Social Work and Cross Cultural Practice: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Whiteness in Practice
Social work models and theories emanate mainly from a Western tradition, using frameworks of understanding derived from and appropriate to settings in which racial and ethnic difference are constructed as problematic. This tradition continues with recent models and theories such as anti racist practice, empowerment and the latest focus on exclusion try to provide alternatives to these original models. However they still tend to construct ethnicity and race as Other, without casting the gaze on the ethnicity or race of the worker as problematic or in need of scrutiny. Whiteness theorising complements critically reflective practice in ensuring that practitioners focus on their racial and ethnic identification as a crucial factor in their relationships with clients, their understandings and interpretations of the issues and the resulting strategies used in their work. This paper will draw on three years of research and writing about race, social work and cross cultural practice in Australia and New Zealand, and provide some suggestions for a model of practice using Whiteness theory.