Editorial: Is there a renaissance of radical social work?

Abstract

Editorial for issue 29(2).

The state of eco-social work training in Canada: Transformative praxis for climate constrained futures

“…Teaching radical social work requires a commitment to critical reflective practice (Morley and Macfarlane, 2014) that considers the (meta-)narratives, discourses and discursive strategies of language employed to construct and reify power relations (Fraser et al, 2017). For instance, as Chihota (2017: 59) points out, ‘inviting a client for “a chat” raises very different expectations than asking them to attend “an interview” or “assessment”’.…”

“…Regrettably, neoliberalization has infiltrated social work practice and education, implanting a fatalistic resignation to a dystopian future, and stifling the imaginative scope to envisage and work towards alternatives. Fraser et al (2017: 342) posit that the teaching of critical reflection of practice: [T]ranscends an exclusive focus on interpersonal skills that assumes practice to be separate from theory and devoid of context, to engage students in deep awareness of the political nature and implications of their work and critical consciousness of the social conditions of people’s lived experience. The integration of a critical analysis of society with personal experience has been shown to be one of the most effective approaches to bringing about transformative change in learners.…”