A “Culturagram” is a tool that was developed to help social workers assess the specific cultural backgrounds of clients. It helps social workers better understand culture on an individual basis rather than drawing generalizations from a cultural group. Using this tool helps social workers establish a basic foundation of knowledge about their clients and understand client norms within a broad cultural umbrella. The culturagram also works from a strengths-based perspective, and helps social workers view important beliefs, experiences, and points of resilience among clients.
Students: please discuss with the instructor if you feel answers to certain questions are too personal to comfortably share.
Guidelines
Be as descriptive as possible (e.g. “Brother – 7 years older; Step-father – mother remarried x years ago”)
Note: Information shared in the Culturagram will only be seen by the instructor of the course and will be kept confidential. If for some reason the student has strong objections to answering one or more components, please address this with the instructor prior to the assignment due date. Otherwise, the expectation is that students answer ALL components.
For example, under the component REASONS FOR RELOCATING, a professional answer might be: “Though my family has lived in (name of city) since the time of my birth, we have moved x times in the last x years. Reasons for relocating include proximity to better schools, reducing the duration of the commute to place of employment, loss of employment during the Great Recession,” etc. A poor answer would be: “My family has lived in (name of city) my whole life.”
