Cultivating Cultural Awareness and Global Consciousness in Social Work

Faculty and students interested in global social work often have limited knowledge and experience working with diverse cultural groups. This curriculum embraces human rights concepts and core social work values as a framework for cultivating cultural awareness and global consciousness and supports U. S. based social work educators in their efforts to bring a global context into social work classrooms to consider perspectives of international people and communities. There are four case scenarios, each with a complementary video, and foundation level and advanced level activities which can be completed by social work students. Social work instructors, field supervisors, and other academic leaders can customize student learning based on student skill level and agency needs. The authors recommend use of non-traditional ideologies, theories, and frameworks in ameliorating contemporary social work challenges, while highlighting anti-oppressive social work practice, a behavior that examines structural oppression, power, and privilege (Morgaine, Capous-Desyllas, 2020). Having curricular resources that cultivate cultural awareness and global consciousness in social work is essential for preparing students in addressing global challenges and opportunities in a global society.