Book review

Title: Cross-Cultural Child Development for Social Workers
Author(s): Robinson, Lena
Year: 2007
Edition: 1
Number of pages: 232
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 0333726103
Price:£18.99

Reviewer: Emma Griffiths, 3rd year BA Social Work student, Sheffield Hallam University
Review date: 29/08/2007

This text would support the learning and teaching of modules on topics such as international social work studies, values, anti-oppressive practice and psychology. It should be considered for reading lists specific to individual modules, but I would not include it on a general social work reading list as it is very topic specific and has little space for students to consider developing their own thoughts.

The content of this book felt comfortable to read as a year two or three student, but it assumes some knowledge of social work key theories so may be too complex for year one students.

Quotes from this book could be included in lectures and many of the topics could be used for points of discussion within a seminar e.g. ‘culture-bound values’, ‘parenting styles’ and ‘mixed parentage children and young people’. I am not certain I would recommend this for teaching; however, it does provide good general background knowledge on the problems with current approaches in social work relating to ethnicity and culture.

This text is aimed at social work degree students as well as qualified social workers wishing to develop their practice. Although the author does make an effort to explain e.g. Attachment Theory, Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, it is not the purpose of this book and I would recommended readers to have some prior knowledge of such approaches.

The strengths of this novel are its friendly approach, the vast amount of literature that informs the discussions and the variety of cultures considered within discussions.

Weaknesses are mainly to do with layout, e.g. large blocks of text, confusing headings within chapters, constant referencing, all of which inhibit and stifle the flow of the text for the reader. I did not feel the book was laid out in a logical manner and had great difficulty looking up specific things within it or reading a particular topic. In addition, consecutive paragraphs often start with the same words making it feel as if the author is repeating herself when she actually is not.

Helpfully, this text invites the reader to examine their own cultural beliefs and also their assumptions of other cultures. However, it is rather unhelpful that Robinson does not suggest ways for students and practitioners to adapt and develop their own practice e.g. key points to reflect on, activities to complete, to extend the impact of her text. Further reading is not directed.

This book thoroughly examines up to date literature and research with many of the findings coming from studies completed between 2000 to 2007, with references also to current journals and texts such as Journal of Social Work, Culturally Competent Practice (Lum 2003). However, whilst reading this book I felt it omitted to consider the impact of different cultures within the broadly labelled ‘Western Approach’.

Overall, this text discusses the topic with enthusiasm and commitment, the content is well supported by literature and research and the author approaches many complex issues that are not widely discussed in other literature. However, I feel the layout of this text lets down the content and makes the information difficult to absorb for any reader, but particularly students struggling to understand a wide range of topics in short spaces of time.