Search results for ‘Subject term:"social work education"’ Sort:
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Critical questions on critical social work: students’ perspectives
- Author:
- BARAK Adi
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 49(8), 2019, pp.2130-2147.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This research study explored the perspectives of social work students (n = 118) in the final semester of their studies regarding the implementation of critical social work in their future practices. Using performance ethnographies to collect data, students were asked to share their perspectives about implementing critical social work both in individual interventions and as a way to change the practice of mainstream social work organisations. Research ethnographies were analysed using a descriptive phenomenological approach, in an attempt to describe the shared essential experience of participants. Results demonstrated that students are influenced by several lines of thinking that come into direct conflict with one another: (i) they feel that critical social work is essential for individual interventions while also feeling that critical social work is not a priority for individual interventions and (ii) they feel that critical social work should and could change mainstream social work organisations while also feeling that critical social work should not and could not change mainstream social work organisations. These results contribute to a better understanding of the barriers in implementing critical social work, as well as the dilemmas and questions that should be addressed in social work education. Implications for social work education are outlined. (Publisher abstract)
Persuasion: infusing advocacy practice with insights from anti-oppression practice
- Author:
- CURRY-STEVENS Ann
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Work, 12(4), July 2012, pp.345-363.
- Publisher:
- Sage
This article seeks to advance the strategic dimensions of advocacy efforts undertaken by social workers. It draws upon ideas about motivators used by educators to reach learners on issues of social justice, and suggests that applying messages to policy practice allows advocates to craft advocacy practices that draw from these motivators, which have been shown to enlist support from more privileged power holders in social justice issues. The article confirms the importance of motivators of empathy, values and beliefs, spirituality, and self-interest. A deeper understanding about how to effectively use these motivators is explored. The article suggests that another four categories of motivators can be added to persuasion strategies: guilt, anger, desire to create a legacy, and a universal yearning for justice.
Challenging the myth of “studying harder”: a social work response to the oppression of “EAL” students
- Authors:
- EL-LAHIB Yahya, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Canadian Social Work Review, 28(2), 2011, pp.209-223.
- Publisher:
- Canadian Association for Social Work Education
This article examined the experience of oppression faced by university students who have English as an additional language (EAL) in Canada, and reports on an advocacy campaign at a school of social work that sought to challenge the systemic barriers faced by these learners. The article argues that EAL students are oppressed as a social group on the basis of language even though they are not a homogenous group. Moving from the individual experience, students and faculty members including the other authors of this article developed a response to systemic barriers experienced by EAL students. The article describes the campaign, discusses accomplishments and challenges, and ends with a discussion of implications for future social work policy, practice and research.
Using critical race theory to analyze how Disney constructs diversity: a construct for the baccalaureate human behavior in the social environment curriculum
- Authors:
- CAPPICCIE Amy, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 32(1), January 2012, pp.46-61.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Critical race theory was developed by legal scholars who were concerned about racial oppression in society. This article, using the basic tenets of critical race theory, explores the expertise of multicultural scholars to raise consciousness and facilitate BSW classroom dialogue about microagressions perpetrated in Disney animations, using “The Lion King”, “Mulan”, and “Pocahontas” as case examples. The article suggests that microaggressions pervade our media partly because they operate outside the threshold of the dominant culture's conscious awareness. The main consciousness-raising method is to expose social work students to microagressions depicted in Disney animations and then use the classroom as a counterspace to process the experience. The authors suggest that utilising critical race theory to become conscious of microaggressions within Disney animations is the first step toward eradicating them. Implications for social work education are discussed.
Thinking about queer theory in social work education: a pedagogical (in)query
- Author:
- MACKINNON Kinnon V. Ross
- Journal article citation:
- Canadian Social Work Review, 28(1), 2011, pp.139-144.
- Publisher:
- Canadian Association for Social Work Education
This article argues that anti-oppressive social work education has the unintended consequence of reinforcing differences between heterosexual and non-heterosexual sexualities. It draws upon queer theory as a way to open up discussions around a wide range of sexualities in the classroom. Whereas a sexual minority oppression model demarcates a binary of privileged straight folks and a marginalised queer community, queer theory remains open to the nuances and complexities of sexuality, power, desire, and subjectivity. The aim is to encourage social work educators to engage with queer theory as a pedagogical tool for expanding ideas around sexuality and exploring fantasies of sexual difference.
Anti-oppression in higher education: implicating neo-liberalism
- Authors:
- WAGNER Anne, YEE June Ying
- Journal article citation:
- Canadian Social Work Review, 28(1), 2011, pp.89-105.
- Publisher:
- Canadian Association for Social Work Education
As neoliberalism increasingly permeates higher education, it erodes the extent to which anti-oppressive teaching can be expected to challenge the existing order. This article argues that, despite efforts by universities to portray themselves as equity-conscious, this is being used to obscure a context in which competitive economic markets are given priority at the expense of less profitable pursuits. The article focuses on race as an example, analysing the ways in which issues of race are deemed inconsequential within sites of higher education, in regard to both how faculty teach and how students learn, thereby perpetuating colour-blind racism within the university curriculum. The ‘White, male, heterosexual’ standpoint is reinforced as the dominant referential norm. The article argues that, within a system that is complicit in maintaining the repression that social work seeks to expose, implementing a social justice approach to teaching will necessitate a fundamental shift in the way social work academics approach scholarship and teaching.
Infusing content on oppression into the social work curriculum
- Authors:
- van WORMER Katherine, SNYDER Cindy
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 16(4), 2007, pp.19-35.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
From 2003, the US Council on Social Work Education has required schools of social work to educate students about the systemic risks that contribute to populations being at risk of oppression, as well as strategies to redress risks. This paper presents sample class exercises for introducing the ideas and techniques of anti-oppressive social work into courses on human behaviour and the social environment, policy and policy analysis, and minority group relations. The underlying intention is to introduce a heightened focus on the principles of empowerment and the need for radical social change.
Reclaiming anti-oppressive values in professional education
- Author:
- CLIFFORD Derek
- Journal article citation:
- Ethics and Social Welfare, 3(1), April 2009, pp.69-76.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Abingdon
This paper reviews some of the criticisms that have been levelled against anti-oppressive values in the past few years and suggests that some of these criticisms are ill-founded. It offers a summary of key concepts to be taken into account in any more adequate conceptualization, assessing the criticisms against this benchmark. It concludes by considering the ethical implications for teachers and practitioners in using the terms in ways that are more than just rhetorical.
Indigenous knowledge in the social work academy
- Authors:
- DUMBRILL Gary C., GREEN Jacquie
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work Education (The International Journal), 27(5), August 2008, pp.489-503.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
This paper provides a model for including Indigenous knowledge in the social work academy. This model does not hinge on being sensitive to aboriginal world views and open to including them in the academy, but on being sensitive to the ways Eurocentric world views dominate the academy and open to disrupting this dominance. Disruption is necessary because despite a commitment to diversity and inclusion, social work education continues to be taught from a Eurocentric perspective in a manner that perpetuates the colonisation of Indigenous peoples. The authors triangulate their interrogation of Eurocentrism from the vantage of their own social locations: Jacquie Green is an indigenous professor from the Haisla Nation of Canada, Gary Dumbrill is a white male Canadian professor originally from London, England. Adopting a critical anti-racist approach and drawing on whiteness theory, indigenous storytelling and the Medicine Wheel, the authors present a pedagogical framework that enables indigenous knowledge to be included in the academy in ways that ensure that it is not colonized in the process.
Teaching critical practice: resisting structural domination through critical reflection
- Author:
- MORLEY Christine
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work Education (The International Journal), 27(4), June 2008, pp.407-421.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
This paper explores some of the responsibilities and challenges that face social work educators who teach critical practice to social work students. It is suggested that using critical reflection may enhance social work educators' capacity to prepare practitioners to work towards progressive social change and social justice, despite current social trends, such as globalisation, which potentially marginalise critical practice. This paper provides a reflective account of the authors experiences of teaching critical reflection to undergraduate social work students, drawing on critical postmodern theoretical underpinnings. Related pedagogies will be discussed which outline experiential reflective learning. It is ultimately contended that critical reflection is an important part of social work education and practice that is committed to enhancing citizenship, human rights, social justice and social change ideals.