Teaching Social Work Students Through Culturally Responsive Education: An Action Research Study Drawing on Spirituality and Culture
Open Access
- Author:
- Root, Vicki
- Graduate Program:
- Adult Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Education
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 03, 2006
- Committee Members:
- Elizabeth Jean Tisdell, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Patricia Angelica Cranton, Committee Member
Senel Poyrazli, Committee Member
Stephen Robert Couch, Committee Member
Ian E Baptiste, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Culturally Responsive Education
Social Work
Action Research
Group Dynamics - Abstract:
- The purpose of this study was to implement and examine the impact of pedagogical strategies designed to increase culturally responsive education and critical consciousness in an undergraduate social work class at a small, Christian, liberal arts college. The study participants were nine students enrolled in an undergraduate class focused on group development and learning skills for working with groups in social work practice. The study critically examines culture and spirituality as a worldview and draws on perspectives of culture and spirituality from adult education and social work education through the theoretical lens of poststructural feminist thought, intersectionality theory, and the discourses of critical multiculturalism and antiracist education. The framework for the study attends to positionality, power relations, and systems of privilege in the context of teaching and learning. A critical action research design was used to systematically look at knowledge production by introducing change and observing the effects. The main data collection methods were focus groups, reflective journals, and online asynchronous discussions. The findings from the study are presented in the context of the planning, acting, observing, and reflecting stages of the action research cycle and address three major themes. First, participants moved beyond Christianity as the only valid spirituality, to understanding the spirituality of others and themselves as influenced by culture. Second, they indicated new learning about cultural competence for social work practice by connecting spirituality with culture, and understanding the effects of culture and White privilege in their own and other’s real life experiences. Third, participants found the culturally responsive educational experience extremely positive because it foregrounded multiple dimensions of their learning: the spiritual, cultural, affective, and experiential, as well as rational work typical in higher education. The themes and findings are discussed in light of the five elements of poststructural feminist thought: knowledge construction, shifting identity, voice, positionality, and authority. In addition, there were several implications from the study for the fields of adult education and social work including: the importance of hearing others’ voices, the value of group process, the importance of ongoing support, value of creating space, and the value of technology.