Decolonising the Curriculum that Underpins Social Work Education in South Africa

Abstract

The current social work knowledge that is characterised by colonial domination in South Africa demands new visions. These visions should be aimed at producing an epistemic revolution that would see the re-emergence of previously silenced knowledges. The continued Eurocentric hegemony reflected in the content and form of the social work curriculum and pedagogical practices creates an epistemic scandal that requires decolonial intervention and redress. Following an examination of the decolonisation discourse from textual archives on coloniality, decoloniality, social work and its history, several tenets and principles were identified to guide the process of decolonising social work education in South Africa. These include focusing the curriculum and pedagogy of social work on the African world view (Afrocentric social work), adopting cultural relativity as an approach in social work education, and promoting dialogue between diverse cultural orientations and knowledges found in South Africa, including Western knowledge without harmonising the knowledges and/or creating a hierarchy.

Transforming Social Work: Contextualised Social Work Education in South Africa

“…Furthermore, social work education, which inducts students into dominant worldviews and modes of intervention, specifically needs to be interrogated. Transforming social work education has particular relevance for South Africa, where education, including that of social workers, has historically been shaped by hegemonic colonial, apartheid and Western influences (Gray & Mazibuko, 2002;Mathebane & Sekudu, 2018;Mwansa, 2011). Although transformation of social work education in South Africa has been limited (Mogorosi & Thabede, 2018), this article demonstrates that meaningful educational shifts are nevertheless occurring.…”

“…Professionalised responses and language diminish non-dominant cultural values, marginalise alternative ways of knowing, being and doing, and disregard collective approaches to decision-making and identity (Canavera, Akesson, Lanids, Armstrong & Meyer, 2019;Mathebane & Sekudu, 2018). These Western models of practice are often imposed on diverse cultural communities without a proper understanding of indigenous models that would talk directly to the reality of the people and thus in many cases are neither relevant nor appropriate to their social and cultural realities (Gray et al as cited in Turton, 2019).…”

“…Another construction is the local, which emphasises place and engagement with the lived realities of specific communities. Indigenised social work practice offers yet another lens, though this approach has been criticised for simply adapting mainstream knowledges and practices to indigenous groups (Mathebane & Sekudu, 2018). In contrast, indigenous social work actively centres indigenous cultural knowledges, beliefs and ways of being and doing, highlights intergenerational impacts of colonisation and considers Western knowledge as complementary (Gray et al, 2008).…”

“…Afrocentrism exemplifies an indigenous perspective (Makhubele, Matlakala & Mabvurira, 2019;Mathebane & Sekude, 2018;Shokane & Masoga, 2018). As a further alternative, decolonised social work and decoloniality foreground the ways in which Western discourses and assumptions create and reproduce historical and current subjugation (Harms-Smith & Nathane, 2018;Mathebane & Sekudu, 2018).…”

Collaborative learning experiences of fourth-year students in a social work module

“…Consequently, this research addresses this shortcoming. It is argued that a collaborative learning approach will not only provide students with formal qualifications and content knowledge, but will also equip them with additional skills to fulfil their obligations as social workers in the South African, 4IR, real-world context (Mathebane & Sekudu, 2018).…”