See you all on Saturday!

Unit Introduction and What You Will Learn

Tailoring our practices to our clients’ cultural needs helps us build strong relationships, improve engagement and outcomes, and address barriers and biases in our practice. Week seven of SOWK 587 focuses on culturally responsive practices in schools and takes place synchronously on Saturday (10/10/26). The reading by Jarolmen and Bautista-Thomas (2023) focuses on developing self-awareness in cultural competence, culturally responsive practice, and cultural humility within anti-oppressive frameworks. It also provides some tools and ideas for working with different populations. I also ask you to read Davidson Cowling (2018), which explores culturally responsive practices with indigenous populations. In this class, we will explore cultural responsiveness by examining biases, systemic inequities, and strategies for tailoring interventions to diverse populations. Through discussions, interactive activities, and case studies, we will develop practical skills for culturally competent social work practice. Students will review ethical decision-making videos from their peers.

The agenda is as follows:

• Reflective practice on your knowledge of cultural competence and your own biases
• Examples and best practices of addressing racism in schools
• Strategies for becoming antiracist
• Cross-cultural knowledge and cultural competence
• Midterm feedback

The learning objectives are:

• Reflect on personal biases and their impact on client interactions.
• Understand and apply culturally responsive practices in social work settings.
• Increase cross-cultural knowledge.
• Provide meaningful feedback to guide this course.

Unit Assignments

Content

• Read Jarolmen and Bautista-Thomas (2023) Chapter 7: Being a Culturally Responsive School Social Worker
• Davidson Cowling (2018) Culturally Responsive Social Work Methods for Use With Indigenous People

W-07 A-01: Asynchronous Participation and Engagement

Students had to submit A-02: Ethical Decision-Making Video Presentation. I am asking you to review a few of your peers video presentations in W-07 Discussion Forum and Ethical Decision-Making Video Presentations and make at least two replies across any of them. Potential replies are focused on:

• Share some feedback about the ethical dilemma they shared. Are there other considerations they might have included or unanswered questions
• Share ideas for other potential interventions they might do with their client.
• Relate similarities between your work with some of your clients and their work.

Unit Resources

You can listen to a podcast episode for this week’s reading Deep Dive on Chapter 7: Beyond Cultural Competence in School Social Work, or see the entire series Deep Dive: Jarolmen and Bautista-Thomas (2023).

We are going to be using Padlet for an activity, 🧵 What Are You Going to Tailor?. During class, you will also have an opportunity to complete the midterm feedback, see the SOWK 587 Survey.

I share information from the National Association of Social Workers (2015). Their Standards and Indicators for Cultural Competence in Social Work Practice is a great resource. Along with Mental Health America’s resources on communities of color it can be used in developing the poster activity we will be doing in class. The Library has provided some online guides on populations and social work practice. You can find Latinx Social Work and Native Americans & Social Work Tabs,d which have a lot of content that you can explore.

We will be completing a survey developed by D’Andrea et al. (1991) (See MAKSS) and I recommend Kendi (2023).

The Lecture Videos tab in the MyHeritage course is where you will be able to find class recordings.

To-Do List

• Read chapter 7 and the journal article
• Make at least two replies on any of your peers videos
• Attend class