Indigenous cultural as well as institutional social work practices often contribute towards the perpetuation and creation of inequalities. This article explores the experiences of South African foster care adolescents regarding participatory decision-making and the role of indigenous culture and social work practices. The theoretical framework adopted in this article is the developmental social welfare approach augmented by selected elements of the systems theory. A phenomenological study was conducted, and a major finding concluded that the cultural value system of foster adolescents, the institutional social work practices and the developmental approach are in conflict.
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