פרקטיקה של מדיניות כשירת תרבות בחברה מרובת תרבויות

Cultural competence for engagement in policy shaping processes is necessary to promote effective engagement of social workers in policy practice in cross-cultural political situations. Although cultural competence played a prominent part in the literature of the past decade, most papers on the subject have focused on the intercultural encounter between social workers and clients, and on the therapeutic context, with emphasis on the practitioner and the client belonging respectively to the dominant Western culture and the “other” less dominant culture in the society. This article attempts to fill the gap by developing a theoretical culturally competent policy practice model to examine different dimensions of cultural competence required for the engagement of social workers from different ethnic groups in the policy arena. The basic assumption of the conceptual framework discussed below is that social workers’ ethnic origin, cultural values, status and social identity, and political and ideological stances are likely to be expressed in the relationships with their clients, in their perceptions of social structures, and in the way they act in the policy arena. Therefore, the development of cultural competence in policy practice is necessary for effective work in cross-cultural situations