CHAPTER 4 CULTURALLY COMPETENT AND DIVERSITY-SENSITIVE PRACTICE AND CULTURAL HUMILITY Summary of Content 1. What We Mean by Cultural Competent and Diversity-Sensitive Practice We believe that traditional approaches to enhancing students’ cultural com- petence have been overly simplistic and often reinforce stereotypical thinking by presenting generalizations about individuals with shared identities. We also believe that traditional approaches often lead students to respond defensively, and to feel guilty when they are members of a dominant group. Our emphasis is on enhancing students’ understanding of the need for them to appreciate their and their clients’ social reality, including what this means about how clients view them, based upon the social positions that both occupy. We also note that becoming culturally competent and sensitive to diver- sity is ongoing and never-ending. Social workers are always in the process of understanding the worldviews and internalized identities of their clients and how they shape their clients’ views of life stressors the worker the help that is sought, proffered, or mandated and ways of coping. 2. Understanding Clients’ Internalized Identity We identify three aspects of developing cultural competence, the first of which is to understand clients’ internalized identity and social reality. Students must