Otherness and empathy—implications of Lévinas ethics for social work education

This paper examines the concept of otherness in Lévinas’ ethics and raises related issues regarding the limits of empathy on philosophical grounds. This study also identifies and discusses a number of linguistic, social and cultural barriers that can establish such limits on practical grounds. This paper raises various considerations for social work educators teaching empathy. Such considerations suggest that social work educators could adopt a stance of ‘understanding and not understanding’ and a dialectical approach in using knowledge and skills. Furthermore, this study challenges the common assumption that empathy leads to compassionate action. Apart from empathy, moral commitment is necessary to engage in such action. This article discusses such moral commitment in relation to Lévinas’ notions of face and responsibility that place ethics before knowledge. Hence, the present study brings the attention of social work educators back to the importance of nourishing virtue and the moral character of students.     

Teaching research methods to social work students in India and Australia: reflections and recommendations

This paper draws on the reflections of two social work educators who have, for many years taught research methods to undergraduate and postgraduate social work students in India and Australia. The intent is to suggest measures for enhancing the quality of social work research education. The reflections are embedded in a social justice and human rights framework, privileging the educators’ unique social and cultural contexts and their commitment to engage with indigenous knowledge. The authors recommend effective social work research education requires the educator to draw on a deep understanding of their own context, as well as globally accepted research traditions. Particularly, we encourage research teachers to adopt student-centred approaches that emphasise a broad ‘research mindedness’ (in their students and themselves), building students’ practical capacities and confidence to become effective, research informed practitioners; capable of contributing to their own communities and to the social work profession more broadly.     

探究式教学模式在排球教学中的应用研究

运用实验法、文献资料法、问卷调查法等研究方法,以东北师范大学2010级体育学院体育教育专业的60名学生为研究对象,通过构建探究式教学模块对研究对象进行传统的排球教学和探究式排球教学。结果表明:探究式教学方法可以广泛应用于排球教学中;探究式教学法和传统的排球教学法相比,可以取得更好的教学效果,提高学生的专项运动成绩,激发学生的学习兴趣并且改变学生学习态度。     

现代英语写作研究发展脉络及流派评析

为了清晰地描述现代英语写作研究的发展脉络,我们可以对写作过程教学法、表达法、修辞法、形式法、现时一传统法、跨学科写作教学法以及模仿法等不同流派的英语写作研究理论和方法进行综合考察,从中发现现代语言学的相关学科、认知心理学以及高度普及的互联网对写作理论及其应用研究的影响,以便为英语写作研究寻找更加科学、实用的发展方向.     

The A+ of a practice doctorate

In light of the growing trend of developing practice doctoral degree programmes in social work, the author uses the first Doctor of Social Work (DSW) programme in Hong Kong, which is a unique programme in China, as a case study to examine the pedagogy and constraints of doctoral programmes in social work. The programme serves as an alternative to a typical PhD programme and is designed particularly for seasoned practitioners in the field who strive to achieve a balance between a research and practice orientation and between an academic and a pragmatic focus. This paper emphasises that, to stand out from the crowd, practice doctorates in Hong Kong should take part in practice-based research and publish in refereed journals.     

Preparation for practice: embedding the development of professional identity within social work curriculum

Newly qualified social workers often enter challenging interdisciplinary settings where they need to be able to clearly articulate a distinctive professional identity. To prepare for these realities, this paper discusses how the development of professional identity has become increasingly central to qualifying social work curriculum at an Australian university. Preparation for social work practice has long been the focus of research in a number of countries, with a significant emphasis on knowledge and skill acquisition, rather than on the development of an overarching professional identity that is also underpinned by shared values and sense of professional purpose and expectations. Against this backdrop, the paper describes initial changes that have been made within core social work courses to progressively embed the development of professional identity more consciously across their studies, to be better prepared for contemporary challenges in the workplace. It is concluded that further changes are needed to fully transform the curriculum, and that the impacts of these changes be systematically evaluated in relation to preparedness for practice.     

Applying critical race theory in social work education in Britain: pedagogical reflections

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on personal experiences of teaching white British and Black African students on a social work Master’s course in England. In this paper, I critically discuss the fire at Grenfell Tower in London (14 June 2017) and how it served as a pedagogical tool to open up critical discussions among students about racial in/justice, intersectionality and neoliberal racism. I also explore how Black students were enabled to share their experiences of immigration, racism, and racial inequality in Britain as part of these discussions. Inviting personal experiences of race in the classroom can be highly emotive; but, as this paper shows, these voices can also highlight institutionalized racism and provide a way for Black and ethnic minorities’ histories to be told and learned. These histories matter and can develop student consciousness about racial inequality for pursuing a social agenda. They also challenge claims that Britain is now a ‘post-racial’ society. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) provided a way to counter such claims and critique my ‘whiteness’ and socio-economic class in my teaching, as well as challenge the neoliberal ideologies and structures that reproduce and mask ‘white privilege’ and racial injustice in Britain today.     

Disrupting the status quo: exploring culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies for young diverse learners

This article highlights four qualitative studies that examine young diverse populations (i.e. middle-class African-American learners, Latinx immigrant children, emergent bilingual writers, and teachers of low-socioeconomic African-American learners) using culturally relevant and culturally sustaining pedagogies as our theoretical lens. The research questions are (1) What are the features of classrooms that support culturally sustaining learning for young children? (2) What social, cultural, and linguistic resources do learners draw upon when engaging in culturally sustaining spaces? Findings in this paper indicate that (a) children need critical safe spaces to foster CSP (b) children draw knowledge from varied resources and (c) teachers’ must be able to navigate policies to implement practices that utilize students’ cultural referents.     

Difference,subjectivities and power: (de)colonizing practices in internationalizing the curriculum

This paper problematizes the discourse of internationalizing the curriculum using a critical framework of difference. The author draws on her transnational experiences as an international postgraduate researcher in an Australian university, an educator in Malaysia and her present experiences as an academic in an Australian university. The notions of difference, power and subjectivities are used to unpack the academic and pedagogical practices of internationalizing the curriculum. A politics of difference in internationalizing the curriculum entails interrogating the power dynamics in the privileging and marginalization of knowledge, skills and ways of being, knowing and doing. Transnational connectivity and reciprocal flows of individuals and knowledge are emphasized within such practices.     

探究式教学模式在排球教学中的应用研究

运用实验法、文献资料法、问卷调查法等研究方法,以东北师范大学2010级体育学院体育教育专业的60名学生为研究对象,通过构建探究式教学模块对研究对象进行传统的排球教学和探究式排球教学。结果表明：探究式教学方法可以广泛应用于排球教学中;探究式教学法和传统的排球教学法相比,可以取得更好的教学效果,提高学生的专项运动成绩,激发学生的学习兴趣并且改变学生学习态度。