International Social Work 1–15 © The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0020872816648200 isw.sagepub.com isw Global Standards and the realities of multiculturalism in social work curricula Thomas Akintayo University of Eastern Finland, Finland Juha Hämäläinen University of Eastern Finland, Finland Sari Rissanen University of Eastern Finland, Finland Abstract This study highlights social work’s response to socio-cultural diversity by investigating the reality of multiculturalism in social work curricula vis-a-vis the Global Standards debates. Content analysis technique is used from a transcendental perspective to explore the attributes of multiculturalism in social work curricula via the online directory of the International Association of Schools of Social Work. Each curriculum reflects relative attributes of multiculturalism, identifiable as tenets of the Global Standards – a tool for modeling social work education across cultures. A new theory and a practice model for international social work also emerged from the study, and are proposed for testing. Keywords Global Standards, international social work, multiculturalism, social work curricula, social work education Introduction Against the background of interdependence among nations and continual human migration, schol- ars are wondering how social work education is responding to trends (Jones and Truell, 2012; Lalayants et al., 2012; Nagy and Falk, 2001; Powell and Robison, 2007). One concrete response is the Global Standards for Social Work Education and Training (hereafter referred to as the Global Corresponding author: Thomas Akintayo, Department of Social Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio Campus, P.O. Box 1627, FI-70211 Kuopio, Finland. Email: thomas.akintayo@uef.fi 648200ISW 0 0 10.1177/0020872816648200International Social WorkAkintayo et al. research-article 2016 Article