Towards decoloniality in a social work programme: a process of dialogue, reflexivity, action and change

IF 1.3 Q2 ANTHROPOLOGY

Critical African Studies Pub Date : 2021-01-02 DOI:10.1080/21681392.2021.1886136

Shahana Rasool, Linda Harms-Smith

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引用次数: 9

Abstract

Both students and scholars have identified the critical imperative to prioritize decolonization and pedagogical and curriculum transformation in South African higher education institutions. The ongoing context of coloniality, persistent race-based inequalities and hegemonic Western-centric epistemologies led to the Rhodes and Fees Must Fall protests by students at South African universities. As a result of the questions raised by students during these protests, the Department of Social Work at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) embarked on a process of working towards decoloniality in their social work programme. This paper describes the unfolding critical participatory action research process toward decoloniality undertaken by this department. Various theoretical perspectives, including communicative action, reflexivity and ‘decolonising the mind’ informed the process of decoloniality that began at the UJ Department of Social Work. The process of critical reflection, dialogue, analysis, development of methodologies and initial implementation of changes that were used in this department may offer useful insights for working towards decoloniality in other academic settings.

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在社会工作方案中实现去殖民化:对话、反思、行动和变革的过程

学生和学者都认为南非高等教育机构必须优先考虑非殖民化以及教学和课程改革。持续的殖民背景、持续的基于种族的不平等和以西方为中心的霸权认识论导致南非大学学生举行了罗德和学费必须下降的抗议活动。由于学生们在这些抗议活动中提出的问题，约翰内斯堡大学社会工作系开始在其社会工作方案中努力实现非殖民化。本文描述了该部开展的关于非殖民化的关键参与性行动研究进程。各种各样的理论观点，包括交际行为、反身性和“去殖民化思想”，为从UJ社会工作系开始的去殖民化进程提供了信息。批判性的反思、对话、分析、发展方法和初步执行本系所采用的变革的过程，可能为在其他学术环境中努力实现非殖民化提供有益的见解。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Critical African Studies Arts and Humanities-Arts and Humanities (all)

CiteScore

3.00

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Critical African Studies seeks to return Africanist scholarship to the heart of theoretical innovation within each of its constituent disciplines, including Anthropology, Political Science, Sociology, History, Law and Economics. We offer authors a more flexible publishing platform than other journals, allowing them greater space to develop empirical discussions alongside theoretical and conceptual engagements. We aim to publish scholarly articles that offer both innovative empirical contributions, grounded in original fieldwork, and also innovative theoretical engagements. This speaks to our broader intention to promote the deployment of thorough empirical work for the purposes of sophisticated theoretical innovation. We invite contributions that meet the aims of the journal, including special issue proposals that offer fresh empirical and theoretical insights into African Studies debates.