Cultural competence in social work education: a content analysis of MSW practice syllabi

Abstract

ABSTRACTAs an ethical and professional standard in social work education and practice, cultural competence must go beyond educating social work students about White privilege to promoting cultural consciousness and anti-racism. Using an anti-racist framework as a construct of cultural competence, this study examined the language in the course syllabi of graduate social work programs. Findings suggest that many graduate social work programs need to integrate more inclusive language in course syllabi and that further examination of anti-racism in course syllabi is needed. These findings have implications for including populations who have historically been marginalized in social work education.KEYWORDS: Anti-black racismcontent analysiscultural competencesocial work educationsyllabi Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).