Cultural humility: A qualitative study on the development of self-awareness in social work educators

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the faculty members\u27 perspectives on their racial identity development and how these perspectives impact their cultural self-awareness and cultural humility in the classroom. White social work faculty members voiced their vulnerability and discomfort in addressing race, oppression, and discrimination in the classroom. This study included a total of 10 White social work faculty members from a medium sized northeastern university. Key findings of the study indicate that White faculty members: were primarily clinicians who later became educators, were primarily raised in White communities and the Monoracial upbringing impacted their personal lives, asserted that their upbringing also influenced their societal role, believed that cultural competence cannot be mastered, and stressed the increased need for social workers to receive support or training to become culturally humble. Further, this study offers White faculty members\u27 perspectives on this topic by analyzing faculty members\u27 lived experiences with respect to White racial identity development and Critical Race Theory