Educating for Black Social Development: The Politics of Social Organization

Abstract

Social work education has not prepared students to assume effective leadership in the Black community and prevailing practice models have not been sufficiently sensitive to Black needs. The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual overview of Black social development, to review briefly some of the historical developments within social work education and practice, and to suggest a beginning framework for reconceptualizing the nature of social work education and practice in order to make them relevant to the contemporary needs of the Black community. The paper also reports an experience in affirmative education at Temple University.