The Culturagram: An Educational Tool to Enhance Practice Competence With Diverse Populations

Abstract

For more than 25 years social work educators and practitioners have attempted to develop tools that would assist them in their efforts to work more effectively with people from different backgrounds. This issue is particularly important for students entering the profession. However, there has been little discussion in the literature about the developmental process of students and beginning practitioners and the effect of such tools on their attainment of practice competencies. This article discusses how the use of a culturagram influenced baccalaureate social work students’ ability to understand, assess, and plan an intervention with an immigrant family in a case scenario. We found that the culturagram augmented students’ learning and demonstrated the potential to move students and practitioners beyond cultural awareness to an ability to engage with difference.