Reconfiguring Social Work Education to Fight HIV–AIDS: A Model for Developmental Contexts

Abstract

This article charts the response of social work educators in addressing HIV–AIDS. Based at the University of the West Indies in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the faculty within the Social Work Unit developed a model of teaching, research and practice that was innovative and transcended cultural, geographical and professional boundaries. The model has contributed a lasting legacy of knowledge and culturally relevant practices to enhance the capacity and effectiveness of social workers working with people living with HIV–AIDS (PLWHIV). Inherent in the propositions that underpinned the model was a belief in the role of education in alleviating psychosocial and other impacts of social problems. This article describes this unique initiative and discusses its relevance to current social work practice and the implications for contemporary social work education. The authors argue that while social work draws on a common body of knowledge, an established set of professional skills and a universal code of values, these central tenets of the profession should not be regarded as concrete and fixed but must be figured and reconfigured as needed to address emerging contemporary problems and their specific sociocultural manifestations.

Keywords:

• Social Work
• Education
• Development(al)
• PLWHIV
• HIV–AIDS
• Caribbean

Notes

^[1] The University of the West Indies has four campuses, in Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and a fourth virtual campus serving the other countries in the region.

^[2] UWIHARP Representative, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad.

^[3] We are mindful that ‘developing’ is a contentious term and its usage in this article relates to structural economic constraints and inequality as they impact personal development and freedom (Sen, 1999).