Constructive Marginality: Conflicts and Dilemmas in Cultural Competence and Anti-Oppressive Practice

Abstract

This paper argues that social work education in the United Kingdom (UK) needs to develop teaching cultural competence in order to respond to the increasing cultural diversity of service users. In recognising this it argues that anti-oppressive practice (AOP) is central to this task in linking issues of social justice with culture. The paper explores some of the dynamics of culture and argues that a more complete conceptualisation of how cultures are constituted will enable social work to be more effective. It will argue that cultures are not monolithic. Culture is a site of struggle around which different groups seek to imprint their values as the cultural norm upon less powerful others. It discusses the inevitable conflicts that student social workers face in intervening in different cultural practices that may be considered harmful. It discusses criteria for working in cultural dialogue to enable student social workers to work in an anti-oppressive way. In negotiating the conflicts inherent in social work practice with different cultures it argues that student social workers adopt a position of ‘constructive marginality’.