Colloquium Will Address Cultural Competency Needs in Social Work Education
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 17, 2005
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Colloquium Will Address Cultural Competency Needs in Social Work Education
Jean Schuldberg, EdD, LCSW, will present the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences Colloquium on Dec. 1, in Ayres 106 at 7 p.m. Schuldberg, a professor in the School of Social Work, will present “You Are Lying to Me, There Was No Such War: Reflections of Iu-Mien Social Service Workers on Cultural Competency in Social Work.”
Schuldberg’s presentation is based on research into the experiences of members of the Iu-Mien communities in Northern California, refugees from Southeast Asia. The presentation will begin with an introduction to the history that led Iu-Mien people from China to Laos to Thailand, and then to the United States.
Schuldberg’s study focused on contacts of lu-Mein individuals with social service workers as refugees and, currently, lu-Mein social workers with colleagues in human service jobs.
The results of the study provide a unique outsider/insider perspective, said explained Schuldberg. “The voices of the eight participants will be the theme of the presentation, as several of the participants will share their experiences in their own voices,” said Schuldberg.
The impetus for this research came from discussions with an undergraduate social work student from the Iu-Mien community. She related experiences in her field practicum that revealed a lack of cultural competency of the social work staff. The student’s concerns generalized to apprehension regarding the appropriateness of services provided by workers who were not competent in working with diverse populations.
The goal of the research project was to gain information to develop recommendations for curricular changes in the teaching of cultural competency in social work education.
Schuldberg received her BA from the University of Oregon, her MA from Indiana University, and her EdD in International and Multicultural Education from the University of San Francisco in 2001. She has taught at CSU, Chico since 1989.
University of San Francisco in 2001. She has taught at CSU, Chico since 1989. Schuldberg is the author of “The Challenge of Cross-cultural Competency in Social Work: Experiences of Southeast Asian Refugees in the United States (New York: Edwin Mellon Press, 2005).
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