Читать книгу The Sage Handbook of Social Constructionist Practice - Группа авторов - Страница 162

Social work practice, like practice in related fields, is influenced by constructs that signify cherished value positions. One such construct is cultural competence. Within social work, cultural competence is primarily seen as expressing respect for cultural, ethnic, and race differences, and is therefore a critical dimension of practitioners’ knowledge and skill. This position has led to numerous training programs aimed at equipping practitioners with the requisite knowledge and skills to be competent in various cultures. The social constructionist informed social work practitioner acknowledges the value of sensitivity and knowledge of cultural and other forms of difference and their importance to relationship development; however, this is not synonymous with being ‘competent’ in a culture. In fact, for social constructionist informed practitioners the very notion of cultural competence is not assumed, but problematized, generating questions such as the following: What does it mean to be competent in a culture? How is such competence conferred and what privileges are given to its holders? What does this construct imply about culture (e.g., that it can be reduced to a set of competencies)? They also challenge the notion of cultural homogeneity and cultural inertia. People internalize and represent cultural values and ethos in different ways. Also, cultures are dynamic, they change over time. Finally, competency is an individualistic concept. As such it ‘underemphasizes the social, relational context of social work practice as the site where meanings are negotiated and realities generated’ (Witkin, 2017, p. 79). A social constructionist orientation could shift the practitioner's stance from cultural competence to ‘cultural humility’, from knowing the traits or qualities of a specific group to remaining open, curious, exploratory, and respectful of the myriad ways that clients have come to understand and express culture. For practitioners, a useful extension of cultural humility is narrative humility in which the idea of fully comprehending or mastering another's story is put aside in favor of ‘remaining open to their ambiguity and contradiction, and our own role in the story … how the story attracts or repels us because it reminds us of any number of personal stories’ (Das Gupta, 2008, p. 981). An important implication of this approach is that it extends beyond people perceived as culturally different to the conditions that influence and shape the stories we hear (Holstein and Gubrium, 2008).