scholarly journals “Theory’s Cool, But Theory With No Practice Ain’t Shit…”

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 672-689
Author(s):  
Dale Dagar Maglalang ◽  
Smitha Rao
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Social Work Students ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Cultural Wealth ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Critical Theories ◽  
Education Needs ◽  
Work Education

As it stands today, social work education falls short in providing critical theories and frameworks that reflect the experiences of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Such insufficiencies maintain racism and other forms of oppression that plague both social work pedagogy and praxis. To challenge and dismantle hegemonic curricula, social work education needs to do more to provide the knowledge and tools necessary for anti-racist social work. The purpose of this article is to present five critical theories and frameworks written by Indigenous and People of Color scholars that social work educators, researchers, and practitioners can integrate into their teaching and practice to raise the critical consciousness of social work students. These five postulations are Compa Love, Racial Triangulation Theory, Breath of Life Theory, kapwa, and cultural wealth. The article will also discuss implications for social work education and practice. Centering the voices of under-represented scholars whose epistemologies are rooted in the lived experiences and communities that the field of social work traverses provides a pathway for social work education and practice to be tailored towards self-determination for all.

scholarly journals Applying anti-oppressive approach to social work practice in Africa: reflections of Nigerian BSW students

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Solomon Amadasun ◽  
Tracy Beauty Evbayiro Omorogiuwa
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Social Work Students ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose As the next generation of social workers in a continent bedecked by oppressive customs, it is cardinal that the voices of social work students be heard. This study aims to share the reflections of Nigerian BSW students about anti-oppressive approach to professional practice. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted among fourth-year social work students at one of the elite universities in the southern region of Nigeria. Findings Results reveal that, although willing to challenge oppressive practices, social work students are ill-equipped to apply anti-oppressive approach to social work practice in Nigeria. Research limitations/implications This study makes an important contribution to the field and to the existing literature because the findings have broader implications for social work education in Nigeria. Practical implications In enforcing the suggestions of this study, it is expected that social work education will become able to produce competently trained students who are only knowledgeable about anti-oppressive social work but are equally prepared to address Nigeria’s myriad oppressive practices that have long undermined the nation’s quest for social development. Social implications The application of the anti-oppressive approach to social work practice is integral to ridding society of all forms of overt social injustice and other forms of latent oppressive policies. Originality/value Suggestions are offered to Nigerian social work educators toward ensuring that students are not only well equipped in the understanding of anti-oppressive social work but also ready to apply this model to professional social work practice following their graduation.

scholarly journals Delivering social work education on inquiry reports addressing harm to vulnerable people: An exploratory study

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stan Houston ◽  
Mary McColgan
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Organizational Context ◽  
Social Work Students ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Work Education

Summary This article outlines a research study examining how social work education, in relation to case reviews and inquiry reports, was structured and delivered to a range of social work students in Northern Ireland. Adopting a qualitative design, nine social work educators in the region were interviewed and asked about their approach to presenting findings from the reports to social work students and the issues this raised for the research sample. The results revealed three key themes: the salience of the organizational context; how learning was structured and organized; and the various attempts to build social work competence. Findings These themes showed that the co-ordinators were delivering a complex area of knowledge. It was clear that they had given considerable thought to the essential messages from the reports even though the constraints of time and setting were apparent. Moreover, they employed a range of innovations in the way the reports were theorized and how the knowledge coming from them was disseminated. The importance of the ‘fear factor’ within students was a primary issue affecting teaching and learning strategies. Applications The findings can be used as a foundation for further research into this area, looking at student feedback, the attainment of learning outcomes and, importantly, ways of enhancing teaching and learning approaches on this sensitive area. The research can also contribute to the identification of social work educators' learning needs and how to approach emotionally laden case studies of significant harm to vulnerable individuals.

An Early Planning Model for Increasing International Content in Social Work Education

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Joanne Riebschleger ◽  
DeBrenna LaFa Agbényiga
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Social Work Students ◽  
Curriculum Planning ◽  
Planning Model ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Planning Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Globalized World

Social work educators are challenged to prepare social work students for practice in an increasingly globalized world. They may respond to this situation with a broad-spectrum planning approach, but knowledge is limited about how to begin. This conceptual analysis proposes an early curriculum-planning model that can be used to increase international content within social work education programs. Educators can prepare, scan, and plan for increasing international curriculum content. They can consider student learning opportunities within classrooms and field sites of their institutions, as well as those of international host institutions, as shown in examples drawn from the social work education literature. The model provides a place for social work educators to begin the journey of international curriculum planning and enhancement.

scholarly journals Relational Learning and Teaching with BME Students in Social Work Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Jean Dillon ◽  
Diana J Pritchard
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Social Work Students ◽  
Academic Experience ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
Student Relationship ◽  
Work Education

Given the imperative to redress the education inequalities between Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and White students, this contribution explores advances and challenges from within Social Work education (SWE) in relation to the experiences of Black social work students. Drawing on critical race theories and the concept of racial battle fatigue, it explores the impacts of race and racism on students’ academic experience and wellbeing. It proposes the significance of relational wellbeing which has been a constant strand within Social Work education and comprises a valuable approach to the decolonisation process within higher education (HE). Linking this to critical pedagogy, it highlights the role of staff to build safety, confidence and trust to support students to overcome prior education experiences of under-attainment, disadvantage and social marginalisation. Despite the pervasiveness of managerialism within HE, which compromises the teacher-student relationship and emphasises measured changes in student ‘outcomes’, Social Work educators are invited to nurture safe and transformational learning environments.

scholarly journals The dialogue between what we are living and what we are teaching and learning during Covid-19 pandemic: Reflections of two social work educators from Italy and Spain

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 273-283
Author(s):  
Elena Cabiati ◽  
Emilio José Gómez-Ciriano
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Social Work Students ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Work Education ◽  
The Eu

Italy and Spain have been the most-affected countries in the EU by Covid-19 pandemic. Along with the health, social and economic life of the countries, social work and social work education have been turned upside down. In this essay, the authors reflect on the pandemic’s impact on social work education activities through social work students’ lenses. Accompanying Italian and Spanish students in reflecting on what they were living both, personally and as citizens during Covid-19 and witnessing how, paradoxically, the pandemic offered new opportunities to make important discoveries about key social work issues.

Critical Pedagogy in Online Social Work Education: Changing Conceptions of Time in the Neoliberal University

Somatechnics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-94
Author(s):  
Kristin Smith ◽  
Donna Jeffery ◽  
Kim Collins
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Digital World ◽  
Learning Programs ◽  
Recent Graduates ◽  
Work Education

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.

"Do not Worry Your Head": The Impossibility of Indigenising Social Work Education and Practice in Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwaku Osei-Hwedie ◽  
Doris Akyere Boateng
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
North American ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Culturally Relevant ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
The People ◽  
African Context ◽  
Drawing Board ◽  
Work Education

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.

scholarly journals Analyzing the Integration of Human Rights into Social Work Education

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 100
Author(s):  
Paulette Andrea Henry
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Social Work Students ◽  
Collective Responsibility ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Work Education ◽  
The University

<p>The understanding of human rights are important to social work education and practice especially since the global definition of social work highlights the dual role of social work as a practice based profession and academic discipline emphasizing the principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversity. Concomitantly, social work education must ensure that students know and understand human rights laws especially since human rights are inherent to all human beings and are often expressed and guaranteed by international law which Governments are expected to uphold. Social workers have a commitment as duty bearers in supporting governments in the upholding of those agreements pertinent to the wellbeing of the people. Using the University of Guyana as a frame of reference this paper examined students’ knowledge on international agreements prior to leaving the University since these laws not only speak to nation states but to universal practices and many social work issues transcend borders. This paper utilized a mixed method approach to ascertain students’ awareness of international human rights laws and their perceptions on the applicability to practice. The findings show that there is limited knowledge amongst social work students on human rights covenants and conventions. This assessment is instructive to social work educators locally and internationally pointing to the need for integration into the curricula. It is imperative that generalist practitioners leave the University with a clear understanding of these laws as many practice issues are transnational. There will be the need for international social work to be a taught course for undergraduates training to become generalist practitioners.</p>

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