Afrocentricity and social work education

ABSTRACT

Twenty-two African American, biracial, Caucasian, and Latino students enrolled in an advanced graduate social work course aimed at approaching interpersonal practice from an Afrocentric perspective. Curricular content included historical contributions of African-descent people, components of Afrocentricity and African-centered social work, and principles and methods associated with NTU psychotherapy. Students demonstrated a slight but statistically nonsignificant overall increase in Afrocentricity. However, significant increases on two of the 14 items used to measure Afrocentricity were noted. Ninety-five percent of students were able to demonstrate how Afrocentric perspectives could be applied to an assigned case. Integration of Afrocentric conceptual principles as they related to the case study was lower. Observations from instructor field notes are provided. Challenges and recommendations are discussed.

Keywords:

• Africentricity
• Afrocentricity
• African American students
• African-centeredness
• Blacks

Funding

The research and evaluation reported in this article were made possible through funding by the National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, through funding and other technical assistance by the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and through the support of the University of Michigan School of Social Work.

Additional information

Funding

The research and evaluation reported in this article were made possible through funding by the National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, through funding and other technical assistance by the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and through the support of the University of Michigan School of Social Work.