Culturally safe practice

The population of Aotearoa New Zealand is becoming increasingly diverse, and youth workers must be cognizant that the young people they work with will reflect this diversity. Therefore, this requires that they develop knowledge and skills for working effectively across cultures.

This topic will focus on the development of your skills in working with young people who identify with a culture that may be different from your own. The concept of culture will be discussed, along with a consideration of cultural safety and cultural competence and its application in youth work practice.

Approximately 27% of the Aotearoa New Zealand population identify their ethnicity as something other than Pākehā, Māori or Pasifika¹.

Youth statistics reflect these statistics proportionally.

Note: The Asian category is similar to the Pasifika group in that it includes a number of countries and ethnicities throughout Asia.

Ara Taiohi values the diverse contexts of youth work, inclusive and equitable practice, and the diversity of the youth population (Ahurea me te Horopaki – Culture and Context)².

With respect to working with other cultures, youth workers are expected to adhere to the Code of Ethics for Youth work in Aotearoa New Zealand (3rd edition) and follow these ethical principles³:

Ko Au, Ko Koe, Ko Tātou

• Acknowledge the importance of whakapapa and act to understand their own cultural heritage
• Recognise and understand how dominant social systems tend to systematically oppress people who hold certain identities (including cultural identities) and privilege others

Mana Taurite | Equity

• Ensure that their practice is equitable
• Are inclusive and ensure accessibility to all services, programmes, events, and activities to all youth regardless of their cultures
• They do not unlawfully discriminate

Mata Huhua | Diversity

• They respect and value the young person’s culture
• They understand all aspects of the lives of young people are influenced by the values of the cultural contexts they belong to

Keep these ethical values and principles in mind as you work through this topic and consider how the Code of Ethics requires the embedding of cultural safety and competence in your practice.

What is culture?

You have already considered this question in earlier topics but given that this topic is called cultural practice it seems pertinent to revisit the concept of culture again. It is a nebulous and, at times, confusing term that is used differently in different contexts. While there is no single, exhaustive, or authoritative definition, we can review several features and factors that define culture.

Culture is an umbrella term that encompasses the social behaviour and norms shared by a group of people. It is the ways of thinking and acting along with material objects and artifacts that together shape a people’s way of life. Culture is shared, and cultural practices and understandings are acquired through socialisation and enculturation.

The non-material aspects of culture include values, belief systems, norms, moral codes, and language, whereas the material aspects are the outward tangible artefacts such as the arts, food, fashion, architecture, and music. It is typically the material aspects of culture that people first encounter and identify when engaging with cultures different to their own.

Norms are essentially the accepted standards of behaviour that are acceptable in a culture. They can be informal understandings or codified into rules and laws. This can create challenges for people in a culture who behave in ways that digress from the ‘norm’, and this can lead to marginalisation and oppression of subgroups within cultures.

Intersectionality

Culture can be based upon age, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexuality, or disability, but it is not limited to these things either. Using age as an example, think about the cultural differences between people from different generations in your community.

The Oxford Dictionary⁴ defines intersectionality as the interconnected nature of social categorisations. This applies to the race, class, and gender of a given individual or group. These different aspects of life can be experienced as overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage. Within cultures, or groups of people that share a common identity, differences exist between members of the group. This means that each person will experience life and their interactions with the social structures and other members of the community differently because of the intersections of their identity. This can create discrimination and oppression at the different points of intersection.

For example, a young heterosexual Pākehā woman and gay Pākehā man of a similar age would encounter differences at the intersections of gender and sexuality, but similarities in age and ethnicity, so they are likely to experience the same situation differently.⁵ To make sweeping generalisations therefore about power of their membership in a particular group (Pākehā), or the struggles of their shared identities as youth, fails to recognise that both these individuals may experience discrimination because of their gender or sexuality.

Having an understanding of intersectionality will assist youth workers greatly to understand both the collective issues faced by youth, and the specific challenges faced by the individual young people they work with.

Take a moment now to reflect on the different aspects of the identities of the young people you work with, such as race, class, gender, and sexuality. How might these overlapping and intersecting parts of their lives cause them to experience the world differently than their peers?

Reflect on the above quotation from Thompson and Taylor⁶ and consider the following question:

• If our cultural identity creates unconscious biases, what can you do to make those biases and ideas become more conscious?

What is cultural safety?

The concept of cultural safety, or kawa whakaruruhau, was developed by noted academic and nurse Irihapeti Ramsden (you can read her obituary at the link provided here). She asserted that people working in health and healthcare organisations needed to consider Māori and other cultural identities that people bring with them as they seek treatment and access services. While original in thinking, kawa whakaruruhau was initially controversial. Over time however, her recommendations have gradually been adopted in nursing, midwifery and other professions both in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally. The approach was developed as way of addressing the inequities in health and social services for Māori, and it also defined culture more broadly than just race/ethnicity.

Cultural safety is more than just being culturally aware or culturally sensitive. It is both a philosophy of a way of working, and it is about making sure that the cultural background of the service provider does not dominate or put at risk the safety and wellbeing of any individual or group of a different cultural background to the professional. The practice of cultural safety in youth work requires that:

• youth workers, and the organisations they work in, examine the potential impacts of their own culture on the interactions they have with young people and their networks
• personal biases, attitudes, assumptions, stereotypes, prejudices, structures, and characteristics that may affect the quality of care provided to young people are acknowledged and addressed
• the obligation is taken seriously to work towards influencing youth services to reduce biases, and to achieve equity within the workforce and working environment

Task: Reflection questions

Look at the quote above, which is from a literature review of cultural safety in healthcare⁷ and consider the following questions:

1. Does the statement above apply equally to youth workers and youth work organisations? Why or why not?
2. What are some of the similarities and differences between healthcare and youth work?
3. Have there been unfair or inequitable outcomes for youth in New Zealand who have interacted with youth work services or organisations?
4. If so, what can be done to achieve equity in youth development, and equity of services to youth all across New Zealand?

The principles of cultural safety

These principles were proposed by Ramsden (2002)⁸ and build on the definitions of cultural safety outlined above.

Note: Culture is defined broadly in this section, including but not restricted to, age or generation, gender, sexual orientation, occupation and socioeconomic status, ethnic origin or migrant experience, religious or spiritual belief, and disability.

The concept of cultural safety is embedded in ethical youth work practice. It provides a framework for examining and critically reflecting on your own practice.

Task: Read and reflect

Select one of the following documents to read and consider how you might apply the ideas and principles to your own practice as a youth worker. While they are targeted at other professions the concepts and ideas are very relevant for culturally safe youth work practice. Also note the alignment with the Ara Taiohi values and ethical principles.

• Nursing Council of New Zealand (2011)⁹Guidelines for Cultural Safety, the Treaty of Waitangi and Māori Health in Nursing Education and Practice.
• Medical Council of New Zealand (2019)¹⁰Statement on Cultural Safety.
• Richardson, F. (2011)¹¹ What is cultural safety and why does it matter? What is cultural safety and why does it matter? | Health Central

You may also find this document helpful in helping to further your understanding of culturally safe practice:

• Centre for Multicultural Youth (2016)¹²Culturally-competent youth work: Good practice guide

Write your thoughts and reflections in your journal and refer to them when you complete your assessment tasks for this Module.

Adolescence can be a time of crisis for LGBTQIA+ or rainbow young people (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or transgender, questioning, queer, intersex, asexual, or other sexuality and gender diverse identities), as highlighted in the statement above.¹³

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and questioning youth as a minority culture are perhaps more misunderstood, stigmatised and experience more oppression than ethnic minority groups. Developing an awareness and understanding of this cultural group and the salient issues that LGBTQIA+ youth face is therefore essential for culturally safe practice.

Central to supporting rainbow people is developing an understanding of the core concepts around biological sex, sexual orientation, and gender. You will find this resource from Rainbow Mental Health New Zealand¹⁴ very helpful in understanding all of this terminology. Using appropriate identity labels is important in establishing rapport and engaging safely with rainbow youth. Take note of the following points made in the resource:

• There are no rules or criteria for using any term, so use the same terms that the young person uses to describe themselves
• Check out terms you are not familiar with
• Be mindful that the use of identity labels is fluid, and different terms may be used in different situations or with different people

As explained in this resource (p. 10) “rainbow people frequently have their identities undermined and questioned in their daily lives”¹⁴ therefore, the use of appropriate labels is integral to culturally safe practice. Understanding the common issues and challenges that rainbow youth face in their journey is also essential to your practice.

Note: There are several versions of the main acronym in use, and you will see a few variations in this section depending on the publication that direct quotes are sourced from. For example, you may see the shorter acronyms used such as LGBT or LGBTI.

The challenges faced by rainbow youth in Aotearoa New Zealand

In 2019 the New Zealand government established a fund to support rainbow youth, seeking to support organisations that work to improve the health and wellbeing of rainbow communities, and in recognition of the challenges faced by youth in this minority cultural group.¹⁷

While these challenges have their own unique characteristics and may seem independent of each other, they are in fact interdependent, interconnected, and mutually condition each other. The salient issues for LGBTQIA+ youth can be categorised as follows:

What these issues highlight is that rainbow youth must be included, visible, and valued in our communities. As youth workers we can facilitate this by working in culturally safe ways with LGBTQIA+ youth, by supporting their positive development, and by advocating for social change. 

Principles of culturally safe practice with rainbow youth

Johns (2009, p. 30) asserts that it is essential to be familiar with culturally safe approaches to working with LGBTQIA+ youth. He states that “to disregard LGBT youth’s own culture means quite possibly alienation from practitioners and increases the chances of them falling victim to harmful behaviour. Having a culturally sensitive approach [to LGBT youth] allows fewer chances of intentional oppressive and discriminatory actions from the practitioner.”¹⁶

The following principles are foundational to effective working relationships with rainbow youth. It is important to reinforce the fact that the responsibility for culturally safe practice lies with you as the youth worker. These principles can be applied when working with all youth and align closely with the expectations of ethical practice prescribed by Ara Taiohi. The principles are as follows. These five principles are taken from the resource mentioned above, Supporting Aotearoa’s Rainbow People¹⁴ (p. 5) and these have been summarised and expanded below with additional information:

As Stuart asserts in the quote above¹⁹ Muslim youth in New Zealand face a number of pressures and expectations related to the overlapping cultural worlds that they inhabit. Islam is one of the fastest growing religious groups in New Zealand, with around 77% of Muslims being recent immigrants.¹⁹ Muslim youth that you are working with are likely to be first generation New Zealanders, with parents who grew up overseas, or to be recent immigrants themselves. The Muslim population in New Zealand is ethnically diverse, as well as diverse in national origins.

There is not a lot of research on developing an understanding of the lived experience of Muslim youth in Aotearoa. Some of the key studies have been referenced in this section for you to read.

Due to the complexity of challenges faced by Muslim youth, they are sometimes portrayed as a group at high risk – struggling to move through life because of the more negative aspects of acculturation, the process in which people from a minority cultural group learn to adopt the practices and values of the dominant or ‘host’ culture, while still retaining their own distinct ways of being in the world. During this process they may encounter stigma and discrimination.

However, as Stuart (2012) goes on to explain in the quote below, international research has shown that the overall outcomes for Muslim youth are largely positive in comparison with their non-Muslim peers.¹⁹

Muslim communities in Aotearoa are diverse and represent a range of ethnicities. Unfortunately, the New Zealand media tend to present “a single view of what it is to be Muslim”²¹. The attitudes of New Zealanders towards immigrants in general is relatively accepting. However, surveys have found that “settlers from all the major migrant groups (United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Korea, Philippines, India, China, South Africa, Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji) are viewed more positively than those from predominantly Muslim countries (Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Somalia). Additionally, over half the survey respondents at the time held the views that Muslims have beliefs, customs and practices that are incompatible with New Zealand values.”¹⁹ (Ward and Stuart 2009, cited in Stuart 2012, p. 28). Therefore, while Aotearoa New Zealand society is generally tolerant, Muslims are at greater risk of discrimination and prejudice.

One of the main goals of positive youth development is supporting young people to achieve their aspirations, and to become contributing members of the groups and communities they live in. Every individual will express their dreams and aspirations in a different way. However, research has indicated that for Muslim youth these aspirations often centre around:

• Achieving success in personal, social, and religious domains of life
• Balancing the competing demands from family, friends, the Muslim community, and wider New Zealand society.

These themes have been distilled into a number of ‘challenge areas’ that are discussed below.

The challenges faced by Muslim youth in Aotearoa New Zealand

When we consider the list of challenges below, we must realise that it is not an exhaustive list, and the way in which these challenges and issues are expressed and lived by Muslim youth will differ greatly from one person to the next.

For Muslim youth in Aotearoa New Zealand, a defining challenge is the process of cultural transition. Muslim youth who were born and raised in New Zealand may still be encountering aspects of this process as they navigate the different cultural worlds of their parents (migrant parents, in many cases) and their peers at school.

This experience or transition is often defined by the term ‘acculturation’. You briefly encountered this term above, but it’s worth restating that acculturation is the process whereby people from one cultural group (in this case Muslim youth) adopt the practices and values of another culture (Aoteraoa New Zealand society) while still retaining their own distinct cultural values and practices. As youth workers you will most likely be supporting Muslim youth through this transition, which includes:

Identity formation and development

The ongoing formation of identity is integral to the development of a sense of self. You learnt in an earlier module about theories of human development. You’ll remember Erikson proposed that during adolescence, psychosocial development revolves around identity and role confusion as youth seek answers to the questions “Who am I?” and “What can I be?”

The development of a robust identity is about achieving a balance between individual, social, cultural, and in some cases religious orientations. Stuart states that this “experience of cultural transition is central to how Muslim young people in New Zealand understand and express themselves”¹⁹(p. 37). The outcomes of this acculturation process depend on how young people engage with and manage the tensions between different resources and risk factors.

Acculturation resources include:

• family – cohesion and obligations
• the intercultural environment – societal values like diversity and multiculturalism, the physical environment, and support from the established New Zealand Muslim community
• religion – the ideological and social functions of Islam and the importance of associated religious practices

The acculturation risks are:

• cultural differences – the incongruence that exists between the ‘heritage culture’ of the young person and the ‘culture’ of New Zealand society for example, for young Muslim women this may be especially difficult given the cultural/religious expectations and obligations around modesty and interacting with males
• barriers to integration
• the associated stress of being a minority
• stigma and discrimination

The outcome of the acculturation process depends on whether Muslim youth work through cultural transition successfully or not. Successful negotiation means that youth have developed a new identity which enables them to function effectively in a culturally complex environment. They have adapted culturally, behaviourally, and psychologically in a way that integrates their cultural and religious upbringing and various aspects of New Zealand ‘culture’. This needs to be achieved in a way that doesn’t diminish their Islamic beliefs and associated lifestyle.

For a clear overview of the acculturation process for Muslim youth in Aotearoa, read the article A qualitative analysis of Muslim young adults’ adaption experiences in New Zealand.²²

Acceptance

As Fuligni (2010) explains, “adolescents from immigrant families do not simply choose one culture or another … they prefer to retain aspects of their family’s culture of origin that provide them with a sense of purpose and motivation to adapt to the norms and practices of their new societies and make them their own.”²⁰ (Fuligni 2010 cited in Stuart and Ward 2011, p. 256). This is achieved through the successful negotiation of cultural transition as described above. This leads to youth feeling a sense of self-acceptance, along with feeling accepted by their own family, the Muslim community, their non-Muslim peers, and accepted in the wider Aotearoa New Zealand society.

Experiences of discrimination

This has been identified as a major source of risk and stress that Muslim youth encounter. Discrimination arises from misconceptions about Islam and its associated practices and behaviours. Women from Muslim communities often face prejudice and discrimination because of the increased visibility created by wearing hijab or burqa.

The experience of prejudice and discrimination can have a negative impact on a young person’s mental health and can lead to isolation and exclusion. It can impact greatly on the feelings of acceptance and the ability of Muslim youth to successfully negotiate the cultural transition process. Being aware of the impacts of discrimination is important, and youth workers may need to demonstrate that they are on the side of the young person by advocating for changes in societal views.

Principles of culturally safe practice with Muslim youth

The following principles are important when establishing effective working relationships with Muslim youth. These are general principles that apply to working with all young people regardless of their ethnicity, cultural background, religion, disability, or sexuality.

As you have learnt throughout this course, working with youth requires an affirmative stance regarding their dreams and aspirations and upholding their mana. Some specific things to consider when working with Muslim youth are:

Engaging in self-reflection

Youth workers in New Zealand working with Muslim youth may have to challenge their views about Islam. Although New Zealand is viewed as generally accepting of Muslims, there is evidence of widespread discrimination and Islamophobia²³. Within Islamophobic discourse, there are a number of myths and negative stereotypes about Muslim people that are shared through conversation in person and online, and often published in news media. As a youth worker, you must reflect on your own views that you hold about Islam, critically examine where these views came from, and seek ways to change any negative assumptions that could impact your ability to work well with Muslim youth.

Learning about Islam and the cultural diversity of Muslim youth

Working effectively and safely with Muslim youth is enhanced when one takes time to learn what they can about Islam as a religion and as a lifestyle. In addition, recognizing the cultural and ethnic diversity in the Islamic world, and seeking to understand the relationship between cultural roots and Islam for the young person. In doing so, youth workers mitigate against the temptation to essentialise and view all Muslim youth as a single group, regardless of where they originate from.

As a youth worker you should take time to ask questions and engage in dialogue with Muslim young people to understand their lived experience. Try to find out what Islam means for them, and how they would like to express themselves in society.

You have now completed this topic on culturally safe practice. Take some time to read the rest of Assessment 4.4, 4.5 and note the instructions for Task 3. Think about how you can incorporate what you have learned about cultural safety into your activity design. You might be able to directly incorporate aspects of cultural safety into your sessions, or you might use it as a framework to inform your thinking and planning.

Your tutor should provide you with the necessary resources to successfully complete the aromatawai (assessment). If you feel you need additional resources, have a conversation with your tutor to discuss this further. The next two topics will also help you to prepare for Task 3 of Assessment 4.4, 4.5.

Kei runga noa atu! You are now ready to continue on to the next topic.