Developing and evaluating cultural competence education: an educational group study with social work students

Abstract

Today, social workers serve a growing number of clients who are culturally and linguistically diverse. The importance of cultural competence in the quality of social work is evident. There is a greater need for different educational models and approaches to enhance the teaching of cultural competence in social work students. The present research study was carried out as an intervention study with a pretest and posttest design, with both experimental(n = 29) and control(n = 29) groups. For this study, we developed the Cultural Competence Education Model (CCEM) in the context of Turkey by examining various preexisting social work education models. We used CCEM in the intervention phase of the study. The results of this study confirm the effectiveness of the CCEM. In particular, the data obtained from the pretest and posttest measurements show that the content of the training contributes to the cultural knowledge, self-awareness, awareness and cultural sensitivity of the participants on pressure and diversity. To conclude, the study provides offers recommendations for the development of basic knowledge for cultural competence skills and culturally effective practices in the future, and concludes with a call that additionally calls for the integration of integrating cultural competence education into the general social work education curriculum.