A SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVIST FRAMEWORK FOR INTEGRATING CROSS-CULTURAL ISSUES IN TEACHING CLINICAL SOCIAL WORK.

CONSTRUCTIVISM (Psychology); CROSS-cultural orientation; PSYCHOLOGY education; CROSS-cultural counseling; MULTICULTURALISM; SOCIAL services

The article discusses constructivism in teaching about cultural issues in clinical social work practice. Both content and proven instructional methods are presented for the framework's three components: (a) an overview of social constructivism; (b) an exploration of culture and self, which encourages students to develop openness to culturaldiversity; and (c) a social constructivist approach to the help-seeking process of clients, which provides students with guidelines for exploring the culture-specific content of clients' problem-solving efforts. The population of North America is culturally diverse and will become even more so with each passing year. Cultural background influences the type of life experiences people have, and thus their assumptions about the world and ways of categorizing "reality." Yet clients andsocial work practitioners from different cultural backgrounds may encounter difficulties in their interactions when their assumptions about the world differ. Learning about the unique attributes of each cultural group has been encouraged for competent cross-cultural practice.