The Misconstruing of Multiculturalism: The Stanford Debate and Social Work

Abstract

The current social discourse on multiculturalism represents one of the most acrimonious public exchanges on the subject. Even the social work field has been polarized. This article asks if the profession, with its long-term commitment to cultural diversity, has any better grasp of the complex and subtle dimensions of the concept of multiculturalism than the recent participants in the controversy at Stanford University. To set the issues and illustrate how the complexity of the multicultural perspective has been lost in the ideological dispute surrounding the term, the article examines the definition of multiculturalism in the literature on intercultural communication that provides the rationale for an alternative model. The author uses this perspective to evaluate social work's history in implementing a multicultural curriculum. Similarities in conceptual dilemmas suggest that a first step in developing a meaningful dialogue might be a paradigmatic shift from viewing multiculturalism as merely a practice extension of a minority perspective to a framework that can help all groups in society orient their thinking at a transcultural level.