Training in Intergroup Dialogue Facilitation: Skills for Multicultural Social Work Practice
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Training in Intergroup Dialogue Facilitation: Skills for Multicultural Social Work Practice Introductory Essay Social work asks that its practitioners work for social justice—meaning that social workers must be competent about the needs and challenges faced by their clients, and that they possess the skills to simultaneously empower and equip their clients with the skills to lead healthy, productive, and fulfilling lives. The values of dialogue mirror that of social work. At its heart, dialogue asks its participants to connect the social to the personal; it demonstrates, in a concrete way, how individuals are directly impacted by social, historical, and political realities. Moreover, dialogue facilitation necessitates several practices that ensure effective social work practice, including critical consciousness, cultural competency, interpersonal communication skills, including active listening, validation, intentional question-asking, and feedback. It also asks that students engage in cyclical processes of reflection and action (praxis). In doing so, it requires that students engage in critical reflection about identities, assumptions, values, and systems of privilege and oppression. Its emphasis on awareness and critical consciousness offers social workers important information about diverse experiences, but it also demonstrates the importance of cultural competency in effective social work practice. As explained in the syllabus, this course will address the social work ethics and values from the NASW Code of Ethics, including the social work values of social justice, the importance of human relationships, and competence (in multicultural practice), as well as the ethics related to cultural competence and social diversity (1.05) and to social and political action (6.04). This course develops multicultural competency skills to work with disenfranchised and oppressed groups in culturally competent ways and to address social injustice due to discrimination and oppression. Training in dialogue facilitation promotes sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural diversity, as well as increases the personal and group capacity to work for social and economic equality and justice around differences in race/ethnicity, gender, culture, religion, sexual orientation, and ability status. This course also addresses the social work value of the importance of human relationships through developing skills in dialogue and alliance building across differences, which both foster intergroup relations and support the belief that relationships between and among people are an important vehicle for social change. Finally, this class supports social work ethics that social workers should obtain education about and seek to understand the nature of social diversity and oppression (1.05) and that social workers should act to prevent and eliminate domination of, exploitation of, and discrimination against any person, group, or class on the basis of difference, while working for equity and social justice for all people (6.04). While this course is an upper-level class in the MSW curriculum, any student in the MSW program (beginners and advanced students alike) will benefit from participation. Beginners will refine important listening and interpersonal skills and reflect on opportunities to employ dialogic skills; advanced students will be able to integrate skills and knowledge with fieldwork. Additionally, because dialogue bridges micro and macro practice, any MSW will find this topic applicable, whatever their area of specialty. IP students will be able to refine active listening skills, recognize the ways in which their clients are impacted by systems of privilege and oppression, and gain skill in addressing difficult topics with resistant clients. CO and Policy-focused students will be able to connect societal problems with individuals’ lived experiences, enhance interpersonal skills (which they will need in organizing and educating), and critically assess their own role in social justice work. In short, this course will provide social workers with a broader perspective on how individual issues are rooted in and connected to socio-political patterns of inequality, and will equip them with a variety of SW 709 Fall 2011 Crider Syllabus Page | 1 interpersonal skills that will improve their ability to interact with colleagues and clients alike. This course is organized around two major texts—one is a recognized text on facilitation skill and lesson plans for social justice education; the book is organized around topics of diversity and social justice (one chapter is on sexuality and TBLG issues; another on disability; another on race and ethnicity; another on religion, etc.). This format reflects the courses’ planned structure: For the first few weeks, a combination of lecture and in-class activities will train students in dialogue facilitation. In subsequent weeks, students will take turns leading in-class activities and dialogue on a particular topic (race/ethnicity one week, gender one week, sexuality the next, then class, and so on). Finally, the last three weeks will be dedicated to reflection and wrap-up. The course will be taught through a few mini-lectures, discussion of readings, in-class activities, role-play, and dialogic practice. Assessment of students reflects the aims of the course, which are: increase in personal awareness and critical consciousness, improvement and increased confidence in dialogue participation and facilitation, recognition of the interplay between the personal and the political, improved interpersonal communication skills—particularly in the areas of active listening, validation, and feedback. Assessment will include in-class participation, reflective journals throughout the semester, leading at least one in-class dialogue (including a lesson plan, in-class facilitation, and self-reflection afterward), and a cumulative wrap-up reflective assignment. SW 709 Fall 2011 Crider Syllabus Page | 2 Social Work 709: Training in Intergroup Dialogue Facilitation: Skills for Multicultural Social Work Practice Fall 2011 2752 SSWB Thursday 2:00-5:00 PM Sara Crider E-mail: [email protected] Office: 3764 SSWB Office hours: Thursday, 11:30-1:00 and by appointment Course Description This course is designed to give students a foundation in the awareness, knowledge, and skills needed to effectively carry out multicultural social work practice with populations who are culturally diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, class, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, ability status, and national origin. In particular, students will gain and refine skills in facilitating multicultural group interactions and in working with conflict and resistance that may emerge due to cultural misunderstandings or oppressive dynamics. The topics of this course include social identity group development; prejudice and stereotyping and their effects on groups; difference and dominance and the nature of social oppression; our personal and interpersonal connections to power, privilege, and oppression; recognizing and resolving conflicts or resistance; methods of dialoguing and coalition building across differences; and basic group facilitation skills and their applications in multicultural settings. Course Design Mirroring the learning environment you will be expected to create for dialogue participants, this class will strive to foster a learning environment where each student can reflect critically on their beliefs and perspectives and where multiple perspectives can be understood, respected, and critically examined. This means creating a safe space in which students are able to engage in difficult conversations and reflective processes. Facilitation training in this course will involve participation in dialogic exercises during class and practice sessions in facilitation skills. In addition, readings, journal writing, self-reflective assignments, and consultations with the instructor will enhance your training and learning in this course. Your dialogue skills will be enhanced by—and will likely be only effective if—you dedicate time to learning content on cultural diversity and social justice. This information will provide you with some of the knowledge, awareness, and skills that social workers need to possess in order to work in a multicultural society. Before you can facilitate dialogues on issues of cultural diversity and social justice, you will need to examine these issues for yourself and reflect on your own identities, issues, and experiences around oppression. This course will provide a forum to critically examine how our multiple identities shape our beliefs, assumptions, behaviors, and life experiences. Special attention will also be given to assess how our multiple identities and different experiences with oppression enhance or hinder our work with diverse populations. Application of this knowledge will then be used in the learning of dialogue facilitation skills. SW 709 Fall 2011 Crider Syllabus Page | 3 Course Objectives and Guidelines for Learning Upon successful completion of this course, students will be better able to: 1. Demonstrate personal dialoguing skills around issues of multiculturalism and oppression. We will learn how to engage in dialogue with others about cultural diversity and social justice across differences, using respectful and inquisitive forms of active listening, self-reflection, and critical consciousness. Dedicated class time will address stereotypes, prejudices, conflict, pain and resistance—which inevitably