Cultural Humility in Community Practice: Reflections from the Neighborhood Story Project

Authors

  • Amie Thurber Vanderbilt University

Keywords:

community practice, cultural humility, participatory action research, neighborhood change

Abstract

Although cultural humility is frequently emphasized in social work education as a lifelong commitment to reflection and action, there are few examples of what this looks like in practice—particularly outside the scope of clinical health settings. This paper situates the need for practitioner reflections on cultural humility and offers an autoethnographic case study of efforts to cultivate cultural humility in myself and among participants in a neighborhood-based action research project. I consider cultural humility from three relational positions: holding oneself accountable, creating conditions for cultural humility within groups, and acknowledging how group members co-create conditions for cultural humility.

Author Biography

Amie Thurber, Vanderbilt University

Amie Thurber’s research, practice and teaching interests involve reducing social inequality in neighborhoods, and developing best practices for community-engaged teaching and research. Amie is currently a doctoral candidate in Vanderbilt University’s Community Research and Action program.

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Published

2020-05-08

How to Cite

Thurber, A. (2020). Cultural Humility in Community Practice: Reflections from the Neighborhood Story Project. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, 26(2), 75–88. Retrieved from https://reflectionsnarrativesofprofessionalhelping.org/index.php/Reflections/article/view/1744

Issue

Section

Cultural Humility in Education and Practice