Cultural Safety as a requirement for Co-creating Knowledge with Marginalized Social Work students
Eveline Milliken (University of Manitoba)
Abstract
Based on her research, Toward cultural safety: An exploration of the concept for social work education with Canadian Aboriginal peoples, Milliken discusses a model of co-creating knowledge with Aboriginal social-work graduates who have negotiated the challenges of attaining a university education.
“Cultural safety”, a concept originating in healthcare settings in Aotearoa/New Zealand, was explored with Aboriginal social work graduates in a Canadian context. The concept was found to be useful for assessing the relationships between people of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal culture in this social work education setting, helping graduates to name and locate nuances in relationships. Participants identified three qualities of unsafety which they faced regularly: living in two worlds with a consequent partializing of their experience; living with the pervasive, pernicious, and persistent shadow of racism; and living in a state of constant vigilance in which various forms of silence play key protective roles and means of resistance. Conversely, participants described three dynamics contributing to cultural safety. These were the value of an inclusive spirituality, the importance of valuing individuals as whole persons, and the priority of relationships in social work classrooms. Implications and recommendations for shifting mind-sets, faculty hiring and preparation, student-faculty boundaries, curricula, student intakes, and non-academic supports are suggested.
The research site was the University of Manitoba’s Inner City Social Work Program (ICSWP) in Winnipeg, Canada. Given a history of painful experiences within mainstream Canadian educational institutions, this study adopted an empowerment anti-oppressive perspective. Qualitative participatory research approaches and grounded theory methods were used. Data were gathered through conversations with graduates and non-graduates about the meaning, presence, or absence of cultural safety in their social work education; what contributed to their sense of cultural safety; and what might have added to that sense. Themes arising from individual conversations were reviewed and augmented by two participant Talking Circles (Indigenous research method).
The research process was itself a practice of partnership intrinsic to both the Inner City Social Work Program and the process of co-creating knowledge relevant to both marginalized and dominant cultural groups. An Advisory Group of Aboriginal Social Work instructors provided cultural guidance throughout the study. The research process throughout the study was an evolving partnership which was maintained over several years. The process that developed was new to all the co-researchers.
The process enabled the sharing of stories and experiences of marginalized people to enrich education, garnered genuine interest in contributing to relevant education for work within one’s own marginalized communities, and encouraged increased engagement in research partnerships to enhance documentation and dissemination of indigenous knowledge. The process also helped to overcome barriers to partnership from years of experience with non-culturally safe educational systems/environments where students have experienced racism, marginalization, and exploitation.
