Culturally sensitive social work: promoting cultural competence

In current times of great conflict and clashes between different cultures and worldviews, cultural competencies should be a well embedded feature of social work education. This is a fundamental and cross-cutting issue; however, we question whether it is an obvious concern in social work education in European countries, specifically in Portugal, and if the curriculum of social work courses covers this topic. This article is based on research that seeks to find out if there are mandatory curricular units of the disciplinary field of social work that explicitly address culturally sensitive social work and cultural competencies. Thus, this article presents a study that focuses on educational institutions that provide social work courses in Portugal, and has the potential to be extended to other countries. An online survey and a document analysis of the curriculum programmes of all Portuguese courses in social work were conducted. The study results revealed the lack of curricular units with clear terms relating to the topic of culturally sensitive social work. The implications for practice and educational policy are also discussed, which lead to a reflection and analysis of the evaluation and accreditation process of social work education in Portugal, with a conclusion that it is incomplete and faces major challenges in curriculum development and course accreditation. Challenges and opportunities in developing social work curricula, as well the debate around a generic or specialist social work education are also discussed. Finally, the authors suggest an opportunity to develop cultural competencies through continuing and lifelong learning for social workers.