Decolonizing Social Work Education and Practice with Students and Community Stakeholders: A Case Example from University of Calgary

ABSTRACT

Social work education in Canada has struggled to identify and disrupt systems of oppression and marginalization, rooted in a history of colonialism and slavery, that continues to reverberate through neocolonial policies, pedagogy, and practice. Universities and social work programs remain white spaces that uphold white supremacy, while actively excluding nonwhite members and their ways of knowing and being in the world. It wasn’t until the deepened retrenchment of anti-Black racism during the pandemic, punctuated by the killing of George Floyd, that a group of educators seized an opening to teach an anti-racist and anti-colonial praxis course for the Bachelor of Social Work students in spring of 2021, the first one of its kind in our faculty. Students were encouraged to engage with Indigenous and racialized community youth to imagine and integrate anti-racist and reconciliatory actions as part of their assignments. This paper shares our experiences co-designing and co-teaching this course together with community partners. We emphasize lessons from the applied pedagogical approaches as well as its implications for social work education and social work practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Anti-racism
• anti-colonialism
• critical pedagogy
• praxis
• racial caucusing
• academic-community partnership

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Cree Métis Elder and Social Worker Kerrie Moore who opened the course in a good way with Indigenous teachings and the importance of Indigenous knowledges in anti-colonial social work; Blackfoot Elder Charlotte Yellowhorn McLeod who led the talking stick teaching to support student learning in Blackfoot ways of knowing and acceptable social work practices. Special thanks also go to the Marlborough Community Youth and their Community Social Worker Lemlem Haile for their contribution to the students’ learning by assisting them to design, develop and implement a community action as part of their course assignments. The authors also thank the community activists and educators who shared their wisdom, experiences and expertise throughout the course. These include Veronica Chirino Baker, Carole Carpot Lacassagne, Mare Donly, Dr. Yahya El-Lahib, and Vanesa Ortiz. Our appreciation to the team of community activists who organized the original community Learning Series. This includes Nellie Alcaraz, Michelle Bella, Tatiana Oshchepkova, Viviana Reinberg, Muna Salah, Ryan Valley, and Blackfoot Elder Adrian Wolfleg.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

¹ This excerpt was included with the permission of Elder Moore.

² This excerpt was included with the permission of Elder YellowHorn McLeod.

³ This excerpt was included with the permission of Dr. Yahya El-Lahib.

⁴ This excerpt was included with the permission of Carole Carpot, Veronica Chirino Baker, Vanesa Ortiz, and Mare Donly.