Arab Social Work Students and Palestinian Clients Encounters: Embracing a Transcultural Perspective in Practice Theory

Background and Purpose:

This research examined the experiences and challenges faced by Arab social work students, citizens of Israel who during their studies carried out their field work with Palestinian clients from East Jerusalem, and presents the encounters in their personal, social and political context. Although these two minority groups belong to the same nationality, and are often perceived by the Jewish majority as a homogeneous group, the political and cultural characteristics of each group are different. In contrast to residents of East Jerusalem, the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel deal with continuous tensions related to the Israeli collective within which they live and also to the Arab identity to which they belong.

Methods:

Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with fifteen female Arab Israeli social work students who carried out their field work in East Jerusalem. The students were Christians between 22 and 25 years old, from the north and the center of Israel, who at the time of the study were undergraduate students of social work at an Israeli university.

Findings:

Analysis of the findings reveals two major themes: (1) The issues and difficulties encountered by social work students in their encounter with clients who are residents of East Jerusalem. Those were found to be related to the features of the clients followed by feelings of helplessness and frustration experienced by the students, the inner-personal conflict experienced by the social work students, adapting the language utilized to the client, and the client’s prejudices that delayed building a relationship and trust. (2) The way the students cope with the issues and difficulties that arise in their encounters. The findings indicate different ways of coping that help the students handle the difficulties: Containment, Understanding, Acceptance, Building a Relationship, Creating Discourse, Faith in the Client and Recognition of his Feelings and Cultural Sensitivity and Increasing the Self awareness of Social Work Students.

Conclusions and Implications:

The encounter between Palestinian social work students who are Israeli citizens and the population of East Jerusalem is challenging and complex. Arab citizens of Israel deal with double marginality and exclusion, both by Israeli Jews who treat them as an Arab minority and by the Palestinian community who treats them as “Israel’s Arabs.” This study calls attention to the importance of embracing a transcultural perspective in practice theory, which needs to go beyond the conceptualization of culture and ethnicity to include other relevant contextual variables such as structural factors, power relations, and an understanding of the political context. This study also adds relevant theoretical knowledge, regarding the field of social work education: academic institutions need to develop culturally sensitive training programs while creating a safe space to discuss cultural challenges and while clarifying different identities faced by social work students from minority groups who share similar backgrounds with their clients. Social work students from minority groups must have a positive experience that maximizes the development of their intersecting identities for competent social work practice in order to strengthen the profession.