algunas de las principales contribuciones en la materia al público hispanohablante, siendo el primer trabajo de este tipo que incluye la aproximación de la vulnerabilidad estructural. El análisis se apoyó en el software CAQDAS Nvivo, utilizando análisis de contenido sumariante, estructurante y explicativo. El trabajo enfatiza la importancia de los procesos de determinación estructural de la salud de los migrantes, y concluye abogando por un análisis de las convenciones científicas presentes en las perspectivas teóricas, en tanto estas tienen un impacto concreto en la salud de los migrantes, como fundamentos de políticas y como materia prima para el sentido común.
Service user experiences of oppression by human service organizations (HSOs) has long been understood through the lens of service providers, with service users largely excluded from research in this area. This qualitative study, the second phase of a mixed methods study, presents the findings of 9 focus groups (n=66) with service users from 13 different HSOs representing seven service areas (eg. Homelessness, addictions, youth) on the topic of service user experiences of oppression by HSOs. Using a semi-structured interview guide, participants were asked to share both positive and negative experiences with HSOs and recommendations to address oppression. The discussion identified important elements of the relationship between service providers and service users such as consistency, responsiveness, motivation, and competency that impact service user oppression. The findings from this qualitative phase help to develop a conceptual model of how oppression is rooted in organizations through service provider and service user interpersonal relationships.
The news media, as a component of new racism, broadcasts certain biases that serve for the dichotomy of us vs them. In order to maintain and reproduce the dominant ideology, the news media marginalizes those who are not in the majority and presents them to people with limited definitions, thus causing prejudices and stereotypes to be formed and settled in people's minds. From this perspective, this study examines how poverty, as one of the new racist practices, is established in the news. 18 news about poverty in the internet news sites with the highest click rates (Hürriyet, Milliyet, Sözcü) were analyzed according to van Dijk's critical discourse analysis method. The analysis of the news indicated that although the subject of poverty varies in the news, the assumption that that poverty was seen as an essentially individual problem was common. The poor were negatively portrayed and humiliated in the news in relation to the new racism, and that the problem of poverty is not addressed in the news at the macro level in accordance with dominant ideology.
This study aims to analyze cultural competence through the knowledge and attitudes regarding LGBT people held by the students of social work at two universities in southern Spain (N = 512). An ex post facto correlational study has been conducted. The Sex Education and Knowledge about Homosexuality Questionnaire, the Modern Homonegativity Scale and the Negative Attitudes toward Transgender People Scale have been applied to gather information. Data analysis was carried out using frequencies, descriptive statistics, correlations and inferential statistics. The findings show that men, religious, and politically conservative people reported higher levels of homonegative and transphobic attitudes than women, non-religious and politically more liberal people. There is also a lack of specific knowledge on the reality of and specific legislation regarding LGBT people. There is a need to continue to examine and to progress in the training of future social workers in cultural competence, incorporating the contributions of feminist theory.
As an introduction for a special journal volume on Challenging Anti-Black Racism across the Social Work Curriculum, this paper situates the volume’s contributions within a larger anti-racist tradition in social work including the often overlooked legacy of the profession’s Black leaders. It discusses multiple strands of anti-racist social work scholarship that provide scaffolding to support current and future anti-racist practices and thought. These include the paradigm shift from cultural competence to critical race theory; interpersonal and behavioral science approaches; Afrocentric perspectives; and decolonization theory. The article previews the volume’s contributions which both reflect these traditions and move beyond them. We argue that the endemic nature of anti-Black racism in the U.S. demands special attention in the social work curriculum.
This article presents findings from a study which explored the everyday ways race works on social work programmes in England. The study focused on how race was spoken about and conceptualised, how people were categorised and ordered according to race and the social interactions where race was understood by participants to be significant. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight social work lecturers and nineteen black social work students at two universities in England, to explore the following topics: classroom-based and practice learning, assessment and feedback, interactions between students and between students and educators, and university and practice agency cultures. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and the following themes identified: the routine interpellation of black students and communities in terms of absolute cultural differences, black students’ everyday experiences of marginalisation, hostility and othering, and the racialisation of black students in judgements made about their academic and practice performance. The article concludes that social work education must engage more deeply with contemporary theorisations of race and culture, and that social work educators need a reflexive understanding of how notions such as diversity, equality and universal academic standards are put into practice in ways that marginalise and devalue black students.
We conducted a systematic review of research into transgender and gender non-conforming people's experiences of psychological therapy. Ten studies were subjected to a thematic meta-synthesis, resulting in two analytic themes and five subthemes. One theme was concerned with participants' experiences of how gender was approached in therapy, including experiences of it being overemphasized, ignored, or pathologized. The second theme related to participants' views on their therapists' identities, and their approaches to therapeutic work and social action. We argue that therapists should be mindful of issues of power in the co-creation of therapeutic relationships and that therapists should discuss with clients about whether and how gender is discussed within therapy.
We live in a world that is increasingly interconnected through the processes of globalization and where diverse cultures interact with each other in complex ways. The higher education sector is particularly impacted on by the opportunities and issues of cultural diversity, with students and staff of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Further, in many high-income countries (HICs), the higher education sector has also to consider the ways in which the needs of First Nations students and staff can be met in contexts where histories of colonization and oppression have left their scars. This chapter explores some of the critical elements of mental health and cultural diversity within higher education and excavates the protective and risk factors that exist in the present context. It goes on to highlight the positive ways in which higher education institutions have responded to the challenges and opportunities of mental health and cultural diversity and posits some strategies for the future.KeywordsCultureHigher educationMental healthCultural competencyCultural partnershipsGlobalization
Diversity curriculum supports students in becoming critically reflexive social workers and advancing their multicultural practice. Often unexamined is how students perceive the explicit curriculum about race and racism and experience the implicit curriculum through the culture of human interchange. Ninty-three social work students completed a survey about their experiences in diversity classes. Using qualitative methods, we examine how students experienced the culture of human interchange in discussions of race and racism. Two themes influence the culture of human interchange: are to the disconnect in instructional praxis, and the contested terrain between marginalized and privileged identities. Implications for instructors have knowledge about U.S. history of race and racism and the systemic barriers for people of color, and to engage in self-reflection.
Background: Although traditional and cultural health practices are widely used in Colombia, physicians are not trained to address intercultural tensions that arise in clinical practice. Cultural safety encourages practitioners to examine how their own culture shapes their clinical practice and to respect their patients’ culture. It requires inviting patients of non-dominant cultures to co-design culturally safe health care. We co-designed a curriculum for cultural safety training of Colombian health professionals.
Methods: A sequential-consensual qualitative study defined the learning objectives of the curriculum. Semi-structured questionnaires and focus groups explored the opinions of traditional medicine users, medical students, and intercultural health experts to inform the content of the curriculum. Deliberative dialogue between key intercultural health experts settled the academic content of the curriculum. A member-checking strategy modified and approved the final version.
Results: Seven traditional medicine users, six medical students, and four intercultural health experts participated in the study. The stakeholders defined five learning objectives: (a) culturally unsafe practices: acknowledge the intercultural tensions and its consequences; (b) cultural awareness: examine their attitudes, beliefs, and values, and how they shape their professional practice; (c) cultural humility: listen and learn from the patients’ traditional practices; (d) cultural competence: describe current pedagogical approaches to address intercultural tensions; and (e) cultural safety: discuss with patients to reach an agreement on their treatment.
Conclusion: This study integrated the perspectives of different stakeholders and proposed new applications of cultural safety that are relevant to other countries. Researchers and educators can use these results to inform future cultural safety initiatives.
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to introduce the concept of racial capitalism in the context of academic libraries.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on Leong's (2013) extended theory of racial capitalism and identifies how neoliberalism and racial capitalism are tied as well as how it is manifested in academic libraries through tokenism, racialized tasks, consuming racial trauma, cultural performance demands, workload demands and pay inequity.
Findings
The article ends with some suggestions in how to address these problematic practices though dismantling meritocratic systems, critical race theory in LIS education and training, and funding EDI work.
Originality/value
The article explores a concept in the academic library context and points to practices and structures that may commodify racialized identities.
Few studies have examined mechanisms of racial maternal separation (RMS) of birthing mothers in hospital maternity wards (MWs), and how separation might reinforce institutional healthcare racism and discrimination, leading to inequitable maternal care (MC). In Israel, while birth mothers report mostly pleasant experiences, RMS has become a matter of public debate. Although the Ministry of Health (MoH) condemns the practice, birthing Palestinian-Arab women have sued hospitals for discrimination after being assigned to separate MW rooms from other women. We drew on critical race theory (CRT) and intersectionality to uncover mechanisms for RMS and inequitable MC in hospital MWs at three levels—policy, practice, and women's experiences. In 2019–2020 we conducted 10 in-depth interviews with hospital directors (HDs) and 8 focus groups (FGs) with 40 midwives and nurses; then, in 2020–2021, we held 26 in-depth Zoom interviews with birthing women. Our findings reveal intersecting mechanisms for RMS through which structural racism and institutional discrimination outside hospitals in the form of ethno-racial residential segregation penetrate hospitals via women's requests to maintain separation in MWs. While all HDs opposed RMS and prized quality care, they instituted insufficient mechanisms to prohibit racial separation, which helped to institutionalize the practice. Commodification of HCS accelerates RMS as hospitals compete for funds derived from birthing mothers' care. Under the guise of cultural sensitivity and indirect pressure of hospital management, nursing staff comply with requests for RMS. Nurses assigned rooms based on stereotypical categorizations of women's group membership (ethno-national, religiosity level, class). RMS targeted mostly visibly religious Muslim Palestinian-Arab women. These mothers felt MC discrimination; others normalized RMS as preference. While the MOH cannot eliminate outside-hospital structural discrimination, more efforts should be made to eradicate inside-hospital RMS, as the practice violates the principle of universality enshrined in the National Health Insurance Law.
The killing of Black, Indigenous and Persons of Colour by police in response to mental health crisis demands system transformation. So long as awareness of root cause issues continues to be misunderstood, any potential solutions for Black, Indigenous and Persons of Colour in mental health crisis is erroneous. The core concepts of critical race theory may be a catalyst in that process for change. Critical race theory provides a starting point through awareness, rather than avoidance, of racism’s persistent and impactful legacy. This article amplifies critical race theory for adoption in Canadian healthcare and community mental health, specifically in models of care with police partnerships.
Centering social justice into social work practice is vital to the profession, but both what and how to accomplish this task are pedagogical challenges in social work education. This teaching note introduces an elective course open to both Master of Social Work and doctoral students to develop holistic competence for socially just and culturally competent social work practice. We describe how the course originally designed in an in-person format was redesigned and adapted to an online format during the COVID-19 pandemic. Another consideration during this transition is how this requires social work students who are adult learners to balance family, work, and school demands while attending virtual classrooms in a personal space during physical distancing. We explain metacompetence and procedural competence, which are two competence dimensions conceptualized in the holistic competence model. Each competence dimension was targeted through a variety of synchronous and asynchronous virtual teaching approaches (e.g., intergroup dialog, digital storytelling, and virtual simulation). While these teaching approaches may be applicable to other online courses, we highlight specific considerations for teaching social justice online. We close with a discussion of challenges and new lessons from teaching social justice in social work practice courses online and provide recommendations for future teaching and research.
This study examines how music functions in relation to identity development for African-, Caribbean- and Black-identified emerging adults who have immigrated to Canada. Eleven ACB-identified emerging adults, recruited from music schools, community, and student organizations took part in semi-structured interviews adapted from McAdams’ Life Story Interview protocol to focus on music practices and memories. Thematic Analyses results suggest that transitioning to life in Canada necessitated learning new meanings of being and “becoming” Black. Participants described the influence of music on negotiating identity in a Canadian context. They described using music to resist racist and hegemonic narratives of Canadian Black identity, to connect to and celebrate their embodied Black identities, and establish self-continuity and coherence across histories and generations to connect with spiritual memories, land, and ancestors. We conclude by suggesting implications of this work for practice and developing research methodologies that resist whiteness.
Objective: Cultural competence has been critiqued as a flawed principle, focussed on mastery of cultural knowledge rather than critical reflection on race and privilege. Cultural humility is proposed as an alternative, emphasising accountability over mastery, involving critical self-reflection of personal biases and culture. This study aims to explore the development of cultural humility in psychological practice amongst nine clinicians, each of whom identify with journeys towards decolonial practice.
Method: Interpretative narrative inquiries were conducted with nine therapists and personal/professional storylines were interpreted with the support of Friere’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970) and Cresswell, Karimova & Brock’s Pedagogy of the Privileged (2013).
Results: Narrative inquiry revealed a spectrum of storylines which differed depending on the experience of dominant or non-dominant identities or an intersection between both. Five major processes contributing to cultural humility: (1) early childhood influences, (2) critical reflection, (3) contact, (4) cultural consultation, and (5) culturally responsive practices were found.
Conclusions: Further research is required on the personal/professional development of therapists’ decolonial identities, including the exploration of how these processes can be taught in clinical psychology training curriculum.
KEY POINTS
• Cultural humility differs from cultural competence in that it can involve a process of critical reflexivity concerning issues related to privilege, race and colonisation.
• Cultural humility can also be developed through practices of consultation with members of non-dominant cultures, focussed on accountability rather than a focus on competence or mastery
• Culturally responsive practices must be culturally safe and involve the adaptation of Western models or the practice of alternatives
Cultural humility, understanding others’ culture and the impact of one’s own culture on interactions with others, is recognized in many professions as a requirement for effective practice. However, cultural humility is difficult to define and even more elusive to measure. In an exploratory study of social work students, a National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) diversity issues workshop was used during program orientation to introduce participants to the importance of understanding one’s own culture and its potential impact on future practice. The intent was to ‘prime’ students’ thinking for course content, class discussions, and practicum experiences. The authors created an instrument to measure the potential impact of the workshop. The results of that study are reported here along with implications for future research and practice.
Health disparities are primarily driven by structural inequality including systemic racism. Medical educators, led by the AAMC, have tended to minimize these core drivers of health disparities. Instead, it has adopted a culture-based agenda through the framework of cultural competence to address disparities despite a paucity of supporting data. Cultural competence is ethnocentric in orientation and its content sustains biases that are long-standing in health care. Moreover, Cultural competence is based on a number of flawed assumptions and is not structured around a set of clearly stated ethical values. In this paper, we will demonstrate ways in which Cultural competence reflects embedded ethnocentrism, perpetuates entrenched biases, and fails to recognize the depth and breadth of systemic racism as these relate to the stated goal of Cultural competence—the mitigation of health disparities. In addition, we offer a reframed approach to health disparities in medical education.
Population ageing and international migration are two of the major societal trends challenging European elderly care regimes at present. Virtually no research has addressed how public discourses about the implications of these trends for elderly care are shaped in different countries. This article addresses this knowledge gap, examining how Swedish daily newspaper (SvD and DN) reporting on elderly care between 1995 and 2017 (N=370) depicts the impact of increased ethno-cultural diversity on this sector. Through content analysis, this article brings attention to the representations of migrants and culture that this reporting has deployed, and the rhetorical practices that the reporting has relied on (i.e. genre stratification, hegemonisation, homogenisation, normative referencing and idealisation/ diminishment). The article exposes how the ‘Othering’ of migrants is accomplished in Sweden’s daily newspaper reporting on elderly care, and problematizes the ethea of inclusiveness and equality of care with which we have come to associate this welfare sector.
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There is little agreement in teacher education as to what counts as knowledge and how individuals come to be affected by ideas, people, and events in their world. Whereas teacher education seems to debate questions about the adequacy of its structures, it has forgotten its place in the world and its obligations to world making. However, teacher education has not yet grappled with a theory of knowledge that can analyze social fractures, profound social violence, decisions of disregard, and how from such devastations, psychological significance can be made. Returning to an earlier history and drawing upon philosophers who were also concerned with the relation between teacher education and social reparation, this article advocates for a view of teacher education that can tolerate existential and ontological difficulties, psychical complexities, and learning from history.
During the past decade much has been said about the need to include cultural issues as a factor in the helping process. The discussion in social work literature has moved from cultural sensitivity to cultural competence, the ability to integrate cultural knowledge and sensitivity with skills for a more effective and culturally appropriate helping process. This article reports the results of a study of culturally competent helping practices with Native Americans. Sixty-two Native American social workers and social work students completed a survey on knowledge, skills, and values necessary for culturally competent service provision to Native American clients. As both Native Americans and helping professionals, the survey respondents are in an ideal position to articulate how best to serve the Native American population. This article fills a gap in the literature by providing empirical information on culturally competent social work with Native Americans.
The first book in the Cultural Margins series is a 1994 study of racism and homophobia in British politics, which demonstrates the demonisation of blacks, lesbians, and gays in New Right discourse. Anna Marie Smith develops theoretical insights from literary and cultural critics, including Nietzsche, Foucault, Derrida, Hall, and Gilroy, to produce detailed readings of two key moments in New Right discourse: the speeches of Enoch Powell on black immigration (1968–72) and the legislative campaign of the late 1980s to prohibit the promotion of homosexuality. Her analysis challenges the silence on racism and homophobia in previous studies of Thatcherism and the New Right, and shows how demonisation of lesbians and gays depends on previous demonisations of black immigrant and criminal figures. Overall, this book offers a devastating critique of racism and homophobia in late twentieth-century Britain.
Cultural competence, an axiomatic idea full of promise, struggles to meet its mission due to four handicapping conditions: the over-ambitiousness of the term's definition; the underrepresentation of the humanities in HBSE content; the over-simplification of the term culture; and the underpreparedness of professors and programs for delivery of diversity content. “Mastery” of minority content may not be possible, and those who believe they have such mastery face the danger of understanding clients too soon, too superficially. Ironically, the postmodern stance of “not knowing” leads to greater levels of empathy toward members of all populations.
A critical study of the issues which are fundamental to the understanding of race and racism in modern Britain, this book examines the history of recent issues, the development of central and local government policies, the role of racist organizations, urban unrest and social change.
In this article, I critically review North American education-related literature on identity construction among Black youth. I integrate this body of scholarship to reveal an implicit two-pronged model for examining identity among racialized persons. The first level of analysis involves unveiling collective strivings for a coherent racial identity in the face of a racist society. The second level concerns the underlying complexity, rupture, and ambivalence that such collective quests for identity tend to mask. Multicultural and antiracism education fail to adequately consider the second level of identity, resulting in both approaches presenting an oversimplifie d and unsatisfactory view of racial and cultural diversity.
World politics is entering a new phase, in which the great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of international conflict will be cultural. Civilizations - the highest cultural groupings of people - are differentiated from each other by religion, history, language and tradition. These divisions are deep and increasing in importance. From Yugoslavia to the Middle East to Central Asia, the fault lines of civilizations are the battle lines of the future. In this emerging era of cultural conflict the United States must forge alliances with similar cultures and spread its values wherever possible. With alien civilizations the West must be accommodating if possible, but confrontational if necessary. In the final analysis, however, all civilizations will have to learn to tolerate each other.
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