The Continuous Improvement Cultural Responsiveness Tools (CICRT) : creating more culturally responsive social workers
- Authors: Bennett, Bindi , Morse, Claire
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Social Work Vol. 76, no. 3 (2023), p. 315-329
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- Description: Social workers play a pivotal role in addressing equity and diversity within Australia using both culturally responsiveness skills and knowledge. This article describes a research project that resulted in the development of the Continuous Improvement Cultural Responsive Tools that can be used by social workers in their practice. This was a large project conducted over three years, which involved engagement and consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community social workers. The community engagement and consultation process included the provision of cultural governance and participation in interviews. The tools developed are linked to seven key domains (Ngurras) that aim to increase the skills, knowledge, and overall confidence of social work practitioners in their culturally responsive practice. This article discusses the tools that provide a clear structure to guide social workers' critical engagement in becoming more culturally responsive social workers and individuals when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. IMPLICATIONS Social work practices need to address the social injustices faced by Aboriginal Peoples by becoming more culturall responsive. The tools were developed to support social workers in their practice to self-assess their transformation in becoming culturally responsive social workers. Continuous improvement in collaborative and culturally responsive social work will improve services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Aboriginal social work academics: failure to thrive due to having to fight to survive?
- Authors: Bennett, Bindi
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian social work Vol. 75, no. 3 (2022), p. 344-357
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- Description: The Behrendt report (2012) highlighted the significant lack of representation of Aboriginal people in higher education. It called for a collaborative approach by governments, universities, and professional bodies to drive systemic changes. In the last decade, this has resulted in an increase of Aboriginal students, staff, and researchers. This article presents a qualitative research study in which Aboriginal social work academic participants described their experiences of curriculum changes, workload, and research in the academy. Implications for universities, and social work programs, in particular, show where more is needed in the form of antiracist action plans and follow-through with these to address failure to thrive due to having to fight to survive in the academy. IMPLICATIONS Aboriginal social work academics are continuing to find academia to be socially and politically unsafe and unfairly competitive. Universities are experienced by Aboriginal social work academics as being often unsupportive and untrustworthy workplaces. Non-Aboriginal social work academics need to increase their commitment to, and actions regarding, antiracist practice with their Aboriginal colleagues.
An intercultural critical reflection model
- Authors: Redfern, Helen , Bennett, Bindi
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of social work practice Vol. 36, no. 2 (2022), p. 135-147
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- Description: Critical reflection is an important tool used by social workers to develop culturally responsive education, practice, and supervision. Current frameworks provide clearly defined processes for learners and professionals to create culturally safe learning and practice. However, in the models currently used in Australian social work, there is no representation of Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing. In this paper, we introduce a new model which integrates, for the first time, both Western and Aboriginal Peoples' epistemologies in critical reflection. This model is intended to be used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous learners and professionals who are dedicated to creating culturally safe spaces that acknowledge and integrate Aboriginal Peoples' culture and wisdom. The aim of the model is to support social workers to reflect deeply, then integrate and act on their learning in a culturally responsive way that may create transformative practice.
Australian social work: Proposed guidelines for articles by aboriginal and torres strait islander authors and about aboriginal and torres strait islander issues
- Authors: Bennett, Bindi
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian social work Vol. 75, no. 3 (2022), p. 273-279
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- Description: Australian Social Work (ASW) is an international peer-reviewed journal reflecting current thinking and trends in social work. Authors intending to submit to the Journal should prepare their manuscripts with both a social work audience and an international audience in mind. It is strongly recommended that authors familiarise themselves with articles previously published in the Journal. In this article recommendations are made and Guidelines suggested for the future direction for ASW and other journals in the explicit, respectful acknowledgement of the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait knowledges to published work. Terminology: In these Guidelines, Indigenous refers to all First Nations peoples of the World. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander refers to the unceded sovereign First Peoples of Australia.
Creating a culturally safe space when teaching aboriginal content in social work: A scoping review
- Authors: Fernando, Terrina , Bennett, Bindi
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian social work Vol. 72, no. 1 (2019), p. 47-61
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- Description: Teaching Aboriginal content in social work education presents risks of retraumatisation for students. There are international calls for a trauma-informed teaching model that creates cultural safety in the classroom. This study aimed to develop a trauma-informed model for social work education by reviewing the literature on cultural safety for Aboriginal peoples. This model incorporates key aspects of ensuring Aboriginal cultural safety: de-colonise social work education collaborative partnerships build relationships critical reflection develop cultural courage and yarning and story-telling. It provides a valuable framework for creating a more equitable teaching and learning environment that also ensures the essential academic content is covered. IMPLICATIONS Trauma underlies the historical, contemporary and cultural narratives of Aboriginal peoples. Students engaging in Aboriginal content that is traumatic can mean connecting with trauma that has occurred in their own lives. Trauma-informed teaching and learning will ensure that educators create culturally safe spaces that enable students to engage well with content. The adoption of the framework proposed in this paper may lead to the creation of a culturally safe space for teaching and learning in social work education.
Cultural responsiveness in action: Co-constructing social work curriculum resources with aboriginal communities
- Authors: Bennett, Bindi , Redfern, Helen , Zubrzycki, Joanna
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: The British journal of social work Vol. 48, no. 3 (2018), p. 808-825
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- Description: Abstract Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing have recently become core social work curriculum in Australian social work degrees and are regarded as central to decolonising Australian social work education and producing culturally responsive social work practitioners. Effectively teaching these knowledges, values and skills requires multiple strategies including the development of new curriculum resources which demonstrate the integration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing in practice. This article presents the theory and practice of co-constructing two filmed case studies with Aboriginal stakeholders which address a range of student learning needs. These powerful case studies are informed by Aboriginal knowledges and demonstrate the skills and values that the community state they want and need from social workers. Engaging in a community-led process provides social work educators with opportunities to build relationships with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, thus modelling cultural responsiveness in action.
Wayanha: A decolonised social work
- Authors: Green, Sue , Bennett, Bindi
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian social work Vol. 71, no. 3 (2018), p. 261-264
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- Description: After much careful consideration of what we would like to say to social workers and the social work profession, we wanted to start with the acknowledgement that social work, for the most part, has owned its own actions of the past and is taking steps to make amends for past actions and to learn and grow from past mistakes. However, there is still something missing. As a profession, whether that is in the field, within education and training, or as the professional body, we do not seem to be able to quite get there. So, what is it that we are missing?