Embedding Cultural Knowledge in Social Work Education: Reflections from Master of Social Work Students at a Regional Australian University

Social work students (SWS) are increasingly demanding diverse curriculums and training in skills that will help them decentre whiteness as their default position of professional practice. This article reports on findings from a qualitative study exploring how Masters of SWS at a regional Australian university engaged with content delivered in a core unit with a strong focus on anti-racist, anti-oppressive practices. The unit's structure and delivery facilitated a dialogue that compelled students, especially those from dominant cultural groups, to 'think of and reflect on themselves as 'raced' rather than the invisible 'norm' to which all other cultural groups are compared' (, p. 8).The unit raised complex questions about how social services and policies unwittingly reproduce discourses of rescue and saviourism towards racially and culturally marginalised communities and how students could challenge such practices. The article's emphasis on supporting SWS towards a triangulated trajectory reports on how experiences of cultural knowledge in the classroom are facilitated by (i) the experience (or lived expertise) of the educator, (ii) the willingness of the student to interrogate their intersectional social positioning in society and (iii) a practice framework that focuses on curiosity and humility rather than competence. This article reports the findings of a study investigating how a class of Master of Social Work students (SWS) at an Australian university engaged with a unit content delivered through an anti-racist pedagogical approach. The unit's structure and delivery compelled students, especially those from dominant cultural groups, to 'think of and reflect on themselves as 'raced' rather than the invisible 'norm' to which all other cultural groups are compared' (, p. 8). The findings showed that SWS want more content that does not shy away from both the history and the current reality of their work and are demanding knowledge that provides sharper, more targeted insights into the whiteness of the profession as a way to prepare themselves to practice safely in a diversifying multicultural Australia.