Religion and spirituality in social work in Uganda: Lessons for social work education

ABSTRACT

There is a conspicuous silence about the role of religion and spirituality in social work in Uganda, yet they are critical components in the lives of social workers and their clients. The authors’ collective experience of social work education in Uganda, South Africa, Sweden, the UK, and Australia affirmed to an absence of content on religion and spirituality in social work education. Most universities in Uganda incorporate little content on spirituality resulting in graduates ill-equipped to handle spiritually-related issues with their clients and communities. Authors conducted a content analysis of the narratives in their PhD theses to explore the inextricable connection between spirituality and social work practice in Uganda. From the common findings, the authors conceptualise an African Spiritually Sensitive Practice-Theory and a reflective tool for social workers in education and practice. The paper draws on lessons from research arguing for the incorporation of indigenous knowledge and African spirituality to inform the social work curriculum in Uganda.

KEYWORDS:

• Spirituality
• religion
• Uganda
• social work education
• African spiritually sensitive practice

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to acknowledge the research funding from their universities: Western Sydney University, La Trobe University and University of Newcastle. The authors also acknowledge Prof. Mel Gray for her in put in structuring and thorough editing of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.