SWB322 Gender, Diversity and Cultural Safety

Unit Outline: Semester 2 2025, Kelvin Grove, Internal

Overview

This unit introduces you to social and cultural justice by recognising the uniqueness of each individual and acknowledging personal cultural perspectives in professional relationships. It emphasises the key tenets of cultural safety to decolonise social work knowledge, fostering culturally safe and anti-oppressive practices through the recognition of diverse perspectives.

The unit addresses various contexts related to gender, age, race, and ethnicity, socio-cultural positioning, professional identities, and organizational and community contexts. The purpose is to develop knowledge, skills, values and dispositions for working respectfully, inclusively and safely with others. Part of the work involves examining your own critical practice and personal histories which shape and influence your critical practice. Cultural safety and decolonisation are core concepts embedded in the unit and encompasses a broad range of diverse lived experiences.  

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. Critically analyse diverse standpoints, theories and approaches around diversity and cultural safety
2. Critique and communicate dominant values, language, discourse, social constructions and systemic inequalities that impact on diverse groups
3. Develop a socially just personal framework for applying culturally safe, anti-oppressive and ethnic sensitive practices for working with diversity across a range of groups and reflect on own professional positioning
4. Apply teamwork and group collaboration skills.

Content

Learning Approaches

This unit will involve a weekly lecture and tutorials. The lecture and tutorials will engage you in key knowledge, activities and processes to develop practice approach to diversity and cultural safety, using a mixture of lecture components, discussion topics, case examples and processing of student observations around specific tasks which contribute to the assessment.

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

You will gain feedback in this unit by participating in weekly lecture and tutorial discussions. You will also receive written and verbal feedback on your proposed approach to both assessments and comments on summative assessment in addition to criteria sheets.

You will be asked to critically explore your practice approach to cultural safety and critical practice as part of your future professional framework. As part of this, you will consider how you apply insights generated from the unit alongside your personal and study experiences, as well as managing any stereotypes, constructions or assumptions.

Assessment

Overview

The assessment in this unit targets a broad range of capabilities including teamwork, communication, critical thinking and analysis, and theoretical and practical understanding. There are two components: 1) critical essay and 2) group presentation. The (individual) critical essay explores the concept of cultural safety in relation to lived experience of a diverse group (refugee, immigrant or another group) to demonstrate your culturally safe practice approach as a critical practitioner. The next assessment task is a group presentation which involves a counter-storying process where you unearth and unsettle dominant and unfair narratives about gender, culture, ethnicity, or age in relation to a chosen social issue. The second piece of assessment is authentic and based on real world activities you will be asked to do when you graduate. 

Unit Grading Scheme

7- point scale

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Critical Essay

In this task, you are required to explore critical practice in working with diverse populations, focusing on cultural safety and promoting decolonising approaches for cultural diversity and equity. You will examine the concepts of cultural safety, identity, and values associated with critical practice through the lens of the lived experiences of refugees, immigrants, and other marginalised groups who have faced racism or other forms of oppression.

Consider the structural dimensions of privilege, social exclusion, and power relationships in relation to cultural practice. You will offer suggestions that enhance cultural safety in practice, and counters dominant traditional approaches to working with diverse groups. Further details will be provided on the Canvas site in the Assessment 1 Task Details.

This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.

Assessment: Group presentation

The purpose of this assessment task is to build your capacity to work as an intra-professional team in examining a social justice issue. In this task, you and your group will critique dominant discourses that shape the ways social justice issues are seen and responded to.

Assuming the role of a critically oriented practitioner, you and your group will identify a relevant social justice issue for exploration. Drawing on the literature, theories and concepts examined through this unit you will craft and engage in a counterstory telling process to examine the issue your group has selected.

The counterstory telling process will be presented in the form of a PowerPoint presentation to an audience of students, practitioners and clients in a mock conference. The PPT presentation is followed by a demonstration of the product - short digital story - illustrating the 'counterstory' your group developed regarding the social justice issue.

Students will receive a group mark for this task. Peer members who do not contribute to the group work task, presentation and/or short digital story will be individually graded.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.

The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.

You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.

Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Resources

Risk Assessment Statement

Students are expected to display integrity in participation in planned activities while showing respect and sensitivity to others in relation to gender, sexuality and cultural diversity.

Course Learning Outcomes

SW04 Bachelor of Social Work

1. Critique and apply coherent theoretical, practical and contextually relevant social work knowledge, skills and values, and cultivate a commitment toward meeting diverse clients and community needs. [Knowledge, Practice, Values and Disposition]
   Relates to: Group presentation
2. Construct and implement strategies for engaging in critical thinking and decision-making, utilising advanced research knowledge and skills to inform culturally safe practice, and promote social justice from diverse perspectives. [Practice, Knowledge, Values and Disposition]
   Relates to: Group presentation
3. Access, evaluate, and utilise relevant social work information that informs and assists in intra- and inter-professional communication in a range of contexts, through effective oral, written and digital interactions. [Practice, Knowledge]
   Relates to: Group presentation
4. Design a plan of action for working within socially progressive, anti-oppressive, culturally safe and ethical practice, that embody an autonomous and collaborative evidence-based orientation to social work, integral to the standards of professional social work practice. [Values and Disposition, Practice]
   Relates to: Group presentation
5. Critically examine tenets of diversity and diverse perspectives in social work, and advocate for a socially just society and the promotion of human dignity that reflect different social, political, cultural and historical circumstances, on the beliefs, values and aspirations of various groups, including Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. [Values and Disposition, Knowledge, Practice]
   Relates to: Group presentation

SW05 Bachelor of Social Work (Honours)

1. Critically evaluate theoretical, practical and contextually relevant social work knowledge, skills and values and, as a change facilitator, meet diverse client and community needs that promote social justice
   Relates to: Group presentation
2. Formulate and implement strategies using advanced knowledge and research skills to analyse, consolidate and synthesise social and practice evidence to generate solutions and to inform professional practice and decision-making
   Relates to: Group presentation
3. Develop advanced knowledge, skills and values, to inform culturally safe communication and effective intra- and inter-professional collaboration and with a wide range of audiences and contexts, including accessing, evaluating and utlising digital health information.
   Relates to: Group presentation
4. Construct and implement strategies for practising collaboratively and independently, focused on socially progressive, anti-oppressive, culturally safe and ethical practice, integral to the standards of professional social work practice
   Relates to: Group presentation
5. Access, evaluate and utilise social work information to advocate for a socially just society and the promotion of human dignity and worth that reflect different social, political, cultural and historical circumstances, on the beliefs, values and aspirations of various groups, including Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations
   Relates to: Group presentation