scholarly journals Faculty as a Barrier to Dismantling Racism in Social Work Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 500-521
Author(s):  
Ebony N. Perez
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
The United States ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Work Education

Facilitating learning around race and racism is often uncomfortable for faculty as well as students. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the experiences of undergraduate social work educators who teach about race and racism in social work programs. I employed a qualitative case study design to understand the lived experience of undergraduate social work educators who teach race specific content. I employed a combination of purposive sampling and snowballing methods to identify nine participants from the Southeast region of the United States. Utilizing a Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework to analyze interviews, several key findings emerged revealing faculty as barriers to facilitating learning around anti-racist content in the classroom. These findings were a) their own racial identity; b) insufficient formal preparation around race and racism; c) lack of faculty comfort with anti-racist content; and d) lack of skill in teaching anti-racist content. Recommendations include the implementation of scaffolded antiracist content throughout social work curricula that would be required by the Council on Social Work Education as part of the accreditation process.  

The Future of Social Work Education

2019 ◽  
pp. 83-88
Author(s):  
Spencer James Zeiger
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
New Faculty ◽  
Online Programs ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
The Future ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Study Participants

Former social work educators, and social work educators standing on the threshold of The Next Chapter, have wisdom to share regarding the future of social work education. We must pay attention to their ideas; our profession is at stake. Topics covered in this chapter include doctoral preparation (with the growth of social work education programs in the United States and a large wave of social work educators retiring, attracting well-prepared new faculty has never been greater); online concerns (most study participants were reluctant to give online programs a ringing endorsement); and the need for increased content on aging (as baby boomers progress through their lifespan, and as life expectancy increases with medical advances, the number of older adults requiring social services will continue to rise).

scholarly journals Critical Race Theory in Social Work Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Monique Constance-Huggins
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Divided Society ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Different Cultures

The multicultural approach is the hallmark of social work education. It pushes individuals to develop awareness of their own perspective and to acknowledge the legitimacy of other cultural views. Yet, it does not provide an opportunity for students to address the striking persistence of disparities between different cultures in the United States. Scholars contend that failure to directly and seriously address the striking inequality in a society leads to a divided society with self-destructive tendencies. In this paper I postulate that fully embracing critical race theory (CRT) in social work education can help to overcome the shortcomings of the current multicultural approach in addressing disparity in the United States. Keywords: critical race theory, multicultural, social work, education

scholarly journals Use of English in Ph.D. programs in Social Work in the United States. An illustrative case study of idiomatic hegemony

2021 ◽  
pp. 165-186
Author(s):  
Smitha Rao ◽  
◽  
Carlos Andrade ◽  
Javier Reyes-Martínez ◽  
Ignacio Eissmann-Araya ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Illustrative Case Study ◽  
Work Education

This study reviews the experiences of non-native English-speaking students in Doctoral Social Work Education in the United States. The research, through a qualitative case study, interrogates regarding the centrality of English in education processes, and generates recommendations for improving them. Findings show that English can play a hegemonic role in Social Work Education and that some educators can exert discrimination based on language proficiency. Among recommendations are the need to promote reflexivity to contribute that educators reconnect with discipline principles as well as review the way their power is exerted in the classroom.

scholarly journals Decentering Whiteness in Social Work Curriculum

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 801-820
Author(s):  
Stephanie Odera ◽  
M. Alex Wagaman ◽  
Ashley Staton ◽  
Aaron Kemmerer
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Racial Identities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Work Education

The social work profession has historically been dominated by the presence and perspectives of whiteness. The centering of whiteness in social work education is reflected in course offerings, course content, assignment construction, and inherent racialized assumptions about who clients and social workers will be in practice spaces. Critical race theory (CRT) and liberation theory provide a framework for considering how to make visible the ways in which white supremacy is embedded in social work education, and to identify strategies for disrupting its presence by decentering whiteness. The purpose of this project is to foster critical thought about ways to dismantle racism and white supremacy in social work educational spaces. Using the reflexive methodology of collaborative autoethnography, the four authors - two course instructors and two students - with varying racial identities and positionalities, reflected on the experiences of coming to, being in, and transitioning out of the course. Areas of convergence and divergence in the autoethnographic reflections revealed strategies such as embracing vulnerability, promoting authentic relationships, and normalizing emotional as well as cognitive engagement for decentering whiteness in social work education. Implications and recommendations for social work educators and students committed to engaging in anti-racist practice are also discussed

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.

Visions of community

1999 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-38
Author(s):  
Pauline Jivanjee ◽  
Susan Tebb
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Women's Movements ◽  
Work Education

Experiences traveling in Kenya provide a backdrop to an examination of the principles and practices of the Harambee and women’s movements in Kenya as they compare with feminist social work practice in the United States. Concluding remarks address the implications of our learning for our work in social work education.

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