Social work faculty's attitudes regarding spiritual and religious diversity as part of multicultural social work education

The purpose of this study was to determine social work faculty's attitudes toward the inclusion of content related to religion and spirituality as a part of multicultural social work education. Self-administered questionnaires were completed by 27 faculty members in the California State University, Long Beach's Department of Social Work.;The study found that social work faculty's attitudes toward the inclusion of educational content related to religion and spirituality in the curriculum could be generally characterized as cautiously supportive. The overwhelming majority of faculty members saw religion/spirituality as being a part of multicultural diversity and believed that social workers should be both knowledgeable and skilled enough in this area to be able to work with diverse client groups. Ninety-six percent of the faculty respondents stated that they would support the inclusion of an elective course on religion and spirituality in social work as part of the social work curriculum. Concerns about potential conflicts are addressed.