Empowerment revisited—social work,resistance and agency in black communities

The struggles of black communities in Britain are well established in modes of empowerment that shape and direct their social welfare activities. This legacy of empowerment continues to be expressed in social action orientated strategies found in many black community based groups and organisations. The introduction of anti-racist and multicultural approaches in the empowerment process has been useful in highlighting the ways in which black communities have been disempowered through social work policies and practice. However, the experiences, values and interpretations instituted by black communities themselves are often marginalised in the public realm. These considerations draw attention to the ways in which empowerment is largely defined by professionals and policy makers who have considerable influence in shaping and directing the life chances of black families and communities. These insights provide important ways to address marginalisation through publicly affirming and recognising the specific experiences, cultures, social realities and contributions of black com­munities. This paper examines concepts of empowerment in social work and maintains that the profession has ignored black communities’ interpretations, cultural antecedents, experiences and values as a source of new perspectives and ideas for practice. These new approaches can assist social workers and policymakers in responding to the changing needs of black communities.     

Honouring social work principles - exploring the connections between anti-racist social work and African-centred worldviews

Social work education has had a chequered history in its attempts to address racism within the profession. The demise of anti-racist social work over the past decade raises important questions concerning its place and future within social work education. This paper re-examines the contours of anti-racist social work to explore the connections between anti-racist social work and African-centred worldviews. The author argues that sources of oppression are not confined to social work institutions and its operations, but also relate to the nature of social work knowledge. The existing parameters of anti-racist social work do not adequately challenge hegemony within social work knowledge itself. Thereby, this incongruity serves to support a hidden source of cultural oppression by negating the legitimacy and validation of alternative worldviews. The inclusion of alternative worldviews enables social work to maximise its ability to actualise humanitarian goals to offer a truly multi-cultural and anti-oppressive curriculum. Moreover, the validation of non-hegemonic ways of knowing ensures the profession's participation in its commitment to equality and social justice.     

Living up to the standards we set: A critical account of the development of anti-racist standards

In this paper we reflect on the work in progress to maintain an active focus on the impact of racism in society, its implications for social work practice, and the development of anti-racist strategies within the whole spectrum of anti-oppressive practice in social work education. We look at some of the ways in which this is being tackled in social work training programmes nationally, and share some of the dilemmas and difficulties encountered in the South West, as well as the achievements so far. We wish to invite debate through a discussion of the processes, principles and context of four years' work to set minimum standards for anti-racist practice. Our aim is to move forward from identifying the problem [S. Collins, P. Gutridge, A. James, E. Lynn & C. Williams (2000) Social Work Education, 19(1), pp. 29-43] to implementing positive change in both content and method of integrating anti-racist strategies in social work and assessing student practice. At all stages of the development work care has been taken to avoid the separation of racism from other forms of oppression and to acknowledge the ways it reconstitutes the experience of service users from minority and majority ethnic groups [F. Williams (1989) Social Policy: A Critical Introduction (Cambridge, Polity)]. It is in this context that agreed standards for anti-racism within anti-oppressive practice are being articulated and adopted or considered by DipSW and Post Qualifying programmes within the Far South West of England. Local DipSW programme personnel in the region have worked consistently to achieve a positive, inclusive and dynamic approach to integrate anti-racist practice in social work education programmes. The authors write from the perspective of being White. We are members of a Forum for Anti-Racist Practice Development and are involved in the development work in different ways. This paper is our perspective of the work for which many individuals and institutions are responsible. We do not represent all those involved, and seek to celebrate rather than claim credit for the work.     

Reframing Black Perspectives in Social Work: New Directions?

This paper aims to focus on the politics of exclusion by opening up a debate about black perspectives in social work and articulates a comparative assessment between the UK and USA which includes contributions from social and political theory, particularly the ‘politics of recognition’. The paper begins by mapping the territory denoted in the growth of ‘studies’ in sociology and academia. Following these discussions, I review criticisms and possibilities of anti‐racist social work and black perspectives to argue that in the British context, the dilution of anti‐racist social work into a discriminatory practice framework undermined the place of black perspectives in social work education. In the next section, a reframing of black perspectives is envisaged with implications for social work learning and practice. By attending to these issues, social work learning and practice can support a more inclusive approach to professional knowledge which recognizes changing patterns of social life, complexity and multiple perspectives.     

What do we know the experiences and outcomes of anti-racist social work education? An empirical case study evidencing contested engagement and transformative learning

ABSTRACT

In social work education there have been very few attempts to empirically capture and measure how professional training programmes prepare students to work with ‘race’ equality and cultural diversity issues. This paper interrogates the experiences and outcomes of anti-racist social work education and evaluates the pedagogic relevance and practice utility of teaching social work students about ‘race’, racism and anti-racism. The data presented in this paper suggests that it is possible to discover the situated experiences of learning about anti-racism and measure how this teaching can affect and lead to knowledge, skills and attitudinal change. The triangulated mixed methods evidence presented in this paper combines nomothetic and idiographic approaches with quantitative data for a matched pair sample of 36 social work students and uses non-parametric statistical tests to measure at two time intervals (before and after teaching); knowledge, skills and attitudinal change. The paper explores how anti-racist social work education enables students to move from ‘magical consciousness’, where racism and racial oppression is invisible and thereby left unchallenged and maintained, to more critical and reflexive level of awareness where it is named, challenged and no longer shrouded in a culture of professional denial and silencing.     

The development of an ethnically sensitive approach in social work in Slovenia

The paper presents an ethnically sensitive approach in social work within the Slovenian context. The main focus of an ethnically sensitive approach is an anti-racist perspective and is based on the critical analysis of processes that maintain the status quo in social work with members of ethnic groups. This approach also involves user perspectives with particular emphasis on the views and experiences of ethnic group members and with a particular interest in how they perceive social work services and how social work services meet their needs. Despite the rise of anti-racist social work education in Anglo-Saxon countries in the 1980s, the Slovenian system of social work education remains without adequate literature on this field. The author suggests that practice in the field of social work with minority ethnic groups is often racist, especially when social service users are members of the Roma ethnic group.     

Community Work:

This article presents a typology of models of community work currently extant in the United Kingdom. It focuses on clarifying theoretical points through analysis of the currently most widely accepted contemporary models in use throughout the UK: community care; community organization; community development; social/community planning; community education; and community action, and developing models of feminist community work, and black and anti-racist community work. The typology presented is organized on a continuum from models focused on ''care'' to those focusing on ''action.'' Each model is analyzed in relation to the following characteristics: strategy; workers' main roles; and typical agencies and examples of work. Selected critical key texts treating each model are documented. Discussion highlights similarities and differences among the models particularly with regard to techniques and skills and ideological traditions to provide a framework to understand community work practice.     

Getting Started: Psychodynamics,Racism and Anti-Racism

Abstract

This paper mainly addresses white social workers who want to practise in an anti-racist manner. It aims to clarify common confusions about the relationship between therapeutic and political goals in anti-racist practice, which can lead workers to feel immobilised and unable to get started. Analysis of a case example based on the author's experience is used to unravel the strands of personal distress and experience of racism which a client may bring to a social worker, and the corresponding strands of personal and institutional racism with which the social worker must wrestle. It is proposed that familiar concepts of transference and counter-transference can be helpful in understanding the confusions about racism which white social workers may experience in practice encounters with black clients. The importance of all this is seen to lie in the likelihood of white social workers unwittingly reproducing racism, unless they are clear about the boundaries between the therapeutic and the political domains.     

Developing carers' contributions to social work training

Including informal carers within social work training programmes is generally regarded positively. Such approval is aligned with the view that users of welfare services possess valuable, even unique perspectives relevant to professional education and training. This article identifies three models incorporating the experience of carers into social work training and draws attention to aspects of good practice. It questions whether the extension of training in this area adequately addresses the problematic positions of carers' diverse circumstances since they do not fit into simple analyses of social constructionism or oppression.     

Questioning Gender and Sexuality Binaries

Abstract

Social work has largely adopted the oppression model in our research, practice, education, policy and advocacy work. These essentialist constructions rely on the binary categorizations of male/female and heterosexuality/homosexuality. Largely missing from the mainstream social work literature are the perspectives of postmodern/queer theorists, the latest sex research, and the experience of transgendered individuals. These perspectives offer critiques of gender and sexuality binaries as well as libratory goals for social justice. Tensions between the postmodern perspective and the social work liberal model are discussed, and suggestions for incorporating the ideas emanating from queer theorists, new sex research, and the lived experiences of the transgendered into all areas of social work are offered.     

#BlackLivesMatter: Innovative Black Resistance

Since 2013, extrajudicial police killings of black people have captured the attention of U.S. and international media, substantially because of the work of leaders in the Black Lives Matter (#BLM) movement. #BLM is simultaneously a group of localized organizations and a broad online social movement. In this article, we examine the #BLM movement in detail, with particular emphasis on the following aspects of the movement: (1) its innovative organizational practices and social media use; (2) its accent on black perspectives (counterframing) of systemic racial oppression, heteronormativity, and capitalism; and (3) its broad emphasis on oppressed Americans, including black women and LGBTQ people. We also situate the #BLM movement within the surrounding system of racial oppression, including the historical role of racialized policing in maintaining social control of blacks. We detail the long tradition of black social movements, especially black feminist organizing, against systemic racial oppression. In doing so, we intend to contribute social movement theorizing that more fully considers powerful counterframed perspectives of black activists in U.S. social movements. Although the #BLM movement reflects black feminism and past civil rights movement struggles, it is a uniquely twenty‐first‐century social movement that uses new technologies for innovative social protest.     

Paulo Freire: Neglected Mentor for Social Work

Paulo Freire, Brazilian educator and author, advocated radical educational approaches to empower oppressed peoples. Social workers contributing to English-language journals and other literature have made only limited use of Freire's ideas. Explanations may include social work's clinical drift, discomfort with radical ideas, obliviousness to contributions from the developing world, unease with religious thought, and avoidance of primary sources, in addition to the complexity of Freire's writing style. This article introduces Freire's contributions and suggests consistent approaches in social work practice, past and present, illustrating that those who practice with marginalized and disempowered people can benefit from reading Freire as a mentor.     

Travelling hopefully: Anti-racist practice and practice learning opportunities

This article has been written in response to the current developments in social work education which seek to make anti-racist practice a central requirement of social work training and to make it into a central component of good social work practice. In the present context in which social work is undertaken this will not be an easy goal to achieve without considerable commitment and attention to the detailed content and process of social work and the learning opportunities it offers.

The article focuses on how the teaching of anti-racism on social work courses is then followed through in placement experience and highlights the difficulties that can occur. It describes part of an on-going development and monitoring process initiated with college and practice based teachers at Bath University which is seeking to improve practice at a local level.

It includes a questionnaire sent to practice teachers and students, a practice teaching workshop and the development of a monitoring system for use in future placements. The research attempts to understand better what level of anti-racist practice can be expected of students in short placements and how this might be assessed. It also looks at the issues which arise for practice teachers in their agencies, the importance of management commitment in developing new forms of practice, and the support that is needed for individuals. It concludes with a tentative attempt to put forward a model for developing and assessing anti-racist practice in a placement.     

Thinking the unthinkable: 'white liberal' defences against understanding in anti-racist training

Abstract

This article describes and analyses a range of group processes which occurred during anti-racist training workshops with qualifying social work students. The principal focus is to understand white students' defences against authentic learning about their own anxieties with respect to their black colleagues, and how unless these are surmounted they will constitute a continuing block to the possibility of a 'depth' engagement with racism.     

Some psychological themes in social work education: A black perspective

In this brief article, I have argued that little of the current psychological literature on issues of importance to Black people has been approached from an articulated theory-based Black perspective. Traditional principles and theories in psychology have not had sufficient explanatory power to account for the behaviour of Black people. Black psychologists have, therefore, presented alternative perspectives of black child development, black families, black education, and personality development. However, most of the psychological research on black children and black families has concentrated on Afro-American families. It may be some time before such perspectives are developed and articulated in Britain but, in the meantime, some understanding of present research and theory is needed. It must be stressed that a Black perspective is not totally incompatible with Euro-American psychology. It is concerned with redefining existing psychological principles and concepts, and developing models that will reveal the strengths of black people.

The ability to practice in an anti-discriminatory way is a fundamental theme running through CCETSW's statement of requirements for qualification in social work (CCETSW, 1991a). It therefore follows that explanations of Black behaviour which are alternative to White perspectives need to be developed in social work education. Black behaviour must be understood in its appropriate historical, social, cultural, political, and economic contexts.     

Anti-Oppressive Social Work Research: Reflections on Power in the Creation of Knowledge

This paper is based on the development of a framework that conceptualises forms of power in social work research. Its aim is to encourage readers to critically reflect on potentially oppressive manifestations of power in social work research. The article draws on Lukes' model of power and Gould's subsequent framework which contributed to anti-racist teaching in social work education. Gould's framework is reinterpreted and applied to a differing context: social work research. The field of social work research is explored through this framework, highlighting potentially oppressive manifestations of power and suggesting anti-oppressive strategies. The model is then applied to social work education and specifically the teaching of research methods. The paper concludes by suggesting curriculum guidelines that promote the teaching of anti-oppressive social work research methods.     

Communication,culture and competence in social work education

This paper argues that the managerialist influence on the DipSW has meant that both the models of social work and of social work education that have come to dominance since it was first approved in 1989 are incompatible with the development of anti-racist practice. We explore the potential of reformulating social work as a communicative activity and the implications of this for the education of social workers. We argue that this would require an approach that incorporates three main elements: an analysis of the way in which power and disadvantage is distributed between racial groups and the ways in which this affects their ability to represent their own needs in political debate; an understanding of the ways in which the wider discourses of racial domination find expression in culture; and the development of our understanding of how intrapsychic representations of race and power come to be inscribed in mental life. It is through the interrelationship of these domains that anti-racist practice can become integral to social work.     

COMBINING HUMAN DIVERSITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE EDUCATION: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Social work education has not yet formulated an explicit educational framework that combines diversity and oppression, but academicians are examining new approaches (Van Soest, Canon, & Grant, 2000). This article presents a conceptual framework for culturally relevant practice that integrates a human diversity and social justice focus within the context of our program's Human Behavior and Social Environment, or HBSE, courses. We believe this framework effectively synthesizes the ideas of scholars who have preceded us in a manner that consistently supports students as it challenges them to actively engage with topics that can initially make them feel uncomfortable. The overall purpose of our framework is to teach students how to work for social justice goals using a continuum of phased actions.     

Bsw Programs in Black Colleges: Building on the Strengths of Tradition

This article discusses the importance of undergraduate social work programs in historically black colleges and universities. These programs are explored for their value in preparing students for culturally competent practice and in developing more effective professional responses to the problems plaguing black Americans today. Suggestions are offered for advancing the profession's efforts in these areas by building on the contributions of BSW programs in black colleges and universities.