Teaching anti-oppressive practice on the diploma in social work: integrating learning

Abstract

This paper discusses the authors' collective experience of teaching Anti-Oppressive Practice (AOP) Sequences on DipSW Programmes over 5 years, driven by CCETSW's Paper 30, Rules and Requirements for the Diploma in Social Work, and subsequent revisions. The importance of an holistic, non-Eurocentric framework is related to a need for learning opportunities to include both cognitive and emotional elements. Based on observation and direct feedback from students, (through systematic analysis of structured feedback questionnaires as well as our own direct observations, informal student feedback and extensive discussion), three categories of student response to AOP teaching are discussed and identified. The nature of resistance to learning exhibited by some students is analysed and a causal hypothesis of dissociation is proposed. The authors highlight the necessity for students to make and integrate connections between cognitive and emotional components of learning in this area. Three routes to trauma are identified and related to students' past experiences and subsequent dissociative resistance to learning. The authors conclude by making clear and accessible recommendations for developing standards of good practice in the teaching of AOP, particularly in relation to addressing the obstacles identified regarding students' learning and subsequent practice.