WS2020:04
Working Across Cultures
Townsville, Cairns, Mackay
HECS Band 1
26 hours lectures, 12 hours tutorials or the equivalent in mixed mode delivery. Semester 2 and flexible delivery.
Staff: Dr S Gair (Townsville campus).
The purpose of this subject is to develop student awareness and understanding of key concepts in cross-cultural practice in relation to the cultural construction of knowledge, racism and social justice. The focus of the subject will be on the experiences of racial ethnic groups in Australia through historical and contemporary analyses of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and of economic and refugee migration to Australia.
Learning Objectives:
- to assist students to develop an understanding of themselves as cultural beings by understanding the concepts of culture, cultural products and the social construction of knowledge;
- to outline the historical development of black/white relations in Australia since colonisation and the implications of this experience for social welfare theory and practice;
- to identify the nature and extent of the impact of economic and refugee migration on Australian society, particularly since WWII and the implications of this experience for social welfare theory and practice;
- to identify the structural forces determining the socio-economic and political status of racial and ethnic groups in Australia and to clarify the main elements of Government social and economic policy for racial and ethnic populations in Australia;
- to identify and critique racist social welfare attitudes and practice and to develop social welfare theories and models of practice based on social justice.
Assessment by written assignments and/or presentation (100%).