Race and culture: The management of ‘difference’ in the learning group

Student demands on social work courses for greater integration of issues of race and culture into every part of the curriculum put staff in danger of feeling guilty and reacting defensively. As a result, hasty and inappropriate changes can be introduced or inaction result from the paralysis that guilt induces. In this article we argue that the demands themselves need to be understood and thought about as a means of ‘learning about’ the nature of ‘difference’ and its consequences for and impact on individual and group identity. Attention to the group process is at the heart of creating a facilitating environment that enables painful and powerful issues to be addressed and understood. Change is fundamental to learning and cannot be addressed by formal teaching methods alone.