Summary

Historically, social work education in African universities was heavily influenced by a European worldview. By creating and implementing Euro-centric curriculum, the important role of African values, social systems, and ways of knowing, developed thousands of years before the colonial period, were dismissed and replaced by western theories and practice. The United Nations, in supporting colonial countries to become independent, encouraged the exportation of western social work education to African countries to address social issues arising from independence. African social work conferences emerged in the 1950’s and 1960’s including in Ghana (1962), Zambia (1963) and Egypt (1965). These conferences produced a critical thinking venue to address what African social work educators were realizing: that western social work education was ineffective in training African social workers to work locally within their communities. As a result, the Association for Social Work Education in Africa (ASWEA) was formed to act as a forum where social work educators would critically discuss the relevance of western social work to Africa and to strengthen the indigenization process of creating a social work curriculum for Africa. Conferences, workshops, and directories of social work education around the continent were produced from 1973-1989. In 2020, a distinguished group of African social work educators agreed to meet and conduct a critical analysis of these 3,500 pages of important historical African social work documents. Since 2020, the group has met monthly to present analysis of these documents. The significance of this research for Africa is that a historical record will be produced of the evolution of social work in Africa, from 1973-1989 that can be taught in social work classrooms, supporting the decolonial process of social work education in Africa (postcolonial, decolonial). The presentation will present a PowerPoint of this process of critical analysis with some preliminary findings.

Keywords (separate with commas)

social work education, Africa, decoloniality, ASWEA, history

Summary

Indigenous peoples are among the most marginalized people in the world. In recognition of this human-rights problem, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2007. Since then, a proliferation of advocacy concerning Indigenous peoples’ rights, including self-determination, sovereignty, decolonization, sustainable livelihood, and cultural revitalization, has arisen in the global, national, and local arenas. However, the global, national, and local disconnect often constitutes a deterrent to realizing Indigenous peoples’ rights. The social work profession in many parts of the world continues to fall short of its stated values and directly or indirectly contributes to ongoing oppression of Indigenous peoples. This must be changed. Social workers must have the knowledge and the tools needed to live up to the social justice foundation of our profession by advancing Indigenous peoples' rights whenever and wherever possible. Social work practitioners must move beyond short-term solutions to problems impacting Indigenous communities and instead focus on advancing Indigenous rights by supporting the implementation of UNDRIP at all levels. Social work leaders must actively work to decolonize colonial systems of social services that continue to oppress Indigenous peoples. Social work educators must integrate UNDRIP and Indigenous issues into the curriculum. This presentation will stimulate discussion among SWSD participants about (1) global, national, and local advocacy of Indigenous peoples’ rights, (2) implementation gaps of UNDRIP in Indigenous communities (3) past successes, current challenges, and future possibilities of drawing on glocal\\ connections for advancing Indigenous Peoples’ rights, and (4) the role of social work in helping to fill implementation gaps and to “translate” global and national advocacy into local actions. This presentation will report on a case study that captures the recommendations of the leaders of six social organizations staffed by Indigenous peoples in Cambodia on ways to advance Indigenous peoples’ rights.\\ 

Keywords (separate with commas)

Indigenous peoples' rights, UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), global advocacy, social work education, Indigenous community development, Indigenous organizations, decolonizing social work, Cambodia

Summary

How as social workers, do we come to know about El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and their diasporic communities? In the West there is a particular narrative about Central Americans where men are producers and women are victims of violence. This violence is explained as happening over “there” and produced by culture, including gender ideologies of machismo and marianismo. Culturizing gender-based violence roots Central America in colonial narratives of uncivilized, backward and not progressive in comparison to the West – the beacon of humanity and civilization. This narrative or taken-for-granted assumptions are rooted in a representation of culture unilaterally applied when working with and understanding women and their experience. What’s ignored is the stories of women who are redefining gender and their ongoing everyday resistance(s) to colonial assumptions. This presentation centres testimonios from a transnational social work research project to shift the social work gaze from the West to focus on Women’s on-going activism. Twenty-two women participated, connecting the personal and collective across time and space to theorize from the body to push for social change. Theorizing from the body positions Central American women as holders and producers of knowledge existing outside of the West. In engaging with this knowledge, social workers are encouraged to see beyond culture as a driver of gender-based violence and listen to the voices of women in and from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and their diasporas.

Keywords (separate with commas)

Coloniality, gender-based violence, mobilization

Summary

Rapid and increasingly climate change variations have been observed during the last decades. This phenomenon has been escalating the vulnerable populations risks, disparities and inequalities\ in different contexts and levels of reality. As climate change is a relatively new and complex research area in social work, the need for a systematic mapping study is crucial in order to summarise the progress so far and identify the gaps and requirements for future studies.\ This paper presents a systematic mapping study of social work and climate change global publications since 2015,\ and their linkages to the sustainable development goals. The results present the most cited works on the subject, an evaluation map showing the most frequent and cited words and seven clusters of themes based on their co-occurrence, with a major emphasis on underdeveloped territorial areas. From the preliminary analysis, the most relevant research findings, trends, and issues emerge, suggesting multilayered and complex\ theoretical and practical implications to have into account when developing an effective research road map on the subject.\ 

Keywords (separate with commas)

social work, climate change, SDGs, systematic mapping study