Diversity & Cultural Relations

Diversity and Cultural Relations

(6 CEUs in Cultural Relations for Full Day; 3 CEUs for the Half-Day Course) Course Description This course focuses on the nature and some of the effects of diversity among people. The primary purpose of the course is to bring out the ways in which an understanding and appreciation of diversity can help social service professionals to effectively address some of the most difficult problems that they confront. We will pay particularly close attention to how an understanding of a client’s social background and an appreciation of his or her cultural heritage enhance the ability of the professional to effectively meet the client’s needs.

Learning Objectives

Participants who complete this course should be able to:

• Identify and explain various kinds of diversity among people
• Explain the differences between tolerance, acceptance, and welcoming
• Articulate the shared understanding among social workers of the nature and
  value of diversity in people
• Explain the distinction between acceptable and unacceptable variances in human
  character and conduct
• Identify ways in which barriers to understanding between people are created and discuss how such barriers can be removed
• Explain the relationship between universality and diversity
• Identify ways in which an understanding of cultural diversity can help a social service professional to better serve the client population

Bibliography and suggestions for further reading

Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers. Approved by the 1996 NASW Delegate Assembly and revised by the 1999 NASW Delegate Assembly.
www.socialworkers.org/pubs/code/code.asp

Gilligan, Carol. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982.

Hillerman, Tony. The First Eagle. New York: HarperCollins, 1998.

Kant, Immanuel. “What is Enlightenment?” In Perpetual Peace and Other Essays. Ted Humphrey, translator. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1985.

Mappes, Thomas and Jane Zembaty, eds. Social Ethics: Morality and Social Policy. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. See especially Chapter 5, “Pornography, Hate Speech, and Censorship”, and Chapter 7, “Social and Economic Justice”.

Rachels, James. Elements of Moral Philosophy. 4th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.

Shanahan, Timothy and Robin Wang, eds. Reason and Insight - Western and Eastern Perspectives on the Pursuit of Moral Wisdom. 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2003.