Applying human rights approaches in social work education through incorporating practitioner involvement and social work activism in classroom settings

ABSTRACT

As a practice-based profession, the application of human rights approaches situated within a radical and critical lens is the focus of this article. It is suggested in this article that human rights can be considered a feature in both the practice and the result of radical social work. Through the use of a case study example of social work activism in Ireland, this article aims to describe how the involvement of practitioners in social work education modules, who are involved in human rights-based campaigns, can be utilized as a tangible way to show social work students the application of human rights-based approaches to the practice of social work in the field.

KEYWORDS:

• Human rights
• policy practice
• social work activism
• radical social work
• critical social work

Introduction

The application of human rights approaches in social work education through a radical and critical lens is the focus of this article. Incorporating the practitioner perspective into teaching radical and critical approaches to social work substantiates the possibility that ‘another social work is possible’ (Ferguson, 2009, p. 81). It supports social workers working in the radical tradition to be reminded of their common purpose with communities and people who face injustices. Being with, conscious-raising and justice-focused approaches are central to the mandate of radical and critical social work—the who, what, why, how of the work. As a ‘practice-based profession’ (International Federation of Social Workers [IFSW], 2014), it is suggested in this article that human rights can be considered a feature in both the practice and the result of radical social work in the Irish setting. When meaningfully engaged with, people and communities can experience legitimate empowerment and ownership of processes as opposed to being ‘receivers’ in a charity-model scenario (Mapp et al., 2019). Stark increases in inequality globally and the increasingly hostile health and social care environments social workers work in (Ferguson et al., 2018) mean the ability to conceptualize the reasons for, and the practical applicability of, human rights approaches in social work is of increasing significance (McPherson & Abell, 2020).

Why human rights?

The focus on incorporating explicit education and experience of human rights-based approaches in social work training can be linked to critical and radical approaches to social work. Within social work, some may identify their core mandate as fighting for social justice and the broader structural elements of social work such as collective action, liberation, empowerment, social cohesion, all elements outlined in the global definition (IFSW, 2014). Having a clear mandate to address human rights infringements as part of the core social work function for example, within one’s code of ethics, can support the tangible application of radical social work ‘in action’.

For social workers working through a lens of radical or critical approaches, the security of knowing that human rights are an explicit core mandate in their code of ethics can be significant (Gabel, 2023; Government of Ireland, 2011; IASW, 2020). It can support them to work within managerialist and bureaucratic state institutions without inadvertently colluding in the oppression or colonization so often found in these systems. This is an important consideration when critiquing the use of human rights mandates within social work as some have recently done (Whelan & Flynn, 2023).

Increasingly, frontline social workers need to be aware of and use tangible evidence-informed critiques and research as a way of explaining the professions core mandate of human rights and justice-informed approaches when working in increasingly technocratic and managerialist systems. This is required in order to ameliorate the deleterious effects of working in those systems without being worn down to the point of leaving the profession entirely (Baginsky, 2013; Burns, 2010; Gibson, 2016; Hall, 2023; Healy et al., 2009; Liu et al., 2022; Reynaert et al., 2022; Searle & Patent, 2013; Stalker et al., 2007).

Practitioners in the education sphere

The inclusion of practitioners in the education-sphere offers a potential to tease out the ‘practice-based’ part of the global social work definition in order to support and enhance the ‘human rights’ part of the global definition (IFSW, 2014). Incorporating the practitioner perspective into teaching radical and critical approaches to social work in the Irish setting has been written about previously (Flanagan et al., 2023). This offers a suggested outline for the potential to equip student social workers with a solid understanding of how to work from a more structural and progressive manner in social work. Engaging in policy practice (Hoefer, 2023; Strier & Feldman, 2018) is discussed as a means to apply radical social work in practice.

The notion that human rights are ethereal and hard to grasp (Ife, 2008) must be consistently reclarified. For social workers practicing in increasingly fractured and heartless neoliberal regimes, and for social workers supporting victims of the capitalist system, human rights are not a theoretical concept, they are real, they are important, and they are increasingly what social workers rely on in order to fight for the basic goods and services people require to survive. By incorporating frontline experience of what it is actually like to practice social work in a neoliberal context and to spend time discussing this in a problem-posing manner (Freire, 1996), in the structured parameters of the classroom setting, allows for a critical reflective space to be developed (Ide & Beddoe, 2023).

A critical reflective approach in social work (Ide & Beddoe, 2023) observes the dialectical relationship of application of theory to practice and practice to theory on which the social work profession rests. By involving practitioners in a meaningful way, e.g. in module development, design, teaching, and evaluation, student social workers are more likely to encounter a learning environment that not only aims to educate on what human rights-based social work is like, but is more rights-based and inclusive in its very make-up. This approach to teaching human rights in social work also allows for experiential learning methods based on methods that educators may wish social work students to take into the field on placement and into practice, e.g. co-decision-making, collaborative projects, and community-led responses to issues, all of which aim to ensure populations are afforded their rights (Mashi, 2016).

Problem-posing as a method for enquiry

It is imperative that social workers are aware of the conditions that create power dynamics and structural influences which exist both within and across social work and the people and communities they wish to engage with (Ferguson & Lavalette, 2004). Without this awareness they run the risk of reiterating the imposition of the ruling social class (Marx & Engels, 1994) and the default colonizing approaches of the disciplines they work within (Tusasiirwe, 2023). The deconstruction and critical analysis of ‘the social’ can create another perspective within which a radical social worker can practice which in turn will assist themselves, the systems they work within, and the people and communities they meet to (re) and (co) create spaces based on mutuality, collective appreciation and solidarity. Considering the activity of social work in this way addresses and lends power to the intercepting layers of marginalization within everyone involved in these processes, working toward the overt overall goal of social justice.

Friere wrote extensively about and practiced consciousness-raising within oppressed communities (Freire, 1996). His work continues to influence anti-oppressive education, community work, and social work. The incorporation of Freirean approaches into the social work education environment supports the linking of radical and critical approaches, the application of human rights in practice and the co-creation of a learning space in which both teacher and student learn from each other. With the aim of ‘concientization’ (Freire, 1996), the use of problem-posing approaches as advocated by Freire, offer a tangible way to support students to grow into the activity of social work and to experience, through directly engaging in the process, how the more amorphous notions extolled as the core mandates of social work can happen in practical terms.

Social work activism example for use in education environment

In 2019, all references to ‘human rights’ were removed from CORU’s (the professional registrant body for health and social care professions, including social work, in Ireland) code of professional conduct and ethics for social work, the legally binding document which governs social work practice in Ireland and which social workers must adhere to. CORU’s previous 2011 social work code contained six separate references to ‘human rights’. The foreword to the 2011 code noted, ‘Social work is a profession based on principles of human-rights and social justice’ (Government of Ireland, 2011). In 2021, the membership of the Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW) voted in favor of initiating a campaign to have the term ‘human rights’ reinstated to the code (IASW, 2021). It was argued that removing the phrase ‘human rights’ from the code could have the effect of altering the narrative and meaning of social work and could have implications for how social workers in Ireland understand, frame and practice the profession. The campaign, initiated by practitioners and students, supported by educators and civil society groups, called on CORU to reinstate all references to ‘human rights’ from the 2011 code to the current code of professional conduct and ethics for social work.

Reverse pedagogy

In attempting to draw these separate strands together, the practitioner in the classroom can ‘hold’ the space for this discussion and walk with students as they engage in this process. In the case of the human rights campaign outlined above, mapping the evolution of the practical aspects of a campaign during class, discussing how campaigns are initiated, the importance of being part of collective spaces such as unions and professional bodies and alliances, and how to gather support for a campaign can all be discussed and critiqued within the classroom setting. Discussions regarding how and where it is ‘safe’ to take a position on issues that may challenge systems and organizations, in this case the regulator for social workers, can be useful. Time can be allocated for students to use small groups to engage in policy practice through using their previous practice placement experience to answer questions that allow for the parallel critique of previous experience with current experience, then further mapped onto future plans for upcoming practice placements and following that, into practice. This in turn can support students to become actively involved in human rights work, with an understanding of who benefits if human rights are removed from social works mandate and who could benefit if it remains. Students can consider what is involved in being in the often-nebulous space called ‘radical social work’, why it is important for social workers to be aware of, and engaged in the struggle for human rights approaches in social work and how they fit into this picture, as students, as future social workers, as workers and as a collective with communities.

Through the process of breaking down the constructed differences between the social worker and the student there is scope to open discussions around understanding one’s own experience within the political anatomy and the often-insidious draw to work from a social control function. Resistance to this can be discussed, through being with people and communities as they are. Engaging in a genuine dialogue with students around these issues through use of tangible practice examples such as the aforementioned human rights campaign gives opportunity to exemplify sharing power equitably, deconstructing accepted norms with transparency, discussing the influences and expectations within our experiences. This allows students to experience in real-time, processes which support the application of rights-based approaches in practice such as supporting people and communities to access and secure ongoing access to their basic rights (McPherson, 2018).

Acknowledging the challenges to practicing human rights social work

To practice ethically and morally in social work, engagement with use of self and with one’s values and ethics are necessary (Banks, 2020). To do this meaningfully is to acknowledge the potentially strong emotions that might come with witnessing injustices on a daily basis and facing systemic barriers (i.e. organizational procedures, ineffective policies, lack of resources, etc.) when trying to effect real and immediate positive change for victims of neoliberal systems. Anger, sadness, rage, despair—these are all emotions that social workers may feel and should not feel guilty about. Rather, a conscious effort should be made to refocus these emotions into tangible and strategic action alongside retaining the momentum that strong emotions such as these allow for (Ife, 2012).

As part of the process, it is incumbent upon social work educators, therefore, to equip student social workers for real-life scenarios and allow time and space to work through real-life challenges, for example, bureaucracy, individualization, fear, risk, etc. This can be facilitated through collective approaches and ways toward realization of human rights in social work, for example through membership of unions, alliances, professional associations, having human rights explicitly written into social work codes of ethics, etc. Highlighting and articulating the remedy to these challenges using the language of human rights can allow for a more humane and caring alternative to the one faced by social workers working in a neoliberal context. This narrative can connect social workers in a united collective at individual, local, regional, and global levels (Gabel & Mapp, 2021; Jayasooria, 2016).

Limitations/critiques of human rights approaches in social work

It is important to acknowledge and engage with critiques regarding the limitations of human rights as a concept, such as human rights as a colonialized concept (Ife, 2012; Ife & Tascon, 2016; Nipperess, 2023), human rights as individualistic (Cox & Pardasani, 2017), human rights as ‘hard to define’ (Laruffa & Hearne, 2023; Sousa-Meixell et al., 2022), and that advocating for human rights as a core mandate of social work may lack nuance and sophistication (Whelan & Flynn, 2023). Such critiques should be acknowledged and fruitfully engaged. Teaching human rights approaches in social work should not happen without also incorporating discussion of the structural inequalities built into the system that human rights work stems from and the complicity of social work in various abuses of human rights (Ioakimidis & Wyllie, 2023).

Harms-Smith et al. (2019) suggest that human rights approaches in social work are increasingly seen as a common method for social workers globally to unite in addressing injustices arising from neoliberalism. Laruffa and Hearne (2023) offer a view that while human rights approaches are not a panacea, they are a baseline from which to demand action of governments. Citizens, in being supported to use the discourse of human rights, can legitimately frame themselves as rights-holders as opposed to passive recipients of charity or services (Hearne, 2013), which, in turn, allows for demands to be placed on the states in which citizens reside, to fulfil their obligations under law and policy to the betterment of people’s lives (Hearne & Kenna, 2014). This is a reasonable point from which to develop the concept of human rights in tandem with others such as the capabilities approach, which suggests that people’s well-being is contingent on them being able to engage in activities that support them in living the life they wish to live (Sen, 2005). In drawing together the concepts of human rights and the capabilities approach (Burchardt & Vizard, 2011; Sen, 2005; Whiteside & Mah, 2012), social workers working in the radical and critical traditions could argue for an approach that highlights the well-being and justice of communities, that allows for the politicization of civil society organizations, and that in turn allows for an engaged citizenry (Laruffa & Hearne, 2023).

Conclusion

This article has sought to outline a way to engage in social work education, which draws together students as active participants in the education process. It suggested that involving social work practitioners in the classroom settings could support meaningful connection between theoretical concepts such as human rights and their tangible application in the field. The article further indicated that the notion of human rights is a necessary explicit mandate for social work. These considerations were outlined as a way for social workers to be able to resist neoliberal and overly technocratic approaches, which have become the dominant paradigm for social work practice in many settings. Incorporating human rights teaching in social work education through involvement of practitioners and social work activism case examples could serve to both protect social workers challenging systems and to support the retention of social workers in remaining working in hostile systems while retraining their core ethics and principles. Practical examples for how this can be worked through in the classroom were suggested, for example,

• through group work,

• through linking classroom discussions,

• through placement experience, and

• through use of the Freirean approach of problem-posing.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to acknowledge the commitment of social work educators in Ireland to the inclusion of social work practitioner voices in the education space. The author would like to thank, in particular, Dr Niamh Flanagan, Maynooth University, and Dr Fiachra Ó Suilleabháin, University College Cork, for their openness and inclusiveness in affording the author the opportunity to be involved in co-designing and co-teaching modules in their respective institutions. This article would not have been possible without their leadership and encouragement in this regard.

Disclosure statement

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