Tools to accelerate anti-racist supervision practices in social work practicum-based education settings

ABSTRACT

Due to recent racial injustices in the United States and globally, there is an urgent need for curricular reform in social work education. The profession requires creative tools, techniques and methods that provide strategies for how to dismantle structural racism embedded in the work of both social care systems and social work education and training. The education of social work students offers a vital window of opportunity to equip the next generation to dismantle systems of oppression and engage in justice-oriented action. The authors provide resources to support practicum-based educators in the implementation of anti-racist supervision practices with social work students. Tools and strategies including vocabulary, key terms, skill building and reflection that can guide the development of foundational knowledge for engagement in justice oriented social work practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Social work education
• anti-racism
• higher education
• practicum-based settings
• supervision

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. This paper will use the inclusive language of ‘practicum’ to describe social work student training in the community, in place of ‘field’, which is increasingly being recognized as anti-black and anti-immigrant language.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Devon Musson Rose

Devon Musson Rose, LCSW is a doctoral candidate in the College of Social Work at the University of Utah.

Tiffany Baffour

Tiffany D. Baffour, Ph.D., M.A., M.S.S. is Associate Dean for Graduate Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Graduate School and Associate Professor in the College of Social Work at the University of Utah.