Indigegogy

Author(s):  
Kathy Absolon ◽  
Giselle Dias

A paradigm shift in Indigenous social work education centers on Indigenous knowledge. Indigenous educators are asserting the place of Indigenous knowledge, language, and culture in Indigenous social work education and have been leaders in generating significant changes over the last 40 years. Shifts have occurred over a continuum time spanning pre-contact and contact through colonization, education as a mechanism of the colonial project, movements of Indian control over Indigenous education, decolonizing education, and into the paradigm of Indigegogy. The article focuses on Indigegogy illustrating a deeper look of Indigegogy as an Indigenist paradigm. The intention of this article is to contribute to the understanding and knowledge of Indigegogy within an Indigenist paradigm with the intention of continuing the return of Indigenous social work education back to Indigenous peoples interested in learning the ways of the people, in the ways of the people.

Author(s):  
Kwaku Osei-Hwedie ◽  
Doris Akyere Boateng

As the discussions and debates rage on about the content and direction of social work in Africa, the challenges associated with weaning the profession off its Western and North American roots become apparent. The desire to indigenise or make the profession culturally relevant is well articulated in the literature. Some efforts have been undertaken toward achieving this desire. However, it is evident that despite the numerous discussions and publications, it appears that efforts at indigenising, localising, or making social work culturally relevant have not made much progress. While what must be achieved is somewhat clear; how to achieve it and by what process remain a conundrum. The article, therefore, revisits the issue of making social work culturally relevant in Africa and its associated challenges. Despite the indictment of current social work education and practice in Africa, it appears that many academics and professionals have accepted that what is Western is global, fashionable, and functional, if not perfect. Given this, perhaps, “we should not worry our heads” about changing it. Instead, social work educators and practitioners in Africa should go back to the drawing board to determine how current social work education and practice can be blended with a traditional African knowledge base, approaches and models to reflect and align with the critical principles and ideals within the African context. This is with the hope of making the profession more relevant to the needs of the people of Africa.


Author(s):  
Jabulani C. Makhubele ◽  
Vincent Mabvurira ◽  
Frans K. Matlakala

The enduring dominant influences from Western countries have long been felt in the different spheres of political ideologies, education, financial, technological and intellectual discourses, particularly in Africa. In spite of wide-ranging inequalities, the end of the colonial era has seen a remarkable progress of Third World academic and scientific systems and a significant degree of independence and objectivity. The aim of this article is to analyse language as an impediment to or a resource for, and the dynamics of educational processes towards, the indigenisation of social work education. The authors reviewed and analysed literature as research design. The study adopted the Afrocentricity theory, as it seeks to recreate a historiography that represents and recognises South African cultural influences on human evolution and development. In this article, literature was used to explore the ways in which people use cultural knowledge to inform social work education. The review particularly focuses on language as an impediment to or a resource for the indigenisation of social work education and the dynamics of educational processes. The literature review clarifies that, by virtue of their mainly Eurocentric training, social work educators seldom consider indigenous knowledge of Black South Africans over and above Western-oriented world views, and have neglected the significance of Black South African indigenous knowledge insofar as initiatives towards practice interventions are concerned. Future research should focus on how university policies, material development and dissemination of information can be harmonised to encompass indigenous languages in social work education and training.


2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-219
Author(s):  
Tawanda Masuka

The quest for relevance of social work in Third world countries in the context of mounting socio-economic challenges has necessitated the need to consider transforming social work from social control to social change. Prominent social work academics and practitioners have argued in support of the need for such transformation. This article analyses this transition in the context of the new global definition of social work and how its various aspects can be applied in transforming social work education and practice in Zimbabwe. Key conclusions are that, social work curriculum be re-oriented toward the developmental social work thrust, advocacy and indigenous knowledge be integrated into social work practice.


Somatechnics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-94
Author(s):  
Kristin Smith ◽  
Donna Jeffery ◽  
Kim Collins

Neoliberal universities embrace the logic of acceleration where the quickening of daily life for both educators and students is driven by desires for efficient forms of productivity and measurable outcomes of work. From this perspective, time is governed by expanding capacities of the digital world that speed up the pace of work while blurring the boundaries between workplace, home, and leisure. In this article, we draw from findings from qualitative interviews conducted with Canadian social work educators who teach using online-based critical pedagogy as well as recent graduates who completed their social work education in online learning programs to explore the effects of acceleration within these digitalised spaces of higher education. We view these findings alongside French philosopher Henri Bergson's concepts of duration and intuition, forms of temporality that manage to resist fixed, mechanised standards of time. We argue that the digitalisation of time produced through online education technologies can be seen as a thinning of possibilities for deeper and more critically self-reflexive knowledge production and a reduction in opportunities to build on social justice-based practices.


Author(s):  
Lobelo David Mogorosi ◽  
Dumisani Gaylord Thabede

For relevance to societal reality and challenges, countries should structure their social work education to deal with specific conditions and cultures. From its global North (i.e. Western Europe and North America) origins, social work has contributed to the expansion of the discipline and profession to the developing world, including South Africa. During the three decades (from the mid-1980s until the present day) during which they have taught social work in South Africa, the authors have witnessed half-hearted efforts to really integrate indigenous knowledge into the curricula. In writings and professional gatherings, scant attention was paid to curricula transformation imperatives enriching practice. To its credit, the Association of South African Social Work Education Institutions (ASASWEI) advocates for decolonisation and indigenisation of social work education. Discussing decolonisation and indigenisation in social work curricula, the paper critiques assumptions of global North ideas, cloaked as if universally applicable. An example is about some principles of social casework – a method of choice in South Africa – which mostly disregards cultural nuances of clientele with a communal collective world view that relies on joint decision-making. A culturally sensitive approach is adopted as theoretical framework for this paper. The paper concludes with recommendations that should help ensure that social work curricula strive towards being indigenous, contextualised and culturally appropriate.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document