A Qualitative Analysis of Students' Experiences in Becoming Culturally Competent Child Welfare Practitioners

Background  

This qualitative study examines how graduating master of social work students, intending to work in public child welfare, perceive their learning experiences related to cultural competency. The relevance of this analysis stems from research pointing at worker bias as a contributor to disproportionate outcomes in child welfare. Existing research suggests social work education and workplace training on cultural competency, bias and self-awareness may mitigate disparate outcomes of children of color in foster care. Cultural competency, being applicable to all social workers, is included in Standards and Indicators for Cultural Competence in Social Work Practice and implied in the Council on Social Work Education’s Educational Policies and Accreditation Standards.  This interpretive study seeks to understand how students' perceive their preparation in becoming culturally competent just prior to entering the child welfare workforce.

Methods

A modified constant comparative analysis allowed for an inductive and iterative process whereby themes on cultural competence could emerge. The interpretive study was intentionally inductive by design.  Research participants were recruited through targeted emails and flyers. The purposeful sample elicited participants meeting two criteria: (1) graduating master of social work students (2) expressed intention of practicing in a public child welfare agency upon graduation. The sample (N=11) represented female participants self-identifying as Caucasian, Latina, Native American and multi-racial.  Interview schedules included in-depth open-ended questions such as “describe an incident within your social work educational experience (practicum and in-class) that has prepared you to work cross culturally.” Individual confidential interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Analysis included manual open-coding for sensitizing concepts, focused coding of emergent themes and axial coding revealing inter-relationships between categorical data. 

Results

Results suggest learning experiences occur primarily through interpersonal relationship within the learning context. Exposure to individuals and their unique narratives, often peers and instructors, were influential in formulating their current level of cultural competence. Coursework aimed at mindfulness, listening and self-awareness were instrumental in building their capacity to work cross-culturally even when not explicitly identified as relating to culture.  Students perceived transparent and deep discussions with trusted peers and instructors on personal values, family histories and individual biases, contributed to their most memorable learning experiences. While classmates were reportedly ethnically and socially diverse, intructors' were less reflective of the same diversity.

Conclusion and Implications

The qualitative and interpretive nature of the study aimed to provide contextual yet transferable themes that inform social work research, education, practice and child welfare training programs on preparing social workers for cultural competence. Themes within this research suggest the greatest learning occurs through intentional interpersonal sharing and experiences within the classroom and field. In this study, representation of culturally diverse instructors and classmates heightened the perceived learning of cultural competence. Related coursework on self-awareness in the way of mindfulness and listening may indirectly affect perceived cultural competence. While students were all engaged in traditional classroom in-person instruction, future research should examine how cultural competence is perceived by social workers in web-based and simulated learning contexts. Findings will be discussed in the context of child welfare research, practice, education and training.