Towards cross-cultural social work: a teaching approach for development of intercultural competences / Hacía un trabajo social intercultural: un modelo didáctico para el desarrollo de competencias interculturales

The professional skills demanded of social workers by contemporary society must unavoidably include the capacity to apply knowledge, to know how to act and acquire the appropriate new competences for listening and taking care of people coming from different cultures. With regard to the training of future generations of social workers it must be remembered that they will have to deal with an increasingly globalized society and face the new demands placed upon the profession by the presence of a greater number of people migrating to Italy in increasingly greater numbers. Teaching experimentation carried out as part of the degree course in Social Work at the University of Palermo over the last ten years has already been moving in the direction of integrating, first of all, an awareness of the need for professional, trans-cultural knowledge and, consequently, also urgently planning and providing an improvement for the future generations of professionals. From this experience a teaching approach is being developed that consents the integration of an academic education with transcultural skills and achieve greater effectiveness precisely by paying more attention to the diversity of the lives of the subjects in the caring relationship. Training in intercultural skills may lead to two objectives: ensuring the quality of care for the migrant population, in terms of equal opportunities and non-discrimination; transmitting a sense of security to social workers in dealings with the migrant population, whilst reducing stress and limiting erroneous behaviour. The intercultural quality of social services, with the possibility of carrying out cross-cultural social work, will enhance services for migrants (e.g. assistance for social integration, protection of cultural specificities, prevention of violence and discrimination); it will also bring about the rejuvenation of indigenous communities, by reassuring its wary citizens and transforming the whole concept of citizenship, in the social rather than legal sense.