Coloniality and Intersectionality in Social Work Education and Practice

ABSTRACT

The history of social work education is deeply entangled with the structures of White supremacy and coloniality. Through an analysis of coloniality, the system from which social work operates, this article outlines an alternative framework of intersectionality, which decodes the dominant discourse in relation to power, privilege, White supremacy, and gender oppression. The framework of intersectionality moves professional social work pedagogy and practice from the trenches of coloniality toward decoloniality. The concepts of intersectionality and critical consciousness are operationalized to demonstrate how social work education can effect structural and transformational change through de-linking from its white supremacists roots.

KEYWORDS:

• Social work pedagogy
• coloniality
• decoloniality
• critical consciousness
• white supremacy

Acknowledgments

The manuscript was initiated by Dr. Sayde Logan, chair of the Council of Social Work Education’s Council on Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Diversity (CRECD). All authors were members or subsequent co-chairs of this council when the paper was conceptualized. The authors would like to acknowledge the members of CRECD for their contributions to the initiation of the manuscript that is aligned with their mission and charge as counselors.