Emancipatory Social Work Education: Why it is so difficult to practise instead of preach
Keywords:
Oppression, Emancipatory, Critical reflection, Auto-ethnographic, Social work teachingAbstract
This paper examines some of the challenges of avoiding “expertism” when implementing emancipatory approaches to social work practice and education. It interrogates the experiences of the author in both contexts, to identify key factors that support emancipatory practice.
It notes the default orientation of the author to “expert” role, and the factors that make challenging this more or less difficult. It concludes that a range of structural and cultural forces impact significantly on teaching from an emancipatory perspective. These factors include the employment context of the teacher and the culture of the staff team. The idea of a “mythical norm” is used to trace maps of discrimination that may highlight how oppressive dynamics may play out within universities. The paper concludes that critical reflection and creative approaches assist in implementing an emancipatory approach to teaching practice.
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