Abstract

Social workers are an important part of the efforts to combat intellectual deviation among young people in many countries, including Saudi Arabia. Therefore, this study was conducted on 102 social workers to examine the social worker's actual role (the practitioner) in protecting university students from the dangers of intellectual deviation by identifying the actual practice roles and the challenges they face in three public universities in Saudi Arabia. The study concluded that social workers play many roles to protect students from intellectual deviation, the most important of which is to develop critical thinking among students to think soundly. Nevertheless, the results also indicate that training female students on cultural openness and interest in consolidating identity was one of the least practiced roles in this field. The social worker faces many obstacles in exercising the preventive role, the most important of which is the lack of a media plan to clarify the role of the university social worker in protecting female students from the dangers of intellectual deviation. The second obstacle is the social workers' lack of sufficient skill in changing students' ideas and concepts. In addition, to the students' lack of awareness of the nature of the role played by the social worker when practicing the preventive approach to confront intellectual extremism. The study suggests focusing on cultural sensitivity in exercising the preventive role in combating intellectual extremism among young people and presenting several strategies that contribute to the development of social work in this field.

Keywords

Extremism, youth, professional practice of social work, cultural sensitivity

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