Resumen
While the WHO considers climate change the greatest challenge facing humanity in the 21st century, the
Global Agenda of Social Work and Social Development highlights the importance of social work’s role in the promotion of sustainable communities and environments. Increasingly, social work educational resources are expanding, and educational standards concerned with the environment-ecology are becoming more explicit. However, in francophone Quebec (Canada), the shift required is seismic, as environmental degradation and the climate crisis are rarely evoked in relation to social work education or practice. Furthermore, these crises are not necessarily understood in relation to the devastation and exploitation of indigenous territories, as well as the disproportionate effects on racialized and marginalized communities. Our presentation will present the findings from an exploratory study conducted in Québec to unearth what is known and being done in relation to “green” (signifying the broad umbrella of environmental-ecological considerations) social work. This study was guided by the following research question:
How are “green” notions and issues taken up within social work education and practice in Quebec? Further, what are the most relevant and promising concepts and practices related to climate/environmental justice, social inequality/justice, decolonization, and environmental sustainability to promote a “green” paradigm shift in social work theory, education, and practice in Quebec? Conducting focus groups with social work practitioners, educators and students, the research objectives explored :1) what is known about the intersections of environmental-ecological notions and social work theory, education, and practice; 2) what is being done to “green” social work education and practice; and 3) what perspectives encourage the development of a “green” shift within social work theory, education, and practice, in Quebec. This project adopted an anti-oppressive lens to explore “greening” social work, fundamentally upending social work's modernist thinking to inspire a paradigm shift.
Palabras Clave (separar con comas)
Ecosocial, green social work, practice, education