Faculty perceptions of curricular deficits in preparing students for practice with Latinos

Abstract

Qualitative responses to a survey of 314 social work faculty from nearly half of the graduate schools of social work (MSW programs) in the United States elucidated valuable information about culturally sensitive social work education. This article explores faculty perceptions of the deficits or MSW programs in preparing students for culturally sensitive social work practice with Latinos. While nearly 90% of social work MSW faculty agreed or strongly agreed that it is important to prepare students for work with this population, many perceive that their programs are not currently able to do so adequately. Faculty opinions concerning the nature of the deficits and ways of remedying said deficits are discussed.

Keywords

• Social work education
• Latinos
• cultural sensitivity