Kendall Institute: Global and International Competence

Research has suggested that global and intercultural learning can help students develop a greater sense of agency and enable them to engage in efforts toward social change, key components of the preparation for social work practice. 

In collaboration with the Katherine A. Kendall Institute for International Social Work Education, the Diversity Center has developed a curricular resource to help educators build students’ global competence, of which an essential component is intercultural competence. Interculturality fosters the ability to dialogue and form equitable and respectful relationships with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds, both on a professional and personal level.

To access quality international literature, the Diversity Center has teamed up with Words Without Borders Campus, known as WWB Campus, an organization that makes contemporary international literature in translation and related multimedia learning resources accessible to students and educators. 

The resources include author and translator bios and representations of the socio-geographic-political and cultural context of the stories. WWB Campus curates short-form literature, including memoirs and other narrative nonfiction and fiction. Together, the WWB and the Diversity Center resources inform treatment, service delivery, program planning, community partnerships, advocacy, policy, and other areas of social work practice across a broad range of fields. See our resource guide for teaching suggestions.

The following prerecorded webinars provide an introduction on how to use this resource. The content is designed to be integrated into existing courses. The webinars are conducted by former Diversity Center Director Yolanda Padilla, MSSW, PhD; Nadia Kalman, MA, MEd, editor and curriculum designer at Words Without Borders Campus; and Natasha Quynh Nhu Bui La Frinere-Sandoval, MSW, doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin Steve Hicks School of Social Work, who is serving as graduate research assistant on the project. 

Preparing Students to Practice in an Interconnected World (44:16): This video begins with the importance of teaching social work students to understand global connections. It introduces the use of literature to teach about global issues in conjunction with multimedia resources with direct applications to practice. Finally, it shows how to use the resource and provides a teaching unit. Originally presented at the 2021 Global Well-Being and Social Change Conference. 

Using Literature to Help Students Connect to the Lives of Service Users in the Context of an Interconnected World (39:00): This video is another version of the above webinar but focuses more on the pedagogy related to the use of literature. It also expands the step-by-step teaching unit. Originally presented at the 2021 European Conference on Social Work Education.

The Center for Diversity and Social & Economic Justice has created a resource that faculty can provide to students on tools for critical thinking on diversity and social justice in the form of a bookmark. The bookmark is provided in both English and Spanish* 

*Traducción cortesía de la Asociación Nacional de Escuelas de Trabajo Social de Puerto Rico