The art of not-knowing: Valuing diversity and intercultural competences in international social work education

The article focuses on how international social work education can enable students to become culturally competent social workers. It follows the idea that the vital aspect of internationalizing social work education is not about structural prerequisites. Rather, it is in the specific role of intercultural perspectives and how these perspectives can be integrated into structural frameworks for internationalizing social work education. It is highlighted that the acceptance of not-knowing and not-understanding provides the basis of cultural awareness or global mindedness. Therefore, a model for the development of intercultural competence in social work is presented.

Challenges of International Social Work Research During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons Learnt from A Bilateral Collaborative Study

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a profound impact on people’s lives around the world, has also affected international social work practice and research on social issues. This article explores how international social work research can draw lessons from bilateral research collaborations during the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2021, an international collaborative research project was commenced to examine the practical experiences of social workers in Sri Lanka, with the overall purpose of contributing to development of socio-culturally relevant social work training. Trial semi-structured interviews were conducted using remote tools with five social workers in government or private organisations. The narratives of the interviewees were qualitatively analysed to identify their personal backgrounds of social work education and practice, their experiences of working during the pandemic and their perspectives and values as social workers. Lessons learnt were discussed focussing on the objectives and perspectives of the study, the preliminary arrangements for the research, the methods and considerations. In a context where it is important for social work researchers to promote international studies during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper provides an example of a feasible international cooperative study.

Using auto-ethnography to bring visibility to coloniality

This article traces how coloniality traps research and researchers in the Global North into maintaining the rigidity of its politics and logics through the meaning process. As International Social Work continues to gain popularity, supporting the proliferation of research across borders, the theoretical underpinnings must be unpacked with the context of the collaboration and the cultures involved that give meaning to both. The crux of the article rests within the implications for qualitative research in social work—both within, and across borders as a way of promoting social justice with marginalized communities. It also provides new possibilities for transcending and translating methodologies across the fields of social work and anthropology. To illustrate how research operates under the rubric of coloniality, this article uses autoethnography to uncover the on-the-ground realities of working across localities. The auto-ethnography revealed that despite the goal of sharing control of the research process, tensions related to coloniality emerged. As a result of working in different localities, each team’s processes became distinct—as it was informed by different historical, economic and geopolitical processes.

Formulating and teaching a course in international social work: Some curriculum and pedagogical insights from the Indian context

This article engages with International Social Work education. The subject is new, and in many countries, especially in India, content for teaching has only begun to be formulated. While many attempts are being made across the world to provide international social work with a sound theoretical base, these efforts are only beginning to take shape in India. This article traverses the thinking, experience, and insights of a social work educator who has engaged in such a process – the development and teaching of a course on international social work for postgraduate students of an institute in Mumbai.

Ubuntu and its potential impact on the international social work profession

Ubuntu is the current theme for the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development and represents the highest level of global messaging within the social work profession for the years 2020–2030. This article presents an in-depth description of Ubuntu as a philosophy of social development that can strengthen social work theory and practice in its global aims of supporting community systems of social protection and social justice. The article concludes with advancing proposals on how the learnings from Ubuntu can strengthen international social work ethics, principles and practice.

‘From our ownselves’: Acompañamiento with Indigenous Women in Perú

This article contributes to the ethical and practical conceptualizations of centring marginalized voices in research across borders. This project worked within the parameters of international social work (ISW) in Perú, which is a space where the advancement of globalization and colonization has deepened the historical exclusion and marginality of Indigenous women. To work towards social justice, this project developed creative innovative approaches to engagement and resisted western notions of progress. As research is not neutral, deconstruction of contextual forces that shape research makes visible how knowledge(s) are understood and subjugated in ISW, in particular that of Indigenous women.